Psalm 25 // Teach me Your Paths

A Word of Compassion: David begins Psalm 25 petitioning for himself and ends his lament petitioning for Israel. Oh, how deeply this resonates with our church right now. In many ways, this piece began as a personal journey and has progressed into petition for the Church at large. My husband and I are close to several people experiencing deep hurt. Our hearts are incredibly heavy for each of you. We’re listening. We’re praying. We’re seeking Christ. Psalm 25 is a psalm for us all. May grace and truth prevail as we seek Christ, clinging to the God of our salvation. 

While my past couple of art pieces for this series were watercolor and calligraphy based, I decided to study a new fine art this summer: handcrafted paper flowers. Garden imagery is the focal point of most of my pieces, reminiscent of Eden, the restoration and hope in the future glory of Christ. The pathways in this passage reminded me of a maze and the ways God directs our paths, intersecting with one another and with unexpected twists and turns. The watercolor sketch to the left of the main piece illustrates my original vision for my floral display, one which creates a maze of stems while all of the flowers have a posture of uprightness, reflecting the action of “lifting up our souls (v. 1)” and keeping our “eyes ever toward the Lord (v. 15).” The twelve words entwined in the stems are all characteristics and actions found throughout the chapter which root our hearts and guide us in likeness of Christ. 

The nets and dried flowers draped over the columns represent guilt, shame, afflictions, transgressions, and loneliness in which we can be so easily entangled. This imagery alludes to the truth that God is the only One who can “pluck our feet out of the net” and restore our brokenness with beauty. 

Each flower in the bouquet is intricately pieced together with layers upon layers. The Italian crepe paper is delicate and could be easily torn if not handled with gentleness, especially the pieces I dyed and trimmed. Isn’t that wildly reminiscent of our Maker? All things created with intricate design and delicacy. I dyed most of these papers by hand and hung them from twine on our back porch as the sun dried them, a constant reminder that by God’s grace, “though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow (Isaiah 1:18).” The outcome of each strip brought unpredictable results, but it wasn’t until I cut each petal, shaped them and combined them with other petals and florets that the beauty emerged. The process took hours upon hours, far longer than any other project I’ve constructed. That patience and perseverance led to each flower offering significant beauty and its own unique story of refinement. 

As I began assembling the stems for the maze, the stems were jumbled and messy. It looked awful. I had no choice but to unravel it all and pivot. Most of my plans for this piece failed… until I began wondering, “How did God see David in this lament? How does God see me? How does God see us?” The larger piece with the single stem and bouquet represents ‘the bigger picture,’ as the perspective of how God sees us while the watercolor sketch offers my humanly limited view of God’s plan. Rather than the flowers all pointing up, you, as the viewer, see the perspective shift as if God was looking at His children with radiant faces gazing up at Him. The single golden stem is shaped to reflect the twelve leaves representing the words included in the watercolor sketch. It represents His character, the way His truths cover us and sustain us, upholding the cluster of flowers which represent the body of Christ. 

On a personal note: Lord willing, JD and I will be joining a new church as it takes root. Therefore, this will most likely be my last art installation for the Psalms series at this church. Serving in this capacity and sharing my art has altered my story in astounding ways that only God could orchestrate. It has been a true honor and joy to work with other artists in our church. Displaying artwork is vulnerable and humbling. Thank you for viewing my work with care and encouragement the past three years.

Kind Heart, Fierce Mind, Brave Spirit // Artwork

I have intentions of selling pretty much all of the artwork I create, but I decided to hold on to this one. 

I've seen this quote floating around Pinterest and Etsy for a while now but I've been so inspired by it. The quote actually derived from Kate Forsyth's The Witches of Eileanan"May my heart be kind, my mind fierce, and my spirit brave." I haven't read the book but I do love this quote. 

When I finished painting this girl, she seemed to hold all of these characteristics. Obviously, she's not real but an artist becomes connected to the person or objects in the artwork, just as a writer becomes connected to the people (fiction or non-fiction) that he / she writes about. Trust me, as I'm writing this, I'm questioning if I should share this or not. I realize how crazy it sounds. But I'm trusting that you'll either disregard the craziness and continue to read future blog posts or you'll love this piece and totally relate to what I'm saying.

Kind heart, fierce mind, brave spirit: these are characteristics I pray to develop in my own life. I lack each one daily but it is because of the grace of God that I entail these characteristics at all. 

This painting hangs in my studio along with a few other favorites of mine. It is a reminder of who I want to be and the warrior heart I strive to attain. 

What quote or scripture are you drawn to this week?

Watercolor Wednesday // Your Path is Beautiful and Crooked

It's official. You can buy your first Jitney's Journeys original watercolor print here:
https://www.etsy.com/listing/204701274/original-watercolor-print-5-x-7-vintage

But before you purchase, read the story behind this print below. Hint: You may find a little surprise waiting for you at the bottom of the post. 


In all honesty, many of my days feel chaotic. My mind is a jumbled mess and my path seems completely at a standstill, blocked by trees (at least the view is nice!). 

During JD's most recent trip, I decided to take a watercolor class. This class was amongst many, many things I did during his absence to keep my mind preoccupied and my hands busy (so that I wouldn't bite my fingernails - a dreadful habit I never noticed until my brother pointed it out a couple of months ago). 

While searching for inspiration, I fell in love with a quirky yet charming photo of pigeon-toed vintage brogue shoes.  I immediately began sketching and painting.  

Most days, I'm super quirky. But not on purpose. It just happens that way. My feet turn inwards and my face turns a sweet shade of pink when conversations navigate towards me.

Some days I feel completely confident in what I'm doing in life. Then I snap back to reality and realize I have no. I. dea. And that's okay.

"Your path is beautiful & crooked & just as it should be." 

Just being honest here... it would be nice to have thousands of "likes" on FB or Instagram on all of the things I post but that's certainly not the case. This watercolor, however, had the most "likes" - by far - of anything I posted. 

That tells me that you're with me. Not only do I need to be reminded that my path is beautiful & crooked & just as it should be, but YOURs is too! 

So let's walk these paths together. 

Our beautiful, crooked, just as they should be, paths. 

Side note: In honor of our first "Watercolor Wednesday", we're offering free shipping on your purchase of this watercolor print.

Use code YOURPATH at checkout. Offer expires Sunday, September 28!! 


Jitney's Journeys : Jeremiah 17:7-8 Custom Barnwood Piece

My friend Judy was at it again with another brilliant idea. (I should really make a "tag" for her so you can see all of the artwork we've collaborated on.) Her husband's birthday was coming up and she wanted to give him a custom piece featuring Jeremiah 17:7-8 with a tree of some sort and maybe a river running across it somehow. I'm not sure if this is what she had in mind originally but I ended up creating the artwork on barnwood with a typography mixture of my handlettering with a clean, sans serif font. I fell in LOVE with it and I'm hoping they did too! 

As always, I'm deeply encouraged by the scripture I have the blessing of working with. There is beautiful hope and pure Truth in these verses. Oh, I just love it.

Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water,
that sends out its roots by the stream,
and does not fear when heat comes,
for its leaves remain green,
and is not anxious in the year of drought,
for it does not cease to bear fruit.
— Jeremiah 17:7-8

Find this and other custom artwork from Jitney's Journeys here. If you would like to order a custom piece of artwork or something similar to this, contact us here

Jitney's Journeys : Proverbs 31 Fabric Collage

A sweet friend, Halee, asked me if I could make something special for her mom's birthday, specifically a piece focused on Proverbs 31. After brainstorming different ideas, we decided on a fabric collage with a neutral color palette and pops of pink and turquoise, as well as burlap and lace. I embraced the theme of threes (because of her mom's three daughters) then adorned the collage with three vintage brooches and three ivory buttons.

When my great-grandmother passed away, she left tons of boxes filled with lovely sewing supplies, lace, zippers, fabric... anything you can think of in the sewing department. I, of course, wanted to incorporate several of those things into the collage (this theme reminds me so much of her) so I used one of her unfinished fabric squares as the first layer of the collage as well as lace and some of the crocheted doilies I found in the stash.

Halee sent me two pictures to use, one of her and her two sisters when they were younger, and the other of her family at Disney World this year. A vintage spoon is the center of the piece with "mother" engraved into it (in hindsight, I was I had used larger-set metal stamps but I used what I had) and a vial of pink flowers laid on a paper flower made of tissue, sheet music and kraft paper.

My absolute favorite part of Jitney's is being able to make personalized gifts like this. I've yet to meet Halee's mother, but what an honor it is to create a piece for a woman Halee loves so dearly!