Milk and Honey Day 33: Where Gold Grows
Of all the pieces in the Milk and Honey collection, Where Gold Grows sits closest to the image that started everything. I have been carrying the idea of a golden wheat field for years, long before this became a public project and long before I had the visual language for the rest of the collection. The bees, rivers, vineyards, lemons, waterfalls, and honeycomb all came later. The field came first.
Milk and Honey Day 30: Inheritance
Inheritance is about far more than money. Long before we arrive, others are already shaping the ground beneath our feet through the stories they tell, the values they model, the traditions they create, and the sacrifices they make. As I worked on the Milk and Honey collection, I found myself asking not only what I have inherited, but what I am cultivating for the people who come after me.
Milk and Honey Day 29: Restoration is Not Reversal
When we talk about restoration, it's easy to imagine getting back the thing we lost. We want the relationship repaired, the opportunity returned, the years redeemed, or the dream restored exactly as we first imagined it. Scripture, however, tells a different story. Again and again, God restores by moving people forward rather than taking them backward. This reflection explores why the Promised Land was never about returning to what was, and why some of God's greatest acts of restoration come through creating something entirely new.
Milk and Honey Day 28: What The Wilderness Holds
Everyone wants the payoff of the Promised Land, yet so much of Scripture takes place before anyone ever arrives. What the Wilderness Holds explores the idea that the wilderness is not simply a place of waiting, but a place where healing, provision, resilience, and grace are already at work long before the fulfillment of the promise comes into view.
Milk and Honey Day 27: Why Landscapes
I've never put much stock in the idea that artists need to pick a lane and stay in it. The artists I admire certainly didn't. Van Gogh painted portraits, florals, and landscapes. Picasso reinvented himself repeatedly. Frida Kahlo explored far more than the self-portraits she's best known for. Yet when I look back across my own work, two subjects keep appearing again and again: florals and landscapes. This post explores why I keep returning to them and what they reveal about the stories I'm most interested in telling.
Milk and Honey Day 26: When Bitterness Turns Sweet
I've been sitting with the ideas of Milk and Honey and the Promised Land for quite a while now. And yet, there I was sitting in a doctor's office again when a single word settled into my mind: bittersweet. In an instant, the painting I'd been struggling with suddenly made sense. This post explores the story behind When Bitterness Turns Sweet and why some of life's most meaningful transformations happen when God works through the very things we would never have chosen for ourselves.
Milk and Honey Day 25: The Lemon Tree
While working on When Bitterness Turns Sweet, a poem began to take shape alongside the painting. The Lemon Tree is a reflection on patience, transformation, and the surprising ways God can take what feels sharp, difficult, or unwanted and turn it into something worth sharing
Milk and Honey Day 24: The Symbolism of Clouds
I've always loved clouds. Growing up on an island in the Chesapeake Bay, the sky was part of daily life, and I learned early that some of the most dramatic beauty arrives wrapped in uncertainty. This post explores why clouds have become one of the recurring symbols in the Milk and Honey collection, and what they reveal about wonder, mystery, faith, and the light we can only see because something else is partially obscuring it.
Milk and Honey Day 23: What Happens After the Promised Land?
Maybe the goal was never simply to reach the field.
Maybe the goal was to become someone who could tend it well.
Today's reflection explores the difference between provision and stewardship, and why the story doesn't end when the wilderness does.
Milk and Honey Day 22: Why Create Beauty in the Wilderness?
The message behind Milk and Honey hasn't changed, but the past few weeks have reminded me why it mattered enough to paint in the first place. A reflection on wilderness seasons, the tabernacle, and the role beauty plays in helping us pay attention to God's faithfulness along the way.
Milk and Honey Day 21: What I Hope People Feel
What do I hope people feel when they stand in front of a Milk and Honey painting? More than anything, I hope they leave with a sense of hope, peace, and the reminder that God is faithful. Whether the artwork feels like a promise they're still holding onto or a reminder of how far they've already come, my hope is that it continues speaking to them long after it leaves the studio.
Milk and Honey Day 20: When the Paint Stops Working
Every painting reaches a point where the approach that got it started is no longer enough to finish it. In this post, I share why I switch from acrylics to oils halfway through the process, what that transition teaches me about creativity, and why some of the most important transformations happen when we're willing to slow down and try something different.
Milk and Honey Day 19: Rivers and Living Water
Rivers and waterfalls appear throughout the Milk and Honey collection as symbols of movement, provision, and the steady flow of life. Drawing from childhood memories on the Chesapeake Bay, biblical imagery of living water, and the landscapes that continue to shape my work, this post explores why water has become one of the collection's most enduring themes.
Milk and Honey Day 18: Why I Work on Multiple Paintings at Once
I currently have eight paintings in progress. Some are waiting for paint to dry. Some are ready for oils. One is still being difficult. At this point, the challenge isn't really painting. It's keeping track of all the ideas, decisions, and possibilities at the same time.
Milk and Honey Day 17: The Promised Land
The Promised Land was never just a destination. It represented inheritance, provision, identity, and a future generations had been waiting for. This post explores why the wilderness years mattered, what the Israelites had to learn before they could step into the promise, and why the difficult in-between seasons of our own lives are often where the most important transformation takes place.
Milk and Honey Day 16: Why Milk and Honey?
Milk and Honey is more than a collection title. It's a vision of abundance, restoration, and the kind of provision that extends beyond survival into legacy. This post explores why a wheat field became the foundation of the collection, and what it means to cultivate a life marked by hope, stewardship, and the belief that what is planted faithfully will eventually bear fruit.
Milk and Honey Day 15: What We Carry With Us
Most of us own very few things that truly matter. The objects we carry from one season of life into the next often become more than possessions. They become anchors, reminders of who we were, what we survived, and the future we are still building. This post explores why meaningful art so often finds its way into our lives during times of change, and how the things we choose to live with quietly become part of our story.
Milk and Honey Day 14: The Places In Between
Some moments divide your life into before and after, and once you cross them, you are no longer quite the same person. This post explores why I’m drawn to painting transition spaces like roads, rivers, wilderness landscapes, and horizons, and how the process of creating art mirrors the difficult, beautiful work of becoming.
Milk and Honey Day 13: The Difference Between a Source and a Painting
Not every painting begins with a detailed plan. Sometimes it starts with fragments. Colors, textures, atmosphere, scattered images collected into more of a mood board than a true reference. This post explores the difference between a source and a painting, and why the final piece often becomes something far more layered, alive, and unexpected than the original idea.
