February 19, 2020 1 Comment
I was sitting on the grass waiting for my 6 year old's ballet glass to get out and texting the mom who commissioned this painting. We wanted to add a side piece to this one with encouraging words for this little lady to look at each time she saw herself. At the same moment we both thumb-typed "fearfully and wonderfully made". Those words painted on canvas shifted my art career.
For almost two years, I had poured myself into painting landscapes and abstracts. This one conversation and decision to begin writing on canvas shifted me into the hand lettering world. I grabbed Megan Well's Hand Lettering guide and went to work learning this new skill. After a busy Christmas season 2017, I asked my woodworking hubby to help me figure out how to enter the world of hand painting signs on reclaimed wood. We took piles of old fence boards from our neighborhood, reclaimed them ourselves and built them into signs to stain and paint.
Meanwhile, through all that sign making year and a half, I continued sharing devotionals on Instagram. I liked the wood-working, but I LOVED writing and chatting with gals about faith and life. I remember writing the Lent devotional at our small desk in our bedroom, feeling so filled up as I visualized what it would have been like to journey with Jesus and got to share my imaginings.
Twice in 2019, I stopped working completely. The first was when my dad went into hospice and passed a few weeks later. The second was another more personal crisis in our home. Both of these self-imposed breaks forced me to drop everything and carefully choose what to pick back up as life got back to a new normal. My focused shifted to devotional and Bible study writing as well as getting back into more fine art painting, this time in watercolors. These continue to make my heart sing and I cannot wait to see where the Lord leads next on this journey!
(Here are a few examples of my work from those early years.)
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'Melissa Petersen'
February 11, 2021
I love your story about how you started She Pens Truth. I’ll never forget when I first met you and you shared with me some encouraging Bible Verses to get me through some tough times. I need to find that list! 💕