My life story is one of restoration, but it begins with pain. My earliest memories are of suffering, often crying in the night for someone or something to come relieve the pain that it would take another thirteen years to diagnose; yet in between the dark nights and the ache, are these piercing moments of awe and complete wonder at something as small as an ant. My earliest memories are filled with God, even if I didn’t know it yet.

At sixteen, I was diagnosed with several chronic conditions and began to write and paint to cope with it. Eventually, the wonder at Beauty that began when I was a child began to restore something deep in me as it led to a search for meaning and out of that a search for God; my art began to reflect that as the process became worship and my paintings became visual prayers rather than just a technical process. I began to paint to survive the depth of pain and suffering, but through that God began to restore something deeply broken in my heart and soul.

On the days when the pain and heartache seem greater than the joy, I stare up into the cloudless sky and lose myself a moment within the blueness of the blue, talking to God, and find His presence comes like the wind and a tangible Peace.

He doesn’t let the tears go to waste and gently holds each one. What if the dance of the lilies in the wind and the trillion galaxies above were always His gifts given to win and woo my heart to His?

I think the greatest antidote to despair is to get caught in the awe of creation that points us back to the Creator. These moments that somehow move my being beyond me to be caught up in His presence––the only place there is fullness of joy––by His grace restore something in this broken heart back to the nearness of God. My art reflects this vision, or at least somehow God restores something in me through the process and I get to share that with you. True beauty restores, because it turns our eyes, ears, and hearts toward the God Who is Beautiful, created all things for His glory, and is making all things new. I make art to worship and to know God and make sense of this life. My art reminds me this life isn’t the end of the story, and one day God will make a New Creation; in the meantime, I get to join Him in echoing the hope of that and to receive the joy, peace, and restoration He has freely offered.