I shouldn’t be surprised that I’ve been lead down this path. For as far back as I can remember I’ve wanted to be an illustrator. It was my passion in high school and college, in fact I recall my professor at KSU telling me, “Emily you should be an illustrator you’re way better at it that graphic design.” That comment stung a bit, but he was speaking truth, for that I’m grateful. One of the main reasons I DIDN’T go that direct route was out of fear of “not making it.” It’s really not about “making it” at this point. What I know is my art over the years has transitioned from performance to expression. I no longer try to appease the crowd, instead I express what is in my heart and let my work speak for itself. Each image has it’s own story, click on the images below to read more on “The Story Behind the Art”. Thank you for visiting. Blessings.

Did you know I offer art classes?

First off let me explain why my art classes are not your typical art class.

A few years back I went through some difficult personal struggles. There is nothing quite like seeing our babies hurt in their own traumatic hell, it threw me into a very dark, yucky place. In seeing my child suffer, it brought my own childhood suffering to the forefront and I didn’t know how to function. I spiraled out of control, and I prayed, and prayed. I hadn’t painted in years and for some reason it was calling to me(this was prior to all of the above paintings, this experience unlocked a part of me I didn’t even know existed). As I began to paint, a process I had never experienced emerged, it was raw expression, no realism, and was all about color. It was new, different, unstructured and I didn’t care about the opinions of others and “how it looked”, I was expressing my emotions in color and it was helping me.

As I worked through this process that God dropped in my lap, I quickly learned this was about more than me. God had given me a formula to help people who didn’t want to talk about their feelings, trauma, or hard things. They would be able to paint it out with no art experience, prior skill knowledge, NO I need to “know” how to paint, because expression is expression, no matter how it looks.

This is how Bara’ Color Expression Painting was born.

Bara’ is a Hebrew word, it means create or shape.

Bara is the creation word in Genesis, among many other scriptures. It is also the create word in Psalm 51:10 ESV,

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

This is what Bara’ Color Expression is all about; renewal, cleansing, freedom, insight.

I guide you through a 4 step process in which you express on your canvas never saying a word, yet you are cleansing your hearts through the silence. Music is played, I share a little about my journey, we take a break about 1/2 way through and at the end you can share if you’d like, but you don’t have to. The class takes about an hour to an hour and a half. I’d love to work with you individually, your family, workshops, retreats, you name it. I have worked with men, women and children from age 7 to 80. Thank you for considering and I look forward to hearing from you!!

Price will vary depending on size of group. Individual sessions start at $10 and up depending on desired supplies. AKA: Canvases, Heavy Paper, Trip Charges, etc.