Description
Watch the Process
About The Artwork
My friend Carolyn asked if I would consider making a piece of art as part of a fundraiser for her tuition to go to MAPS Global School. She said it would be cool if I could do a piece based on Psalm 23. There are so many wonderful parts of this Psalm, at first I wanted to do something encouraging or a “happier” piece of art based on statements like “The LORD is my shepherd I will not be in need.” or “He leads me beside quiet waters” or “goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life”. But as I started praying into this piece and doing thumbnail sketches I really felt the LORD wanted me to explore the idea of “walking through the valley of the shadow of death”.
At first I wasn’t sure how I felt about this. It has been a rough season of life for my husband and I, a season of loss, stress, and disappointment. Don’t get me wrong, God has been incredibly good during this season, but honestly I didn’t want to revisit my feelings about the “valley” season we’ve been walking through. I wanted to just move on, not really process how hard things have been or how tired felt. But God in His kindness was giving me an opportunity through this piece of art to show me how I wanted to avoid those uncomfortable feelings and He was giving me space to process the hard things and give those things to Him.
So though this artwork started out as a request from a friend, it has become quite personal to me. When I think of a valley I tend to think of it as a canyon or ravine. Someplace that you’ve found yourself in and the only way out is through. The walls are uncompromising rock too steep to climb, and the path winds along and you can’t see where the end may be. But the great thing about the valley is that we are not alone. We fear nothing, because we are safe with Jesus, despite how our circumstances may feel. And He has this great ability to prepare tables, cause our cups to overflow, and comfort us in all sorts of ways even in the valley. At first I was going to add an image of Jesus walking with a sheep, but instead I landed on the perspective that you are the sheep looking at those stone walls.
Anyways that is the backstory, in this artwork I tried a new technique where I started out with a few layers of watercolor as a base and then added details with chalk pastels. It was a fun, free kind of process that I really enjoyed and I think I will do more pieces with this technique in the future. All proceeds from this design will be going to Carolyn to fund her tuition at MAPS Global School.
Scripture quotations taken from the NASB (New American Standard Bible) Copyright 2020.
Product Details
• Made from 0.5 mm flexible vinyl
• Premium matte finish
• Magnetic black backing
This product is made especially for you as soon as you place an order, which is why it takes us a bit longer to deliver it to you. Making products on demand instead of in bulk helps reduce overproduction, so thank you for making thoughtful purchasing decisions!
