A year or so ago, I had an idea to create something more practical with my art. Something that people could not only have in their homes because it was pretty but because it was functional as well. The idea was to create lamps from any type of bottles. My thought was to decorate these bottles in different styles and put them together with lights, wiring and lampshades.

Only one problem: I had no idea how to do it or where to get started

I knew I could have created the lamps by cutting a hole in the side of the lamp, towards the bottom and wire it through the bottle, but I didn’t and still don’t, have the tools that would require nor the desire to drill through glass.

So I sat on the idea for awhile and eventually forgot about it until one day, I was hanging out with my best friend and came across a how to video on facebook. This video was giving tips on how to make different things, one of which was the bottle lamps. Instantly I got excited. I finally had a visual for what I needed to create the bottle lamps once I was done painting the shade and the bottle. All I needed was a bottle lamp kit (which included things like the wiring, the bulb socket, a harp and various bolts to hold everything together), the bottle, lamp shade and electrical tape to hold everything in place. Right away I started working on locating everything I needed to turn my idea into a reality.

Once I located everything and had actually acquired everything, it was time to get to work. I went to Create Arlington in order to put things together. The image below is the set up I had to figure out the electrical part of the process. I wanted to understand how everything worked before actually painting the bottles and lamp shades because if I couldn’t get the electrical part to work, then there was no need to move forward. Let’s just say it took a few times. However, eventually I got it! I was so happy and excited once I figured it out. I knew I had the hardest part behind me and I could move forward.

The next step was working on the bottles. I had an idea to try pouring paint on the bottles and seeing how that would turn own. Over Christmas break, my mama and I played around with pouring paint and the bottle in the image above is the result. The second bottle that I attempted the pouring paint with is below.

The Ocean pouring paint and the Christmas pouring paint bottle, however did not survive the trip home from Create Arlington. I thought they were both dry enough when I headed home, however that was not the case. Once I got the bottles home, they both had been ruined. The Ocean pouring paint had black and brown paint all over it and the Christmas pouring paint bottle had white and blue everywhere. I had just put resin on the Christmas bottle and because of that, I could not salvage it. The blue and white paint had stuck to the resin and it was impossible to remove. The Ocean pouring paint bottle, I was able to salvage. This one had partially dried and I was able to get most of the unwanted paint off and do the pouring paint a second time. However, I knew it would not be the same.

As disappointed as I was that two of my creations had been messed up, I started again. I did the pouring paint on the Ocean bottle for the second time and started working on another bottle to replace the one I had to toss. The result of the second pouring paint is below.

Once I had gotten the pouring paint where I wanted it and liked it, I painted the white part of the waves and finished painting the water on the bottle along the neck. Then I had to let it dry and worked on another lamp and lamp shade.

One of the bottles I had worked on that night things got messed up was an square olive oil bottle. I quickly found out that the square shape of the bottle did not allow for the same technique of pouring paint. And while it was among the bottles that had been messed up, it actually turned out to be better. I was actually able to paint each side of the Olive Oil bottle to look like a tree trunk. My goal was to create a lamp shade to match that looked like Cherry blossoms. Once I had the bottle done, I was able to work on the lampshade.

With the lampshade done, it was time to put everything together for the Cherry Tree. After the picture below was taken, I went back and painted the electrical tape to match the style of the tree trunk. This lamp is on display at Create Arlington and is selling for $50.

With the first one completed I started to work on the lampshade for the Ocean lamp bottle. I decided that the lampshade for the second bottle would be the beach with the shore line. I also did pouring paint on this lampshade as it was the right shape and texture for it.

First I did the beach colors with brown, silver and yellow pouring paint. After a day or two of drying I was able to come back and do the different tones of blue for the shore lines. I am still working on this one. The next step is to add the white parts of the waves and add texture of the sand. Once the lampshade is completed, it will be time to put everything together. The Ocean bottle lamp will be selling for $75 and I hope to have it at the next Third Thursday on February 18th.

I am really excited about what God has inspired me to do and create. I love that He has given me the ability to create things just as He has created me.

I pray for you this week.

Until next time,

God Bless.

This week I was going to talk about the lamps I have been creating and include images, however something else was placed on my heart and mind. This week, for the first time in a long time, I experienced artist’s block. Basically writer’s block but applied to my art. My creative part of my brain seemed to be just turned off.

For the schedule that I have set up, Mondays are my creative days. It is the day of the week that I set aside to work on lamps, or paintings or drawings or digital art or whatever else is coming to mind. Yet, this past Monday, I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to create. True, I do have a lamp that needs to be finished and a large scale painting that needs some attention. Yet, none of those things seemed to appeal to me to work on. It felt like I had lost my desire to work on current projects and I couldn’t think of anything new to create. I started to wonder why and was concerned that I might be loosing my creative ability.

Then it hit me: I have stopped spending time with God or worshiping Him regularly.

See my inspiration for everything I do, even the landscape type paintings, comes from God. It is the time that I spend with Him that allows the Holy Spirit to come into my heart and mind and provide me with images to go with the scripture I am reading or the song I am listening to. Several of my paintings are directly from songs I was listening to in Worship at my church on a Sunday morning. Listening isn’t the right word because I was more than listening. I was lost in these songs worshiping my Creator. It is in that intense worship where I am inspired. I would spend time reading my Bible and studying God’s word a few days each week and on the days I didn’t read, I drew, or just sat quietly and listened to what God had to say to me through song or silence.

I haven’t done that in a long time and to be honest, I cant remember the last time I did so consistently. With everything that has been going on from teaching during a pandemic, to trying to update my business, to looking for a new place to live, to trying to have some sort of social life and spends time with my husband, I feel like there isn’t enough time in the day. Or when i do schedule time to spend with God, it is at 5am and when the time comes, I am nice and cozy in my bed and don’t want to wake up. If I try to schedule it for after work, by the time I get off, I am so tired that all I want to do is veg or go to sleep. These are all excuses but God is so much more important than any of these excuses.

When I have been in tune with God and spending time with Him regularly, everything else seems to fade away. The problems I am facing, while they are still there, pale in comparison to the glory of my Heavenly Father. Yet I forget that. There is a song that just came out by Crowder called Good God Almighty and in it there is a line that says, “I get amnesia.” That is so true. We go through things that God uses to teach us something and then once we are through it and are in a good time, we forget what God had done for us and forget how much we need him. This really resonated with my today.

I need God.

I need him more than anything! Things may be hard but life seems so much harder without Him. I don’t just need to spend time with Him to regain my inspiration. I need to spend time with Him to continue my relationship with Him and to grow closer to Him. Wednesday of this week, I felt alone. I felt more alone than I have in a while. It was one of those things that I could have felt alone in a whole stadium of people. Life can be lonely, especially when we get stuck in our heads. I know that is true for me. I get lost in what I am thinking about and what I need to do that day or the next or where my husband and I are going to live next. Once I get lost in my thoughts, it is hard to focus on anything else. I start to worry, my anxiety grows and eventually I feel lost and alone. It feels as if no one in the whole world understands what I am going through. But that is so far from the truth.

God knows.

One of my favorite songs is “God Only Know” by For King And Country. At the end of the first verse, the song talks about how one feels as if no one can see what you are going through and that no one could possibly love you because of what you have done. The course speaks directly to that.

God only knows what you’ve been through

God only knows what they say about you

God only knows how it’s killing you

But there’s a kind of love that God only knows

God only knows what you’ve been through

God only knows what they say about you

But God only knows the real you

‘Cause there’s a kind of love that God only knows

“God only knows” by For King and Country

God sees you. He knows what you have been through. He knows the pain and hurt you feel from past experiences. He sees who you really are when you try to hide it from everyone else. He sees me when I do this and I try to hide how I am really feeling a lot. He knows who I am and loves me anyway. He sees me in my loneliness and wants to love me through it. He sees me in my anxiety and embraces me so I can continue forward. The same is true for you.

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you;

He will never permit the righteous to be moved.

Psalm 55:22

Whenever you feel alone or depressed or burdened, go to God. I am speaking to myself as well. I always feel so much better and so much lighter when I talk to God and give everything to Him. Worrying and being anxious of anything does not help or add anything to our lives.

Therefore do do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will ve anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

Matthew 6:34

Not being anxious is so difficult and is something I struggle with, especially when I am overwhelmed. However, I must remind myself that God is large and in charge and He will provide for me.

I share all of this in hopes that what I go through will resonate with someone and God will minister to someone else. Writing this has helped me a lot with how I have felt this week.

I pray for you this week.

I pray for myself and that I reconnect with God and continue to grow in Him.

Until next time,

God bless.

What a wild ride 2020 was. It was tough and hard and not a pleasant in a lot of ways. Never in a million years did I think I would ever live through a pandemic. One that is still going on and will for who knows how long.

As 2020 came to a close, I heard so many people saying that we just needed to make it to 2021 and everything would be alright. It seemed to be a mind set that 2021 would fix all of the world’s problems and we would be free from this pandemic. Yet, it’s 2021 and the pandemic is still.

I feel that in a lot of ways, 2020 sucked the hope out of all of us in one way or another. We kept hoping that the pandemic would be gone and life would get back to normal around May or June. The same thought came around September but as each month passed and the pandemic still continued, and people still lost jobs, had to work from home or were quarantined, life seemed like it would never return to normal. It still doesn’t in a lot of ways.

While some put their hope in the pandemic ending quickly, others put their hope in the Presidential Election for they believed that a change in government would bring about the hope and the peace that everyone is seeking. So many have placed their faith in the government, expecting to be saved from their financial situation or the pandemic.

Then, on January 6th 2021, ciaos broke out at the Capitol. That was a sight I never though I would have seen. So many people, so angry, causing destruction in our nation’s Capitol. I watched the news, just like most people I am sure that day in disbelief. As I watched, my heart broke for our nation. For everyone involved at the Capitol that day. Our nation is so angry and distrusting of anyone who does not agree with them. My heart broke because these people had placed their hope for a better life in President Trump being reelected. Much like other people had placed their hope in President-Elect Biden being elected.

However, their hope is misplaced.

The government is formed of men and women who are human and sinful, just like the rest of us. As humans, we are not able to save ourselves. President Trump and President-Elect Biden are both only human and being human, they will let people down. They will disappoint people in what they do or not do and they will fall short of the Glory of God.

“²³ for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,”

Romans 3:23

This is not to say that our situation is hopeless. No matter what you situation, there is always hope. Our hope is Jesus Christ.

In times of trouble and when all seems to be lost, we should turn our eyes, our hope to God. So many times, David cried out to God because he was being chased by Saul who wanted him dead. Instead of completely giving up hope, he called on God for strength.

“In my distress I called upon the Lord,

Yes, I cried to my God;

And from His temple He heard my voice,

And my cry for help came into His ears”

2 Samuel22:7 Source: https://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/Face-Of-God

David knew where his strength came from. He knew it did not come from himself but rather from the God that loved him and protected him against his enemies. When things went wrong, he called on God for help. He placed his hope in God, even though he could not see Him.

Much like David, we are called to do the same. We should be placing our faith in a God who loves us and wants to have a relationship with us rather than fellow men who are sinners, just like you and me.

Hope is defined as “a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen.” or “a feeling of trust.” When our hope is misplaced, we are often let down and disappointed. However, God will never let you down. He will always be there and walking with your and working in your life. When your trust, your hope is placed in Christ, you can not go wrong.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 15:13

Does this mean that as Christians, we should not listen to what the government tells us or obey the laws? No, not at all. Christ even stated, ‘“Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” ²² When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.”– Matthew 22:21-22.

We find in Romans 13:1, Paul speaks on government authority as well.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Romans 13:1

So God has placed people in authority, for whatever reason and because of that, we are to follow the law. The exception is if the government is going against the law of God. However, following the law of man does not mean that is where my hope is.

My hope for a better tomorrow, for a better life, for things to be better in 2021, is in Jesus. He is the only one who can heal our world of this Pandemic, either by supernatural means or medical means. He is the only one who can heal our country and the hearts of all Americans of this anger and distrust. He is the one who can save. If only you believe.

Do you believe?

I pray that you do.

If you don’t, I pray someone in your life will speak the Truth and share Christ with you. He loves you and died for you so that you would not have to. So that you could have everlasting life with Him.

Will you trust him?

Will you put your Hope in Him?

I pray the God of Hope gives you joy and peace that can only come from Him.

Until Next time,

God Bless.

For me, this will be the school year that I said goodbye to my students for Spring Break and we never came back. School has officially been closed until next school year with teaching going online. Yet it’s not the same. I miss being in my classroom. I miss my students and I miss teaching.

Being at home for so long has had its ups and downs. For awhile, it felt like mostly downs. I was trying to figure out how to balance and full and part time job during the week and still manage to get stuff done around the house. I wish I could say that everything was perfect and fine during this whole quarantine situation but I would be lying. I have felt angry, sad, anxious and depressed on and off through out this whole ordeal. I miss the life I had, the people I saw and met with and the places I got to go.

Then I started focusing on just taking things one day at a time. I started getting into God’s word more and praying more. With each passing week, things would seem to get a little better. I was able to manage my schedule a little bit more. I was able to sleep a little bit better and longer than I had previously. Things seemed to be looking up. So what changed?

Perspective.

The situation is still hard and has not changed but my mindset has. I am more focused on God and taking things one day at a time than I was before. Then this week, I cam across a passage in the book of Psalms that really stuck with me.

I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears.”

Psalm 34:4

This verse seemed to just jump out at me. This is what I was wanting to do and what I have started to do now. I realized I needed God and could not do anything on my own. The last month I had been trying to do everything while depending on my own strength and it was exhausting and getting me no where. It was draining and putting more stress on me and my husband. God spoke to me through this verse. I needed Him. I need him every day.

I did some research on Psalm 34 and realized it is one of the Psalms that David wrote while Saul was trying to kill him. 1 Samuel 21 and 22 talk about this event. It was while he was hiding in a cave that he wrote Psalm 34. The first verse of Psalm 34 starts off “I will bells the Lord at all times, his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” It amazes me that while he is being chased and sitting in a cave, David said he will always praise God, no matter what. He is called a man after God’s own heart for a reason.

Sometimes, we get into hard situations and it is easy to allow our situation to over take us. It is easy to ask God “Why?” and shake our fists at him in anger. It is easy to fall into a depression and feel as if we can not get out. The hard thing is to continue to praise God and thank Him for what He is doing. Yet when we are able to bring ourselves to the point where can praise God for what He is doing or has done, it tends to lift spirits. I know from personal experience that praying for someone or helping someone in some way, helps me get out of my head and changes my perspective.

Not only does praise God change things but talking to Him about our fears. When we pray to God, tell him what is going on and honestly seek after Him, he takes our fears away. He grants us peace that we need to get through the day. I am finding more and more that I need His peace each day.

He did it for David.

He can do it for us to.

We are surrounded by things that cause us to fear. The Pandemic, the isolation, the media, the fear that this will never end or what if this is the end? Yet worrying about all of these things does nothing for us.

Look at the birds of the air: They do not sow or reap or gather into barns—and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his lifespan?

Matthew 6:26-27

Worrying won’t stop things from being hard or change how things are right now. Trusting in Jesus and giving Him all of your fears and worries can change your perspective and how you live.

This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

Joshua 1:9

Cast your fears to Him today. He can handle them. There is nothing that God can not handle. He loves you and He will see us through. He saw David through his hard time. God will do the same for us. We have to trust Him.

Do you know Christ? Do you know Him as your Lord and Savior?

I pray that you do. I pray that you trust Him and will seek him this week. If you don’t I pray that God places someone in your life who can personally talk to you and lead you to Christ. God loves you so much that He sent Jesus, His only son, to die on the cross, for you, so that you would not have to die. He did this so you could be with Him in Heaven one day.

I pray you come to know Him as I do.

Until Next time,

God Bless.

Last weekend, I completed a commission for a friend of mine. She asked me do do a painting based on “You know me.” by Steffany Gretzinger. As I listened to the song, one section stood out to me.

You know when I rise and when I fall
When I come or go, You see it all
You hung the stars and You move the sea
And still You know me

I got this image of sitting in God’s hand over the sea as I watched God hanging the stars. This part of the song stuck out to me because of how intimate it is.

Think about it.

The God who created the Universe, who hangs the stars and moves the seas, still takes time to know me. To know you. He loves you. He knows everything there is about you and he wants a relationship with you.

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalms 139:13 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/psa.139.13.ESV

When I hear this song, it reminds me that God not only created the universe but He created me. He knows everything about me before I was created. He knows everything that i will ever go through and everything that I will ever need.

Sometimes that can be overwhelming but I take comfort in it. I don’t know everything that is going to happen. I can not control the future, no matter how much I might try to convince myself that I can. I only have the pieces of the puzzle that is my life that are right now. God holds the future. He knows everything and wants to share that with me in His time.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord , plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
Jeremiah 29:11 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/jer.29.11.ESV

I wanted to convey the intimate relationship that God longs to have with us. This is the relationship that I long to have with God. There have been many times where I have just sat and looked up at the stars and just thought about God’s creations.

I pray that this painting speaks to you. That you see how much God loves you and wants to be intimate with you. I pray you know Him like I do.

Let me know how I can pray for you, either in the comments below or by message.

Until next time,

God bless.

This week was my anniversary and on Wednesday, my husband took me painting. He had never been and he knows how much I love to paint so he surprised me with a painting class close to our house. We each got to pick our own painting and had one on one session with the instructors. The painting below is what I created.

I had a lot of fun with this painting and learned a new technique. To create the moon and the sky, it’s a simple technique of going in circles when you apply the paint. Most of the time I’ve gone is horizontal lines to follow the horizon in the painting but this time I went in a circle.

You can start with the lighter color and work out or the darker color and work in. I feel more comfortable working from light to dark.

So after my husband and I had painted, I got to thinking that I could use the same circle technique in my other paintings. Yesterday, I sat down and worked on a painting. I had no idea what I wanted to paint or how it was going to turn out but I knew I wanted to use yellow, orange and red for the sky.

I started with yellow and worked outward and then I made my first mistake. I thought it would look cool if I blended the red with blue and made it look like the sun hadn’t reached the corners of the painting yet. Well, the paint did not blend the way I wanted it to and it just didn’t look right. But I didn’t completely hate it nor did I give up. As I let it dry I tried to figure out what I was going to do in order to fix or cover up the mistake.

After it dried, I added the water. I was working outside so it didn’t take too long for the paint on the canvas to dry. I used blue and white to create the water and added some yellow and orange for the reflection.

Then it was time to figure out what to do about the sides of the canvas. The shape of the dark purple had kind of looked like trees to me, so with a fine tip brush, I outlined the trees and the branches. I also added the clouds at the point. I used black, dark brown, light brown and white to create the trees. Black was the base color and the others were used to for highlights. I also took a slightly wet big brush in order to blend the paint together and add the rounded out aspect to the trees. I did this on a previous painting and it turned out really well.

The last step was the clouds, leaves on the tree and the birds, which were done with the fine tip brush. The clouds were simple and done with a light blue with some white accents. The leaves, originally I had done with a little green abs black paint but when it dried it was too dark. I went back over it with more green than black and a green and white mixture. Paints don’t always dry the color you think they will. This new combination worked better and is in the final product.

This painting taught me a couple things. 1) don’t give up. You can find a way to incorporate what you have done into the painting. 2) take your time and slow down. 3) Paints don’t always dry the way you want them to.

It also showed me that I am capable of coming up with my own paintings. Sometimes I have a hard time with being imaginative but if I use what God has given me and allow Him to inspire me, the possibilities are endless.

Praying for direction in your life.

Until next time, God bless.

This week I got a Microsoft surface pro 6. I have needed a new computer for awhile now and finally figured out what I wanted and had the money to purchase it. While looking for a new computer, I had decided I wanted something I could draw with. Traditional painting and drawing is by far still my favorite but it’s not always easy to transport paints, pencils, paper and canvas. People might think it strange if I showed up at Starbucks with my paints and canvas and painted while I drank coffee.

With the intention of getting into digital art, I started looking for tutorials on how to do it and where to even begin to start. A lot of the skills and techniques from traditional art transfers to digital art with a few exceptions. While look for tutorials, I stumbled across a digital painting group on Facebook. I got really excited because they are having a digital painting course next week on how to do portraits. I got really excited.

Then I saw the work of the other artists in the group.

Their work is amazing and looks like it could be in a movie or professional comic or something. So many of them have gotten commissions for their work and are on the covers of popular books.

My excitement almost completely disappeared. I felt so overwhelmed as I started comparing myself to them.

I am no where near as good as their are with traditional art yet alone with digital art. I tried to ignore how I felt and not compare myself to them but it was really hard not to. It still is.

Then I realized that my excitement has been replaced with something else.

Envy.

I was jealous of these other artists, whom I have never met nor know any of their life stories. I wanted what they had but didn’t really want to put in the work for it. I just wanted to suddenly be as good as they are.

So I picked up my surface, opened my sketch book and started drawing. Between last night and today, the picture above is how Envy turned out.

To me, Envy is different than Anxiety and Depression. With Anxiety and Depression, I personified them and depicted them as people but with Envy, that didn’t seem like it would fit.

Envy is more like a monster that creeps up on you in the middle of the night from under your bed. It continues to come at you constantly until you finally give into it. I picture that each time you feed it, give into it, it grows another tentacle. It has suction cups because tries to stick to everything someone else has and wants to have it for itself. If left unchecked, Envy could get vastly out of control and completely take over.

So what do we do about Envy? How do we not feed it so that it won’t take over our lives? How do I not let it control me as an artist?

Proverbs 14:30 says, ” A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy makes the bones rot.” (ESV)

1 Corinthians 13:4 says that love is not envious. So when we are envious of others, we are not acting in love but in our own selfish desire.

Galatians 5:20 specifically lists jealousy as a work of the flesh. Then, in Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists the fruit of the Spirit. These are characteristics that, as believers in Christ, we should have in our lives.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control; against such things there is no law.”

Paul takes it one step further and says “if we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. ” Galatians 5:25-26

We fight Envy by loving others. We fight Envy by being joyful for others.

I fight envy by being patient with myself and my art. In time, and with practice, I will be able to develop my skills in both traditional and digital art.

I also fight Envy by finding my identity in Christ and not in myself or my art work. God is the one who gave me the ability to draw in the first place. I want to use my gift to glorify Him and not myself. That’s not saying that it’s easy fighting Envy. It is something I struggle with because I compare myself to others. I have to rely on God in order to fight Envy. The same way I have to rely on Him in order to fight Depression and Anxiety.

Have you been Envious?

How did you handle it?

I pray God leads you this week and shows you how to rely on him, especially when you struggle with Envy.

Feel free to comment.

Feel free to share.

Until next time, God bless.