The Coastal Collection
was brought about through
searching for peace
in a season of transitions and grief.
For most of 2022 and part of 2023, I struggled with mourning what once was and working through what is without a grounding sense of what would be. I felt paralyzed by life: everyday life, military life, mom life, artist life, wife life... life.
Yet a few things remained constant and two of those were my passion for art and God's love for me.
In the midst of a chaotic international relocation, the arrival of our second beautiful child, toddlerhood and potty training (you don't know the true woes of this until you're in the middle of it), and everyday life's hurdles I became aware of 1 Peter 5:7 and I clung to it.
Turn over ALL your worries to God,
because He cares about YOU.
1 Peter 5:7
In that same season, we became frequent beach goers (since we moved to a beach town, that's what you do, right?) The peace I felt knowing God cares about me, knows every detail about every thing He has created, and the calming hum of the ocean before me inspired the Coastal Collection.
I found my ground, peace, calm, stillness, serenity, tranquility, (still working on contentment) while I meditated on the Word of God, sometimes during a quiet morning with a warm cup of tea before the sun was even up and sometimes in the middle of a toddler tantrum. I poured my worries and discontentment over to God during the creation of my coastal work. Through that season I learned it is difficult to be discontent and full of worry when praising God for who he is, what he has done for me, and what is to come.
This collection consists of six coastal paintings produced out of the peace and rest I found as I drew nearer to Jesus and the soothing sounds of the ocean waves of the Gulf shores.
