Tag: story

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How Inspired Joy Started

 

 

 

I am Emily, usually known as Em, and I'm the artist behind InspiredJoy.  I live with husband Tim, who does something computery for his job, and our cat, Petey, whose hobbies include sitting on the paper that I'm trying to draw on and chasing the top of the paintbrush that I'm using!  As for Tim and I, we love to play our collection of musical instruments, play board games and spend time with our friends.

 

I've been drawing for years, but more and more frequently in the last couple of years.  In 2019 I decided to do something with my art and Inspired Joy began.   I puzzled over the name for my artwork for quite some time, with no success.  Once I stopped trying myself, and God gave me the name, ‘Inspired Joy’ one day.  I knew straight away that this was it, the name to put on all my artwork.

 

I looked at the dictionary definition for ‘inspired’ and it means

'of extraordinary quality, as if arising from some external impulse'

… and that’s where the designs come from… they are Inspired by God.

 

My pictures come from all sorts of places.  Sometimes I see a picture when I read the bible, sometimes it’s when I listen to songs, sometimes my notes from listening to a sermon are in the form of a picture or sometimes I have a particular verse that I would like to study.

 

When I get a picture, I try to scribble it down straight away so that I don’t forget it. Then begins the process of drawing, painting or writing it.  I try to seek God on every aspect of the piece of art work, such as whether it’s a painting or written piece and which materials and colours to use.

I don’t always get it quite right, but this is the start of my new journey!

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The God Of Comfort

This print features one of my most important verses from the bible.  It comes with a story to tell, a very personal story, but one that I would now like to share.  I’ve been drawing for a long time but until recently I’ve hidden my art away, because to me, each one tells a personal story and I like to hide away and not share what I’m going through.  Sometimes it feels like I’m opening up my diary for someone to read and that’s almost how it is with this verse.  The picture itself isn’t important, it’s the words that mean so much, so here is the story.

 

When I was 16 I had a bible that was divided up so that you could read the whole bible in a year  I wasn’t doing a particularly good job of reading it – in fact I’d barely read any at all.  Now comes the emotional part – when I was 16, my mum died very suddenly.  That night as I went to bed I picked up my bible and began to read the chapters for that day.  I only got a few verses in…here’s what it said:

 

2 Corinthians 1 v 3-4:

‘All praise to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the source of every mercy and the God who comforts us.  He can comfort us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others.’

 

That verse gave me so much comfort.  I almost felt like after a strange day of bewilderment at what had just happened, living in a daze, suddenly it made sense.  One day I would need to have been through this experience.  It didn’t mean the following days, months, years became easy, but I remember feeling a sense of purpose to this sudden extreme change to my life.

 

So here is a new print.  Hopefully you’ll use it remind yourself and others, that we have a God who knows all.  He knows the bigger picture.  He knows the purpose of why we go through the things that we do.  He is the source of our comfort.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Available to purchase here)