There are days I love being an artist: those mornings when I disappear into my laundry room/studio and get lost in paint. I forget to eat and lose all track of time. My soul is renewed in a place of wonder and possibility, and it splashes over into renewed strength for the trials and challenges…Read more The Experience of Being An Artist
calling
Painting and Listening
In the last few months I traveled halfway around the world. The trip was like a rock dropped in a lake, and I'm flowing out in the ripples. Opportunities to share the story of Sanctuary of Hope and Pamba Toto abound. I'm swimming hard to keep up. Amidst it all, my children, home on summer break…Read more Painting and Listening
The Power of a Single Flame
What began as a tiny subversive flame in a single heart now rages across the world. First, though, there was a choice: remain in the comfort and familiarity of a religious life, or cast her lot into the teeming chaos of impoverished streets beyond. The flame burned too hot to keep. She quietly shut the…Read more The Power of a Single Flame
Prophetic Art
“Art is the language of the soul.” With these words, one of my lifelong friends exhorted me as I wrestled for years with an insatiable need to express myself visually. For decades I tried to suppress this language, feeling it could not urgently or adequately address the evils I witnessed in the world. It felt…Read more Prophetic Art
Redemptive Art
I wandered for many years, searching for the space where art, social justice, and faith interweave. For decades, I felt that art and social justice were separate compartments of my life; and I could not find overlap. I painted here and there, but focused the bulk of my energy on the urgent social justice issue of…Read more Redemptive Art
New Things I Declare
I tried, I really tried. Inspired by the beautiful traditional watercolors exhibited at the 2014 Sunny Vista Art Show in Colorado Springs and by some brilliantly-hued tulips, I tried to paint slowly, intentionally and in a sort-of-traditional style. I couldn't completely control my spontaneous bursts of energy, so I knew I wasn't going to fully succeed…Read more New Things I Declare
Never the Same – How Pamba Toto Began
We’ve never been the same after just a few short weeks in the summer of 2002. I led a team of six college and two high school students in serving at the Mother Teresa Home for Abandoned Children in Nairobi as part of the InterVarsity Kenya Global Project, directed by my good friends Brian and…Read more Never the Same – How Pamba Toto Began
Abide Persistently
Artist’s statement: I feel a bit like a schizophrenic root system. Each day unfolds, a chaotic sprawl, too many off-shoots to identify a specific direction. Knee deep in the soil of life, a tangle of knots and kinks, I have no idea what is emerging above-ground. Sometimes I just can’t see where I am going.…Read more Abide Persistently
Risk
After two weeks of frigid winds and temperatures plummeting below zero-degrees Fahrenheit, at last the sun again extended its regal hand of mercy to Colorado. Eagerly I wheeled my bike out of hibernation into crisp, clear, tolerably cold air. Halfway through the ride, my spirit soared in wonder. I stumbled on the route not long before…Read more Risk
Holy Ground
Bushes still burn today without being consumed. I feel the flames in dark corners of the world where people suffer - the Spirit of God brooding, fierce with unquenchable yearning to gather His little ones into His arms. I can only fall to my knees in humble adoration, let the fire overtake my being. And…Read more Holy Ground
Colleen Briggs Art & Writing 