Graceful Warrior

This was painted on Halloween and represents the power of God over the enemy. Halloween is often thought of as a night of evil and I wanted to create something that displayed the opposite of evil. I truly believe that God is almighty and has no equal. Therefore, the opposite of the devil is not God. God has no rivals. The opposite of a fallen angel is a heavenly angel. This painting is the result and truly shows the power of the light over darkness. Often, accidents happen when painting live. most of the time I was clean them up or paint over them, but the night I painted this a drop of water landed under the angel's eye. I almost wiped it away, but believe that the Holy Spirit whispered to me to leave it. The paint ran and created a tear. I would never have thought to do that, but many people have shared how much they love this strong warrior showing compassion for our world.

The Price of Freedom

I never intended this to look like a Catholic icon, but the gold halo fit this piece perfectly. I was hoping to capture the final breath of Jesus' natural life. Someone told me when they look at His eyes they can see it's the moment just before He gave up His life. That was not intentional either, but truly does encapulate this piece.

Healing Hands

A friend in my men’s prayer group recently shared that his wife of 20 years has filed for divorce. She shared that she never really believed in “this Christian thing.” My friend has tried to save the marriage, but she is unwilling to work on it. He is being torn apart by this. I was praying for him and saw a picture of his heart being ripped apart, but then I saw God holding his heart and pushing it back together - healing it and keeping it from falling apart. That's the story behind this piece. All of us have a part of our heart that has been broken. God is always ready to hold us together when we're falling apart.

The Certainty of His Promises

I have always loved nautical artwork and wanted to explore this theme using an anchor. I've heard many people say that "hope is an anchor for the soul." I read through Hebrews chapter 6, where the "anchor" passage is. What's incredible is that this chapter talks about the time when God made His covenant with Abraham. He said he could swear by no other name than Himself to keep His promise. Verse 16 says, "People swear by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what is said and puts an end to all argument." God cannot lie and never changes. This is the anchor that he hold on to.

What To Keep And What To Kill

I call this one What To Keep And What To Kill. My idea was that an eagle’s vision can see so far in the distance, allowing them to decide what they want to keep or kill long before they actually need to take action. My hope for those who see this is that they too can have vision for their future and partner with wisdom about what to keep and what to kill in their own lives.

Eyes On The Prize

Lions are powerful and symolize strength. This lion certainly exudes strength, but also peacefulness. I love the light shining down on him. It's like the first rays of sunshine after a long night. That light warms your soul, quiets your mind, and brings you peace.

Healed With A Touch

I love this painting. I know that might sound strange, being that I painted it, but it’s true. I’m constantly amazed at how these paintings look when they’re finished. They somehow transform into something I never conceived. I wanted there to be a physical representation for the power flowing out of Jesus and into the woman touching him. I wanted it to look like that feeling when you get zapped by static electricity, but much more powerful. Also, it had to have a sense of the supernatural. I felt a bit overwhelmed, but stared working and this is the result. This one found a buyer quickly who emailed me shortly after they hung it up in their house, saying that she “can hardly look at the painting without weeping...When I surrendered my life to Jesus, I instantly felt his presence and felt known. He became my shield and lifted my head. He took my shame. The compassion of Jesus and his love for this woman is what drew me to this painting. I weep because I know He loves me and has great compassion for me too.” Isn’t that incredible? I am humbled that I was used to create something that touched another life so deeply. “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.” Read the story behind this image in Luke 8:43-48.

Simple Creation

I love the idea that God can be infinitely large and infinitely small at the same time. He adds so much detail to the smallest of His creations. I wanted to try to capture this thought and created this piece.

Innocent Eyes

Here’s a painting that stared off with a weird concept: paint Jesus at about age 12. I’ve never seen anyone do that before, so I went with an idea that he’s looking up to God as His father. He always looked to his father to know his true identity. I splattered some red paint across the top (half thinking I was going to totally mess this work up once the red hit the canvas), but the red ended up forming a shape similar to a crown. Someone told me it looks like a crown of thorns. I think of this as a young Jesus looking at his father to know his true identity and also being fully aware that his life was always meant to end in sacrifice. What a wild thought to think of a 12 year old Jesus completely aware that the life he lived would inevitably end with his suffering on the cross. Knowing this, he still pressed forward to save us all. That’s a heavy burden for anyone to carry and it’s the burden he willingly took on for me and for you.

Love and Light

I had fun painting this one. Jesus is often depicted more serious, but I imagine he smiled a lot. I painted this live and had several people come up to me afterward who were interested in purchasing this. The buyer gave it to her son, who had just become a full time pastor. She shared that he hung it in his office. I love that this image will bless everyone who visits him.

He Knows You

I love painting extreme close ups of my subjects and the eyes are one of my favorites. I often get an idea of an image to paint and simply work at it faithfully until it starts to come to life. For this one I knew I would be painting an eye, but I couldn't explain why. It was simply the image I had to paint. I told a friend about it and they chuckled. It wasn't mean, but painting an eye isn't something that usually represents the God of the universe. I painted this live during a worship service. A few days later a woman came up to me and told me that she was having tremendous trouble with her eyes - I don't know the details of her problem, but it was pretty bad. She had seen the doctor, but nothing they recommended was helping. She walked into the church after the service had started and saw that I was painting a giant eyeball. She told me she knew this painting was God telling her that He knew what she was going through. Miraculously, the woman's eye issue was rectified shortly after she looked at this painting. I have heard stories of people who were healed by looking at a painting and this story is one that I certainly can't explain, but am grateful to be used to help this woman's healing journey.

Love and Sacrifice

In the Gospels of John and Matthew, the Spirit of God descends upon Jesus like a dove. I wanted to depict an image that conveyed this moment, but also foreshadowed the sacrifice Jesus would make to save us from sin. The background represents the pain he endured for us, while the dove is a symbol of peace and love.

Wild Child

This was painted in about an hour. I wanted to convey the feeling of being fierce, powerful, pure, and confident. This girl is not perfect. Her face is covered with dirt and muck, but she doesn't care. She's ready to take on any adventure.

Bittersweet Sacrifice

The week I painted this I was reflecting heavily upon the sacrifice of Jesus. When he hung on the cross, the world was black. I wanted to try to capture some of the feelings he must have felt. The darkness of this image is the separation from his Father. I splattered red paint to symbolize his torment and every time I look at this piece it reminds me of a kind of bloody rain. May you be blessed today knowing that Jesus Christ gave his life to save yours.

Heaven Is Near

The story behind this painting will always hold a special place in my heart. I painted this on Easter Sunday and based it off of a headstone sculpture I had recently seen. Such a great depiction of Heaven and Earth drawing near each other. A few months later a friend was walking through my church and saw this in a random room. She immediately contacted me and told me that she had to buy it for her cousin. Her cousin had a son who was born with an illness that took his precious life at a young age. She wanted to recreate the headstone sculpture, but it was too expensive. When my friend saw this, she knew she had to give it to her cousin. My friend wrapped the painting and gave it to her cousin. She was kind enough to take a video of her cousin opening this painting up. Her reaction will live me with me for the rest of my life. Moments like this help me to understand that my work are unique messages from God to those who see them. They speak to each individual in a personal way.

Abide

The week I worked on this I asked God what He wanted me to paint. I kept hearing the word "grapes" in my head. I pressed in (pun intended) to what grapes mean from a biblical perspective and got the idea that Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. We can only bear fruit when we abide in him. All of the beautiful fruit grows when we join our life to that of Jesus. The amazing thing is that you can look at this painting and see that it's all connected. None of the parts work by themselves. There is unity in the way God invites us to partner with Him.

Hope Is Near

This is an early live worship painting. When you're on a stage and there are a thousand people behind you as you paint, it can be intimidating. I've learned to simply focus on it being a time of intimacy between me and the Lord. That means it can often be fun. Sometimes spontaneous accidents occur. I truly believe that angels join me as I paint. Sometimes they even guide my hand. The Holy Spirit will also whisper to me. Not that I hear an audible voice - more like suggestions that I hadn't previously thought of. For this painting I planned to make the woman have blonde hair and green eyes. I later used that color scheme for I Know Who I Am. While I was on stage I felt a strong nudge to make the hair black and the eyes blue. After the service a woman came up to me and said, "You painted me! You even painted my funny eyebrow!" Sure enough it did look like her and spoke volumes to her in that moment. Experiencing moments like this help me to understand that God is guiding everything. How in the world could I have known to paint the hair, eyes, and eyebrow on this canvas to match someone who needed a sign of hope from the Lord?

I Know Who I Am

I was in a small group where we spent a night playing worship music. A couple from the group were professional broadway singers and led the music. They were absolutely incredible. I asked the leaders if I could paint during this worship night and wanted to use the blonde hair and green eye theme I planned to use for Hope Is Near. Like Wild Child, I wanted this one to be a depection of power - a warrior's gaze. At the end of the night I asked if this painting touched anyone and one of the worship band members said she wanted it. Someone else told her she should buy it because it looked like her. Suddenly everyone saw it. The resemblance was uncanny...and completely unintentional. I always enjoy when God gives a personal gift like this to someone. It's like He's saying, "You're my favorite."

New Elevations

I painted this a symbolic image to rise above all the distractions and noise of the world. The further we are removed from our day-to-day circumstances, the easier it is to focus on what is necessary. The man who bought this painting hung it in his office. He sent me a photo of it on his wall and mentioned that his mousepad had a jet rising up in a similar way, but he did not realize this until after he hung this painting up. This one definitely went to the right person!

Light Touch

Have you ever thought about giving God a high five? It seems a little strange if you're an adult, but not if you're a child. I painted this as a way to show that when Jesus invites children to come to him they get an immediate and intimate encounter with him. I painted this live and when I was done, one of the pastors stood up in front of everyone and asked if they had ever gotten a high five from God. He liked the idea of a small child approaching the King of the Universe in such a gentle manner.

Victory Is Mine

Is there a more powerful animal to represent power than a lion? I had so much fun creating this. After it was finished someone told me that it has a unique quality about it because you can't tell if the lion is roaring or is yawning. Perhaps the battle has been fought and one and this represents God as Lord of All.

Firedance

This piece sold before it was completed. When I created this I had never painted fire. This was painted live and I struggled to get the look of the fire the way I wanted it. I only had about forty minutes to get the basic image on the canvas, knowing that I could work on it once the church service was over. After the service I was not able to get up to my easel for about ten minutes. As I approached the easel a member of the ministry team was sitting on the floor in front of the painting, holding another woman who had broken down in tears as she looked at the painting. After some time I was able to speak with the sobbing woman who said she didn't know what came over her. She isn't typically the crying tye, but she couldn't help it. There wasn't anything in particular that she could share other than she felt the presence of the Living God shining through this piece. She eventually bought it from me. I offered to finished it, but she said she liked it the way it is - raw. I look at this and see an unfinished piece if art. The weeping woman looks at this and sees the hand of God. That's a pretty amazing contrast!

Confidence

Birds have intense and bold eyes. Their gaze instills a sense of focus that few other animals can match. This eagle stares at the viewer with an unwavering look, while the background seems similar to a fire burning behind him.

Graceful Warrior Crowd

I painted Graceful Warrior live during the worship time at my church. After the service a crowd gathered to share the impact this picture had on them. The worship pastor snapped this photo for me to remember this moment and I wanted to share it with you.