Story Behind the Art
Be Thou My Vision
 
There are hymns that feel less like songs and more like a re-centering of the soul. Be Thou My Vision is one of those for me. It came to mind as I was working on New Year's goals and my "Word of the Year." I was hammering out  a priority list and weekly schedule, and this song brought me the focus I was looking for.
 
Maybe you can relate.
 
It is an old prayer—stripped of excess, honest in its asking: be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Not just guidance for what is ahead, but clarity for how to see what is already here. That distinction matters more than we often realize. So much of life becomes noise—urgency, comparison, fear of missing what matters—until we no longer trust our own sight.
 
This painting came out of that tension.
 
I wasn’t only thinking about direction, but about distortion—how easily our vision of life, calling, even joy, can become clouded. I kept returning to the idea that clarity is not something we manufacture through striving, but something we receive when we quiet enough to let truth rise again.
 
As I worked, I thought about what it means to see through love instead of fear. To see my work, my family, my ordinary days not as scattered fragments, but as something held together by grace. Not perfected—never that—but held.
 
The painting became less about illustrating the hymn and more about living inside its request. A daily reorientation: Let what is true become what I see most clearly.
In that sense, it is not a finished prayer, but a practiced one.
 
Be Thou My Vision is a reminder that vision is not only about what we look at, but what we allow to shape the way we see everything else.
 
This 16x20 framed canvas has the familiar coastal colors, textural elements and floral theme that I am most comfortable with- and this piece creates a visual reprieve in the "Grief to Joy" Collection. Look closely and you'll notice the center of the flower hints to the "eye" or vision that we long for. Also, the hymn, Be Thou My Vision is found among the upper left flower petals. 
 
"Be Thou My Vision"
Mixed Media, Medium, Acrylic
16x20 Framed (2 in. deep)
Comes with Certificate of Authenticity