WELCOME TO MY STORY!

 The Story of a Journey – The Power of Faith and Creativity

These are the memories that have shaped who I am:

A little country church in rural Georgia where everyone was like family and yearly “Revival” week brought you near to the Lord.

A Family who raised me in that nurturing environment.

A Grandmother who was quiet, elegant and stoic. I remember seeing her sitting with her Bible open in her lap. I remember conversations with her about the Lord. And I remember her powerful experience where the Lord appeared to her and healed my Uncle who was in the hospital because of sudden blindness.

A Father who let me be me. Different. Sometimes he allowed it to a fault. But it was like he believed I would be alright. He never knew the depth of my insecurities, but I always felt that I lived in a haven where I could draw, paint, play music and not fit the mainstream.

His country store which was my second playground…a place where I could set up hiding places, a side room where I could conduct chemistry experiments and build anything I wanted, and a big dusty warehouse full of feed and seed where I played. He left a civil engineering job to come back to his father’s farm and open the store back in the days when people didn’t drive 30 miles to town every week to go buy groceries. I’m so glad he made the decision to come back to the country.

The never-ending, wonder-inspiring images that are prevalent in the Deep South: The grey-silver strands of Spanish Moss hanging from massive Oak Trees, fog rising from the pond as the sun rose in the morning, thin blankets of smoke from chimney fires that stretched out across winter fields, billowing clouds that looked like anything your imagination could conjure.

Then Spring and Summer brought Hydrangeas, Azaleas, Dogwoods, Magnolias and the ever-present Mimosa trees and Kukzu vines so prolific in the South. Crops in the fields, especially cotton and sunflowers, kept the desire to draw and paint ever before me. Old rusted trucks, tractors and hay bales…all of these things make up the library of reference material that still underlies much of what I create today.

And then there was the decision at age 17 to drive across the state line to Allendale, SC every Saturday morning to take group oil painting lessons from Ms. Zita Mellon, a retired artist from New York who had made her home in the South and supplemented her income teaching private lessons. Everything about Saturday mornings was wonderful. She lived in a run-down two story Victorian home; her small class was squeezed into a former front room with a big picture window. The room was filled with easels and reeked of turpentine and linseed oil. Ms. Mellon was silver-haired, sweet and kind, and overflowing with the practical knowledge I needed to begin my lifelong pursuit of oil painting. It is a memory I will always cherish.

All of these images coincide with my memories of growing in the Lord. As a young man, even in high school, I became voraciously hungry for books and articles on growing in a deeper walk with Jesus Christ. I studied, questioned pastors, I prayed. And then I “happened upon” a book that introduced me to a deeper life in the Spirit and a deeper belief that miracles are for today (as though my grandmother’s testimony wasn’t enough). The book was “Like a Mighty Wind” by Mel Tari. It chronicled the Indonesian Revival that swept those Islands in the 1960’s. Don’t read it unless you are willing to re-examine your own skepticism. Years later, due to criticism that I read, I began to doubt Mel Tari’s accounts of what happened there – and then in the Lord’s providence I “happened” upon another book by a man who had travelled to Indonesia and interviewed hundreds of people who gave first-hand testimony to the truth of the events recorded in the book.

Another book, “Peace with God”, by Billy Graham, gave me a basic and solid understanding of the power of assurance of Salvation. It also had a deep and lasting impact upon my life.

To shorten this article somewhat, I felt a call from God towards ministry during those early years, though I chose Art School (Ringling School of Art, Sarasota, FL) as my destination after high school. It would be some 12 years later before the Lord would deal with me in ways that I won’t describe right now, and I would surrender my  life to be used in pastoral ministry. Through all the subsequent years which included marriage, children,  ministry, and planting a church in Mesa, AZ,  I have had the opportunity to paint, off and on, and continue growing as an artist. I have even found that the times away from the easel, embroiled in the real lives of hurting people, have only strengthened my vision and my abilities when I do paint.

These are some of the powerful memories that have made me who I am.

In my blog (see Canvas & Crown blog page) I refer to these things and many more as I seek to delve into memories and artistic themes and correlate them with Biblical insights in order to inspire artists, creatives and anyone else who reads them.

just as my life is a joining of faith and creativity, I believe that God has given me insights in order to minister to others through correlating these two themes in writing and painting instruction. In my Canvas & Crown instructional videos I often draw Biblical truths forth…truths that relate directly to the subject at hand and also to our walk with God.

On this page, I will continue to post some “snippets” oncerning “MY STORY”…the impact of certain childhood memories and the impact the Lord has had on my life as He guides  me.

A photo of me and my wife Maggie and our three sons, Jimmy, Jeffery and Adam, sometime in our first few years of marriage. Today we all live in Arizona, we have 9 grandchildren and one great-granddaughter. Maggie and I were married in 1984 and recently celebrated 40 wonderful years together. We have worked and served the Lord together and there has been no greater blessing.