about me

My Goal

My goal with joyful heART photos is to create art that glorifies God and encourages and uplifts Christians in their day-to-day lives. The Bible says in several places that we should mediate daily on the Word of God. In our busy lives, it's easy to forget that, to get distracted, to fill our minds with other things. Displaying God's Word in our homes with art is an easy and beautiful way to help keep us focused on Him

My Testimony

I grew up going to church every week. My parents were always involved in one ministry or another, I went to a Christian school and to a Christian college. My Grandpa was a Baptist preacher and my dad started preaching when I was 15. But somehow I missed the truth of the Gospel for a long time. I knew John 3:16, Ephesians 2:8-9, Acts 16:31. I never doubted in my whole life that Jesus died on the cross for me, never thought for a moment that anything in the Bible was not true. I knew in my head that Jesus paid it all, there was nothing I could do to earn salvation, no "good works", no "asking Jesus in my heart". All I needed to do was believe on Him. But knowing it and actually accepting it for myself were two very different things.

For years, I don't think anyone knew that I wasn't saved. I was involved in everything at our church, I said all the right things. But God knew. And I knew. I don't have a big dramatic story, couldn't tell you the date I was saved, but I do know this: one evening, sitting at church, listening to a sermon, it just hit me. It was really all done, Jesus really died on the cross for ME, and it just became personal and I accepted the salvation that Jesus Christ had already paid for on a cruel cross. NOTHING I could do could EVER do anything to save me. I'm saved, not because of anything I did, but because of what Jesus did. If you have ANY questions about salvation, if I didn't explain myself well, PLEASE email me. I would love to talk to you about it.

My Photography Experience

I have loved taking photos for as long as I can remember. I spent weekends when I was a kid having makovers and photo shoots with my best friend. I took photos of my toys. I took photos of completely random things. My dad loved photography too, so I guess I probably got a lot of that from him! Then in 2000, when I was 19 and just didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, I took a photography class at a community college. That's when I fell in love with the art of photography. I learned how to take photos with manual exposure and manual focus and how to develop the film and print in a darkroom. I wouldn't trade that experience for the world! It was like magic, just putting a plain piece of paper in the developer bath and watching the image appear. I've switched to digital since then, so now I work in photoshop instead of a darkroom, but it still feels magical to me. So that's where my passion for photography began, and I have spent the last ten years learning and growing, and now focus on art, lifestyle portraits and weddings (to see more of my work, click here).