Nearly my whole life, art has been a way I process my griefs, chronic pain, and all the suffering that is too deep for words. I’ve loved art since I was a child and started taking painting more seriously as a teenager when I began painting during prayer meetings at a house of prayer I attended at the time; I began pouring out the grief I felt over recent diagnoses I’d received and the chronic pain I was battling as I talked to God and listened to Him respond. At 16/17, I felt the call from God to pursue art and writing and began to take little steps towards that purpose.

Eventually, in 2020, I asked God to teach me how He wants me to paint and my journey into abstract art unexpectedly began. I would meet Him at the blank page and canvas and paint with no end goal in mind. Gradually, my fear of the blank canvas and some of my perfectionism began to fade. I picked colors that I felt like God directed me to or that best described the feeling I had. I started with no preconceived idea of what I was painting and no vision for the end goal except sometimes color and a vague sense of movement. As I talked to God while I painted my heart, I watched Him transform my pain and darkness and carry and heal the pain and burdens I was being crushed by. My fear and perfectionism began to grow into joy and freedom and it became a little easier to carry the burden of my chronic pain and illnesses.

By God’s grace, in the midst of chronic pain and illness, I graduated with my A.A. from St. Petersburg College in 2018, and from Southeastern University with a Bachelor of Art in Visual Arts and a minor in Psychology at the end of 2023. During my undergrad, I completed my first series of abstract paintings titled, “Deep Calls to Deep,” and exhibited my work in the gallery for my senior art show. God did more than I could’ve ever asked, dreamed, or imagined at SEU.

Since graduation, I’ve continued to paint, write, and start my business, “Live Created, LLC.” I’m continuing to learn what it means to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and authentically while facing suffering. He’s The Prince of Peace and also The Man Well Acquainted with Grief, and it’s my hope that my art and words will reveal more of the heart of the Artist.

'“My Creative God, Who created everything and yet paused to weep with us even though He knows He will restore all things and make a New Creation; what compassion and grace is this that God Himself would cry tears and know pain to make a way to take it all away someday.

Oh haste the day.”