❤ As I painted this image, two songs replayed in my head on the regular. It started with Fanny Crosby’s hymn, Tell Me the Story of Jesus. I looked up the familiar song that I grew up singing in church, and I was amazed at what I learned about the songwriter. The poetess, Fanny Crosby (1820 - 1915), penned over 9,000 hymns in her lifetime. And she was blind. Reading about her amazing life bolstered my passion and purpose of contributing to FSDB through my painting sales. Learning about Fanny Crosby felt like a wink from God, a confirmation of sorts to use whatever gifts I have to offer to the benefit of others. As I developed the composition, the song Write Your Story, by Francesca Battistelli (born 1985), chimed in! The old hymn and new song both share the timeless message that Christ is the author of the only story worth telling/believing/living. May I be an open book, and not just allow, but seek to become and display the love letter that is Christ living in and through me.
The board was prepped, as I try to always be prepared for inspiration to strike. I added paint that remained from previous works before cleaning out my brushes, and the initial composition that appeared looked like hearts on lined paper. The paint colors chosen after that point were white for notebook paper with blue lines and a red margin. Somehow I still think of notebook paper as the appropriate medium for letters! I'm old school, I guess. Anyway, the palette developed just slightly, but stayed "notebookish" at heart. See what I did there? So, now ya know the simple concept with a big message.