by Maddie

I don't know about you, but sometimes I feel like a mess. Life seems to be going so well, but then one measly thought or action can send me spiraling. Do you ever feel like me, like this painting? Do you ever feel peaceful and settled, only for an unforeseen storm to spin you out of control? I think we all feel this way sometimes. And its disappointing, isn't it? It makes us feel weak and messy, ugly and unworthy. But these are lies. Take this painting, for example. Comprehen

Happy Sunday, friends! In honor of our Savior's sabbath, I though I would talk about rest today. A few months ago I painted this little watercolor bouquet and adorned it with the name "Enough". Why would I chose such a word? Because I need that reminder every day. I need to remember the fact that God has gifted me with His love and nothing I do can change that. He will never love me more and He will never love me less. And the same is true for you. Oftentimes, we are busy. Bu

Happy Sunday, friends! This week I wanted to share this painting, titled Mustard Tree. God gave me the idea for this painting a few weeks ago, and I knew that I would need it as I ventured into my sophomore year of college. Let me explain. As many of you can probably guess from the title, this painting is inspired by Jesus's comments in Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6: if you have faith as small as a measly mustard seed, you can move mountains and uproot trees. Nothing will be im

Hi friends! Here is a work of art that I painted for my friends who recently had a baby! Their nursery is Narnia themed and I hope this...

Hey friends, I wanted to share a digital illustration I recently made. This was created for a new friend of mine and I just had to put his cute dog in it! I hoped to brighten his day and encourage him with this Scripture/dog combo. And as I was creating this, the Lord revealed something to me. For as long as I can remember, I have loved creating works of art. But I have not always been willing to give it away. When my passion for art making became more serious, I was possessi

Hey everyone! This week I'm sharing a commission piece that I recently finished, and the Lord has inspired me with an analogy I will share with you. The road in this painting is the road of life. There are many twists and turns, desolate corners and joyous expanses. As we traverse this road, sometimes we will bask in the sun. The way will be scenic and majestic. We will march proudly, heads held high. But other times, perhaps even oftentimes, our road will lead us to dark woo

Hi friends! This is "Masterpiece" and I love how God worked! I sketched this rose out almost 3 years ago but there was never a good time for me to paint it. In His wisdom, the Lord recently inspired me to finish it, and I treasure the meaning behind this piece. This magnificent "Masterpiece," in all its blooming glory, is how God sees us. We are this rose, brilliant and bright and beautiful. Flawless. We are flawless. Friends, our Abba declares that we are FLAWLESS! How amazi

Friends, this week we're going to be talking about waiting. Waiting on God (instead of doing things our own way) is so difficult because we cannot see the final picture. Believe it or not, we aren't all-powerful and all-knowing like He is. And faith is hard. Especially when life seems dark. But I have an analogy for you (which involves art. Shocker, I know): We are like a painting. Ephesians 2:10 supports this idea by stating that we God's masterpieces. Or, in other words...

In my art class, I had to create a series centered around a theme. For my theme, I was inspired by kintsugi, which is an Asian art form where broken pottery is remade with gold. The gold bonds the shattered clay, and suddenly, the cracks and imperfections in the pottery are embraced. The ruined remains are enhanced by the gold, being transformed into a priceless work of art. I aim to prove the beauty in flaws, so I began my Divine Kintsugi series by taking inspiration from im

I have decided to share a commissioned painting I created last year. It is Notre Dame College's gold dome, and it was quite a challenge. I was commissioned by a teacher at my high school, so I was in a mad dash to complete this before I graduated; I finished this painting and then the very next day I had my graduation ceremony! Talk about cutting it close! Creating this piece was a joy and the customer and I were both thrilled with the results!

Here is a self portrait I painted! It is made with ink, which is similar to watercolor, and I really loved creating this! I hope you like it!

As I am heading back to Messiah tomorrow, I'm not gonna lie, I'm scared. My first semester had a lot of hardships and pain. But God got me through, and I have hope that this next semester will be better. One of the main challenges I had this fall revolves around my own thoughts. I tend to be a worrier, and the transition to college skyrocketed my anxiety. But through that time of panic, the Lord planted the seeds for something that will be a lifelong journey of mine (and prob

Who am I? Who are we? Are we who society says we are, how others say, or how we say? That was the prompt for this art assignment, to capture how you are defined differently based on who is defining you. I kinda went a different route. While I did incorporate chains into the background (representing the stereotypical societal view of Christianity, that is is all about binding rules and rituals), I didn't focus on how I view myself, because honestly, that would be pretty depres

These are hands, sign language hands, to be more precise. And these hands spell out B E L O V E D Now, these innocent letters can be read two ways, and both ways act as bountiful truths to soothe our weary souls. ~BELOVED~ Meaning that we are treasured in the sight of our Savior. We are holy and blameless in His sight (Ephesians 1:4) and more precious than rubies (Proverbs 3:15). God created us and He instantly loved us. God, seeing us as His little children, seeing our futur

So I've been holding onto this painting for a while... this was an assignment for my class. And it was the most frustrating project I'd ever had to paint. Now, I'm not saying this to sound boastful, but I know that the Lord has given me a gift with art, with creating. And still, even with my talent, this thing challenged me to no end! Here's the lesson I'm trying to get at: no matter how "good" we are at something, we are not God. We are nowhere near His almighty power. And w

This drawing is made almost entirely out of ink dots. There's two meanings to this title; the first is that all the individual pieces are separate but come together to form an image of life. The Lord uses each dot to complete the image, similar to how each of us are needed in the Body of Christ for His mission to be accomplished. Second, all around the flower are heaps of dead leaves, broken off from their life source, from their trees. Without Jesus, we are like those leaves