Visions of Heaven

I was asked to share my "art testimony" at an upcoming mini conference on art & faith. To keep myself on track when I speak, I've written up my story, so I figured I'd share it here, too:

made to be an artist

I never really thought of myself as an artist until I was in my thirties. I had been creative, had always enjoyed writing (even got a Journalism degree) had worked in photography & graphic arts, but never had called myself an “Artist.”

I was too busy taking care of two toddlers, dogs, a house and being a wife to really

take any time out for creative endeavors. I didn’t even really have the time to think about it until one day my husband came to me and said basically, “What’s the matter with you and why are you being so nasty to live with?” You see, we had been married for nine years before we had any kids, so he knew that something had happened to change my normal disposition. I really didn’t know -

So we sat down and had a long talk and together we figured out that I had no creative outlet, which made me unhappy deep inside and we both agreed right then that I would make an effort to let my creativity out so that I would be a nicer person to live with. I am so thankful God gave me such an insightful husband!

roaring lambs

After couple of years of working as an artist, after I had begun to show in galleries and teach in art education programs I read a book called “Roaring Lambs” by Rob Briner. The subtitle to that book is “A Gentle Plan to Radically Change Your World” and in that book he talked about how there are certain “culture shaping” venues that provide a unique opportunity to spread the gospel and reach out for God. This really hit me in a way that nothing else had and confirmed that God had given me a specific job to do with my artwork, and that I wasn’t just doing creating art to stroke my own ego.

I actually have spent a lot of time going back and forth with God over this whole pride issue. I’m a person who likes attention and I like to be told my work is beautiful and it certainly feeds my ego. But I didn’t want to just be an artist to fulfill my own ego and I wanted to make sure that I was doing what God wanted me to do with my life, not just what I wanted.

40 days of purpose

I had pretty much come to the conclusion that God really did want me to be an artist, to pursue a showing and selling career for his glory, when our church started a program called “The Forty Days of Purpose.” It was amazing, all that I had just wrestled with on my own spiritual path with God, was completely confirmed by studying the Bible and Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life” book. It was like God was giving me a full speed ahead sign and I have never doubted my purpose in life since that point.

café artists

For quite a while during this whole period of time, I began to crave being able to connect with other Christian artists. I always seemed to be the odd duck in my social circles: the only artist with all my Christian friends and the only Christian with all my artist friends. Intellectually I knew there must be other Christian artists, but I felt very alone. Sometimes I would think that “someone” in my church should pull together a group of artists, as it’s so big, I knew there had to be more people even in my own congregation who were artists. Often when I was thinking like this, that still small voice said, “You know who should do that...” but I just wasn’t ready for that yet.

It’s funny, but one day someone in leadership at our church came to me with a request. They had decided that they were going to convert a couple rooms into a café and that they’d like to have rotating artwork from artists in the congregation and would I consider coordinating that? She offered me time to pray about it but I already knew that this was God kicking me in the butt and telling me the time had come to pull together that group of artists. So that’s how Covenant Artists began.

visions of heaven

Covenant Artists just started as a time once a month for artists at our church to get together and share our work and enjoy rubbing shoulders with other odd duck-types. After not too long, though, we decided to do some Bible study together and we had one themed show that we really enjoyed and one thing led to another and God gave me the inspiration for Visions of Heaven. Visions of Heaven was our first community outreach, with a group show at the Artisan Gallery on Del Paso Boulevard which was also the first real gallery show for many of our artists as well. It was a high point for Covenant Artists and I’d like to see our group do something like that again sometime in the not-too-distant future.

a whole city of Christian artists

More recently, God challenged me again, presenting me with the opportunity to have my own commercial studio space in midtown Sacramento. I kept coming up with reasons why I couldn’t do it and He kept opening doors and windows and I finally realized

that if I didn’t at least give it a try I would be just an idiot. Before I moved into the space, I really felt the need to do some creative prayer and I ended up driving around and around the block praying that God would use this whole thing the way He wanted to. I knew He had a plan, but I had no idea what it was.

After I moved into that studio, I began to meet more artists that were Christians
who went to other churches in the area and each time it was so cool - I’m losing track of how many Christian artists God has put in my path, including some of my private students - and now I’m just excited to see where He’ll lead me next.