Born in Frederiksberg, Denmark in 1956, Maja Liza Engelhardt had a troubled upbringing with a father who was mentally unhealthy and a mother who was an alcoholic. Growing up in the countryside, however, Maja found strength and hope in not just the enrapturing and gorgeous landscapes filled with rolling green hills, ocean views, and waves crashing onto the shores of her childhood, Maja also found a deep faith in the Lord. From an early age Maja loved painting and knew even then as a child that her hope and desire was to become an artist, capturing and depicting the majesty of the created world around her, by tying together her understanding of God, the unseen, with the world he had created, the seen.
Over the years Maja's faith grew and deepened much as her skill and love for the fine arts. In time it was Maja's relationship and faith in Jesus Christ that led her to find the ability to forgive and love her mother despite the violent and often times turbulent moments she experienced as a little girl.
In 2014 Maja was commissioned by an American friend to create a sculpted cross for Cornerstone University's new Christ Chapel space. Maja's approach for this particular sculpture, portraying a risen Christ through the symbolism of an empty cross, is the same she has taken for many other sacred spaces across the world. Maja notes, "a cross with a Christ figure on it - I could never relate to it... I have made a cross, which is a cross of joy, a resurrection cross, life's tree, joy's tree." Her focus on the resurrection of Christ's story, verses the suffering of the cross, is for Maja the most important part. She notes that "if there was no resurrection then we would be not here, we would not be believers."
Maja's work is a perfect addition to a space developed to be such a beautiful reflection of the hope and promise of life everlasting that is all because of the power and glory of the resurrection of Christ.
