(updated 3/23/17)

Child prodigy artist, Akiane Kramarik, knows that experiencing visions of Jesus and Heaven changes everything! Akiane Kramarik has been helping change the way many people think about Heaven and life after death since she was 8. It’s not just her paintings, which are awe-inspiring in themselves, but it’s how she came to paint them.

Akiane Kramarik Story

According to Akiane Kramarik's autobiography titled Akiane, Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry, she began having powerful dreams and visions when she was only three years old and felt compelled to draw what she had seen, even though she didn’t have the vocabulary and didn’t really understand what she was seeing.

The Akiane story in the book tells us that by the age of six, she was painting incredibly complex images based on her visions of Jesus and Heaven. The strange thing was that she had not been exposed to any ideas or thoughts about religion – her parents were atheists, she was home-schooled and the family didn’t own a TV or a radio.

“Prince of Peace” painting by artist Akiane Kramarik

According to most media reports, Akiane Kramarik’s most famous painting is the “Prince of Peace”, painted in 2003 when she was eight years old. It depicts her vision of the “Likeness of Christ”. Also in 2003, a four-year-old child named Colton Burpo had a near-death experience after being rushed to hospital with a ruptured appendix. Afterward, he described his experiences of being in heaven where he sat on Jesus’ lap and met pre-deceased family members.

Colton’s family was amazed by the child’s story. He described people and events that he couldn’t possibly have been aware of unless he had actually been to heaven. His father recounted the events in a best-selling book entitled “Heaven is for Real,” which has sold over 30 million copies worldwide, and was also produced into a blockbuster movie also titled "Heave is for Real" and 

Colton looked at many artistic likenesses of Jesus over the next few years, hoping to find the one that would be the most accurate depiction. Then, in 2006, Colton’s father found a CNN documentary with Akiane Kramarik’s “Prince of Peace” painting of Jesus on the Internet, and showed the portrait of Christ to Colton, who said: “Dad, that one is right!”

Learn about other interesting similarities between Akiane Kramarik and Colton Burpo.

Katie Couric’s Interview with Akiane Kramarik

Katie Couric interviewed Akiane Kramarik on television, in fact, this was the first time that Akiane Kramarik ever met Colton Burpo! A portion of the interview is shown here:

In the course of the interview, Akiane Kramarik talked about her early visions of being in heaven and meeting God and spoke of how strange this was since she had not even been introduced to the concept of God.

When asked about her parents, Akiane Kramarik revealed that they are no longer atheists – they believe in God and believe unquestionably in life after death.

Akiane Kramarik also mentioned that the “Prince of Peace” has been compared to the Shroud of Turin: “Some researches actually analyzed my work and compared the Shroud of Turin with… this painting…they said it was almost 80 to 90 percent accurate.”

Watch a brief video demonstration of Shroud of Turin & Prince of Peace likeness here: source of video unknown & found on YouTube

What the Future Holds 

After years of international travel, Akiane Kramarik and her family have moved back to the United States and live near Chicago.

Does Akiane Kramarik still dream of opening up an art gallery and an international art academy for the aspiring artist.  Is she still working on her 3rd book? Does she still  rise at 3 am every day to paint.  We all wonder what will become of Akiane and her art ... only time will tell. 

Take a moment to explore more paintings of Jesus by Akiane Kramarik in our Online Gallery - Click Here to See More Jesus Art by Akiane Kramarik.