Psalm 139 (oil on canvas)
This painting was informed by Psalm 139:15—“My bones were not hidden from you when I was made in secret and fashioned in the depths of the earth.”In early 2025, I was diagnosed with SCDS (Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome)—a rare inner ear disorder caused by a hole in the bone over the superior semicircular canal. Over the past few years, I’ve experienced bilateral hearing loss and autophony (the intense amplification of internal sounds like heartbeat, voice, and muscle movements).
Upon finishing this painting, my husband said, “Apropos to paint your ear I think. Kind of beautiful in a way I can’t express.”
Ruth (oil on canvas)
This painting was informed by the person of Ruth and Ruth 2:15-16—“As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, ‘Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.’”A few years ago, I came across the former St. Augustine Catholic Church in North St. Louis. The structure held a large parish until the mid-twentieth century, but it fell into disuse as the surrounding neighborhood declined. Over time, unhoused people took up shelter in the church’s interior.The resulting image is equal parts tragic and beautiful. Such grandeur—vaulted ceilings, long aisles, intricate stained glass—amid such poverty and abandonment. If you look closer, many of the biblical figures romanticized in those stained glass windows were themselves destitute and disfavored. And if you look closer still, the redemptive story of the world hinges upon those same unlikely, broken people. I finished painting this scene—Ruth gleaning behind the harvesters—as St. Augustine was set for demolition. I hope it will remind me of the essential dignity of the poor—the fatherless, the widow, the foreigner—and my responsibility to remain always proximate. See below for detail shots.
