With the release of "The Essence of Spring" has come this greater understanding of my life this past year and what the series truly means to me.
I thought I knew what I was going to paint for this series from the beginning, flowers of course! Springtime----flowers. It just made perfect sense. As I started I decided to brainstorm ideas about what spring means, God had something to show me during this time of exploration and reflection. For one, spring is much more than flowers.
Season of Waiting
Spring is a time of renewal. The things we thought were dead and gone in the winter, were actually just in a season of waiting until spring returned.
This hit so close to home for me, because I feel like I have been in this season of waiting, since I graduated last May.
Waiting to find a job.
Waiting to grow up and move out of my parents house.
Waiting for Zach and I to get married.
Waiting for my business to take off.
Waiting for my "new life" to start.
Just waiting for all these things to happen!
Season of Spring
Now a year unto what I would call a season of winter, season of pruning, season of rejection, and season of waiting, I am slowly coming into a season of spring, season of new, and season I've waited for.
I still haven't found a job, but there are opportunities! Through my many job rejections this past year, I've learned that you just have to trust God through it all, because He is going to put you right where you need to be.
I am finally moving out of my parent's house after 24 years! Yay!
Zach and I are getting married in 2 weeks! We both have literally been waiting on this day since 2015!
I am steadily earning more and getting more opportunities every month with my business. That's all I could ever pray for!
I don't know why when I graduated college, I was so excited to start what I would call a "new life," which was basically life after college and married life with Zach. Now this has taken on whole new meaning. Zach and I got baptized together this year, and that is my "new life." Being made new through Jesus. Letting the old me go, and trying everyday to live renewed in Jesus. Sometimes the old me still wants to come back out, but I am trying to live a life that reflects this change in me. I am so blessed to be marrying a man who taken this same promise with me and will lead me through our marriage.
Throughout these season of waiting I can say its absolutely true what they say:
The longer you wait for something, the more you appreciate it when you get it. Because anything worth having is definitely worth waiting for.
This Series
"The Essence of Spring" is not just pretty colors on paper for me, it is a direct response to a season of waiting coming to an end and new season beginning. I wanted to capture on paper these feelings you get when you feel the warmth of the sun on your face for the first time since summer, when you see the trees starting to turn back green, when you see the first flowers blooming, and when you finally know for sure that spring is coming and winter is ending.
Just like these feelings that come and go on a whim, that is how this series came about----- on a whim. All of the paintings were made within 2 days. I painted them to rapidly and from the gut. Literally working 6 hours straight for 2 nights in a row. It was therapeutic for me in many ways, but most important it was so symbolic of how God pulls us out of any cold, barren winter season in an instance to show us that what we have been hoping and praying for is just a season away!
"My Kinda Spring"
Mixed Media on Paper
18x24 inches
$189.00
"The Essence of Spring" is available now on shelbyleighdesigns.com!
Thank you for reading!
Shelby Gilliland