Life Happens to All of Us
Thunder Hole at Acadia National Park
Less than six months ago, my art studio was my husband’s office. Every painting you are seeing on my website didn’t exist.
I moved to Maine in 2020, before then I taught as a professor at Pensacola Christian College. During those years teaching in Florida, I always had a nice painting studio in the various houses I lived in, but I hardly ever painted projects I cared about. Teaching was all consuming, and when I painted, it was to serve as a visual aid or a demo for one of the classes I was teaching.
Moving to Maine, and being able to pour my energy into my own paintings, seemed like a dream that would probably never happen—until it did.
When I was pregnant with my second child, I chose to move so that I could spend more time with my kids and be near family. I told myself that I wouldn’t push myself to make art happen right away, I would cut myself some slack until life with a new baby settled into a consistent rhythm. But as all parents know, life never really slows down. Almost year later, my baby was still waking up several times a night and I was just trying to stay mentally sane on lack of sleep while also homeschooling my very active kindergartener.
Every day I thought about what I wished I could create, but felt trapped. Seeing my instagram feed filled with other artists living out their dreams constantly refreshed my brain with a feeling of failure. Until one day God spoke to my heart and said that it was time to begin painting again. I wrestled with this for several days, there were just so many reasons why this wouldn’t work out. The only time I could focus on painting was if I got up earlier in the morning but it seemed absolutely insane since my son still wasn’t sleeping through the night. But as the days went on, God kept showing me in different ways that I needed to just show up to paint every day, even if it was for just a short period of time, as an act of faith. So one evening before I went to bed, I dusted off my Plein air easel and set it up in the kitchen. I knew that if everything was set up and ready to go then I would be more likely to get up to paint in the morning.
That night my son slept all night long! He woke me up at 5am which was perfect because it forced me to get out of bed. I was wide awake and ready to paint when I put him back down to sleep for a few more hours. For the next several weeks the very same thing happened, and I was in awe of God’s hand on my art from the very beginning.
I’ve painted almost every day since then, and I am still amazed by how God richly blesses me in my studio hours no matter how long or short they may be. I no longer paint in the early morning, but I’ve learned how to find pockets of time throughout the day to pop into my studio and get some work done.
Up until this point in my life, I wouldn’t sit down to paint unless I had a large period of time to work. I thought it was justified because it took time to get into the zone to hammer out work. But now I’ve found that I work better in shorter periods of time. And my work speaks for itself. I have finished more pieces in the last 6 months than I would have completed in a whole year of grad school when I was painting 4-6 hours a day!
My encouragement to anyone who wants to follow a dream is just to start. The journey to your dreams only begins with your first step and a little faith.
