My story · Gabriel Heaton
I create images of Jesus Christ because I know what it feels like to need Him.
My story
I am a husband, a father, and a psychiatric nurse practitioner. My journey has taken me from serving as a missionary to caring for people in mental health settings, raising a family, and learning through my own struggles how deeply I need the Savior’s love.
Those experiences are behind the art I create. I want to share something of the Christ who has found me, extended mercy to me, and helped me heal.
As a missionary, I discovered my faith in Jesus Christ and a love for Him that would shape the direction of my life. Sharing His message gave me a reason to keep seeking Him for myself. I wanted to know the Savior I was inviting others to follow.
That desire has stayed with me. Through the years, it has grown more personal as I have come to understand my own need for His grace.
My journey in nursing eventually led me to mental health care. I found meaning in its one-on-one nature: being with people during some of the most difficult moments of their lives and walking alongside them through that experience.
That work has made me more aware of the pain people carry quietly. It has also deepened my appreciation for compassion, patience, and the simple act of staying present when someone is hurting.
As I have continued from nursing into my work as a psychiatric nurse practitioner, that desire to help has remained central. In Christ, I see the ultimate example of someone who draws close to suffering. His mercy shapes the way I want to care for people and the way I want to portray Him.
My longing to understand Christ’s healing power comes from my own life, too. I have faced struggles with my mental health. I have known what it means to feel like one of His lost sheep and to need the grace I have hoped to share with others.
Through those experiences, I have felt lovingly brought back by Him. I have found healing through His Atonement and a deeper understanding of His willingness to meet me in my weakness.
That is why the image of the Shepherd means so much to me. I recognize my own need in the sheep beside Him. I know how much I want to stay close to the One who has helped me find my way.
Being a husband and a father has given that search another place to grow. My love for my wife and children, my hopes for them, and my awareness of my own limits keep bringing me back to Christ. I want His grace to have a place in the life we are building together.
When I share images of Jesus with my children, they readily see themselves with Him. In my Havenlight interview, I spoke about how naturally they can look at a child walking with Christ and recognize themselves in the scene. I love the possibility of an image becoming that kind of daily reminder: He is with me.
I hope the artwork I create can offer that reminder to other families as well. Something to return to during the ordinary days and the difficult ones. Something that helps a person remember they are loved.
I have long enjoyed both art and technology. When modern generative art tools became available, I began exploring whether I could use them to develop images of Christ that spoke to me and might also speak to someone who was hurting.
Midjourney, Photoshop, Procreate, and other editing tools became part of that work. Through prompt writing, generation, comparison, and refinement, I began searching for visual expressions of the Savior’s kindness and healing love.
I feel called to extend something of the compassion I have received. My art grows from that desire: to help people remember Christ’s mercy and recognize His presence in their own story.
From my story to the artwork
Finding Christ through Generative Art Tools: the making of Stay with the Shepherd.
My personal experiences give the work its direction. The process is how I develop that direction into an image, making decisions about composition, expression, color, anatomy, and detail along the way.
Stay with the Shepherd brings those two parts together. Below is the progression from the first generation, through repeated variations and selective editing, to the finished piece.
“Where is my Savior?”
Gabriel Heaton · Havenlight Artist Spotlight
The first generation placed Christ among a large flock. Sheep filled the field around Him. The golden grass, soft light, and His downward gaze gave me a starting point.
As the image developed, the message became clearer: staying with the Shepherd. I wanted the relationship with Him to become the center of the scene.
In the final composition, the crowded field gives way to Christ and one sheep beside Him. That change makes the relationship easier to see. His hand rests on the sheep. There is room to pause and imagine yourself there.
Prompt crafting requires translating meaning into visual instructions. I have to think about the composition, the position of each figure, the direction of Christ’s gaze, the placement of His hands, and the relationship between the subject and the surrounding space.
The prompt describes off-white robes, a hood, a wooden staff, a hand resting on a sheep, golden grass, muted colors, distant hills, and visible brushstroke texture. Those details give the generation a specific visual direction.
Each result gives me something to assess. Does the gesture feel gentle? Is the sheep close enough for the relationship to read clearly? Does the light support the feeling? Are the details helping the message come through?
Many versions look similar at first glance. The differences become more meaningful when I look closely: a change in the face, the shape of a hand, the position of the sheep, or the balance of the field around them.
This is an iterative process: adjust the prompt, generate, compare, select, and refine. The message of staying with the Shepherd gives those decisions a purpose. This image took close to 1000 generations; some take much more, some take less.
Once the overall composition is established, I can mask a defined area and regenerate that region in the context of the surrounding image.
The technical challenge is continuity. A revised area has to fit the proportions, perspective, lighting, color, and texture of the rest of the scene. A corrected leg or a cleaner edge still needs to belong to the same sheep, in the same field, under the same light.
I then assess the whole image again. Small visual problems can pull attention away from the relationship at its center. Refinement helps that relationship remain clear.
My broader finishing workflow includes editing software such as Photoshop, Windows Photo Editor, and Procreate. Depending on what a piece needs, post-editing can involve cleaning up details, adjusting color and tonal balance, and refining the transition between areas of the image.
I look at both the close details and the composition as a whole. Contrast controls where the eye settles. Color influences the mood. Texture and edges affect whether the image feels unified. These technical choices serve the same question I began with: does this help communicate the Savior’s presence?
For me, this piece is about recognizing how much I need Jesus Christ. The more I seek Him and invite Him into my life, the more I want to stay close.
I hope someone can look at this image during a difficult season and feel that same invitation. You can draw near. You can let yourself be cared for. You can keep walking with Him.
The process moves through prompts, generations, comparisons, and edits. It also keeps bringing me back to Christ: searching for an image that expresses what I have found in Him, and hoping it helps someone else remember why they want to stay.
Your story is full of evidence that He was there.
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