Emily Graves spoke with Antony Consiglio from Express Image

Anthony and Ricardo Consiglio

Express Image is a design company based in Walsall in the West Midlands. Brothers Anthony and Ricardo Consiglio who hail from Northern Ireland set the business up with the vision to express truth about Jesus through art and imagery. Inspired by the word of God, visions and pictures, their unique artwork brings encouragement, peace and healing into people's lives.

Having only just launched last year, Emily Graves decided to spend some time chatting with Anthony to find out more.

Emily: First of all tell us a little bit about yourself.

Anthony: We are a family-run business that started last year. We're from Ireland, but have lived in England for the last seven years. We're Christians and we both love Jesus; we feel this is the way we can serve the Lord, by putting His message into artwork.

Emily: So how did Express Image begin?

Anthony: Last year, I felt the Lord inspire me with an idea to be creative with His work; to begin to express the pictures that He shows me and my brother. They are spiritual concepts and truths within the Bible that He would give us and we would talk a lot in terms of visions and pictures. We thought it would be a good idea to start to put that onto canvas and let other people see it.

Emily: So you're the one behind all of the artwork and then your brother makes all of the canvases? Is that right?

Anthony: Absolutely, he does all the building work: anything woodwork, or anything that's built or cut - he does all of that and I do all the design work.

Emily: How long can it take to make a canvas?

Anthony: In terms of building, it would take about 20 minutes, but the design of it could take maybe an hour, or it could take three hours, just depending on the complexity of the picture.

Emily: And so when it comes to the side of things that you do, you said that it all comes from visions and pictures that you feel that God's given you?

Anthony: Absolutely, yes. Normally from a place of meditation or prayer, or even sometimes it's walking down the road or something like that that could inspire me - but mainly it would be a quiet, still place of spending time with God and then He would bring something alive; He would bring something real to my heart and then I would know that's the picture that He wants me to produce.

Emily: Where did the name Express Image come from?

Anthony: It's Hebrews 1:3. Jesus is the brightness of God's glory and the express image of His person, so we thought that Jesus expressed the image of God and so we used that title because we're expressing the image of Jesus.

Emily: Before this all kicked off last year, had you done much of this sort of thing before?