My 50 foot painting in the Bronx!

Most people think of my paintings in terms of inches, not feet! And rightly so, as I’m a portrait artist who strives for a high level of detail in each of my pieces. I do, however, make an exception now and then.  My 2005 mission trip to the Bronx in 2005 presented me with an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up: to give a dark and desolate neighborhood a splash of life and color!

It started with a wall… a double handball court at a school that got vandalized often.  In the aftermath of 9/11, the school officials thought that a patriotic painting on the wall would not only be a thing of beauty, but would discourage graffiti artists. When our team from a local church in Brentwood, TN showed up to paint the interior walls of the school, they asked if there were any artists who were interested in working on a “big” project.

My "canvas"

I have to say that I was hesitant to volunteer, having never painting anything on this scale before, but I knew it was a great way to leave my artistic mark on the city and bring a little hope and excitement to the kids who went to the school!

I was told I had 2.5 days to design, plan, and execute the project, and I could recruit other team members to help. Five of us put all of our energy into the project, not knowing if we’d be able to pull it off in time.

Planning stages - lots of painter's tape and size calculations going on here.

I got over my mild fear of heights.

“Mine For A Moment”

In the fall of 2008, while I was planning my wedding, a strong, courageous friend of mine was fighting for his life.

At age 34, Daniel Smith was vibrant, healthy, and full of promise. He was finishing medical school and running more marathons than I could count. He seemed to have his whole life ahead of him. On October 22, Daniel lost his 6-month long battle against squamous cell oral cancer.

I heard the news after coming back from my honeymoon. I know I cannot adequately describe how this news affected me, but I will try:

I experienced deep sadness, sympathy for his family and the painful sting of loss, all of which is to be expected. What I did not expect was to be confronted with the fear that Nate could be taken from me in a similar way.

Life was now fragile and unpredictable….fleeting. Of course, it always has been, but now I had this new person in my life that I wanted to hold on to so tightly.

For days, I considered the possibility of losing Nate. How would I be able to go on without this amazing man in my life? But this couldn’t really happen, could it? After all, God had given him to me; wasn’t that a guarantee that my next 50 years would be wonderful?

As naïve as that sounds, it really is how I felt. The evening I heard about Daniel’s passing, I was struggling to balance loving fiercely with a willingness to let go. Then something happened that I can only attribute to God’s leading.