Katy Rose Collection: Art, Words
How To Give the Gift of a Memory (Custom Sketches Now Open!)
A few years before my grandfather died, he offered to pay willing grandchildren to research our family tree. I was assigned the branch of my great-grandmother and quickly became addicted to the project. After a year or so I presented to my grandfather the compiled information, all bound in a nice album. What a great memory – sitting with him, flipping through the fascinating stories and photos.
As you might imagine, the research brought up all kinds of interesting things, and like every family line, we’ve got the good and the bad. Included among those were an author of the United States Constitution, the first Supreme Court Justice, and a U.S. President from the last 15 years. We had struggling orphans, indomitable Red Cross volunteers, sailors, lawyers, and musicians.
The common thread is our blood relation to an indentured servant from France.
In the early 1600’s, French Protestants faced severe persecution and this ancestor of mine, a French Huguenot (Protestant) in his mid-twenties, had to get out. He became an indentured servant, allowing him to gain passage to the British Colony of Maryland.
After his indentured seven years ended, he was eventually able to buy land, naming it after his home village in France. And last week I stood there, back in that little French town where he was born to Nicola and Thomas close to 400 years ago.
My relatives still live in Maryland after all these years, but it was my grandfather who migrated west to follow the girl he loved after fighting in WWII. They married in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
How brilliant was it of him to get his grandchildren on board this way? All of us who participated feel a deep connection with the information now, which I’m sure was his hope.
I sketched this little street from the town for my parents, and have it available as a digital download in my shop. Just purchase, print, and pop into a frame for a little reminder to history, family, and connecting to the stories that shape us.
Plus, check available spots below if you’d like to commission your own drawing!
Custom Sketch Booking
the Coastal Print Collection - Coming October 5th!
COASTAL PRINT COLLECTION
releasing October 5, 2023
I’m so delighted to offer this collection in prints. These oil paintings were originally released two years ago as the Sea Hymn collection, inspired by the East Coast of the United States, as well as moving lyrics from hymns that point to God’s faithfulness in the midst of our stormy seas.
To accompany the new prints, I’ve also selected additional prints from my current shop that would coordinate beautifully for a gallery wall, or simply within the same room. Below are a few ideas.
Thank you for your kind and generous support. See you Thursday!
Lessons from the Sea: How to Move from Depleted to Full
Depleted to Full
We’re currently staying in a little cove that looks out at the sea. Once a day at low tide the cove is completely drained, water pulled out into the ocean, muddy, pocked sand exposed.
Our little cove cannot try and wish with all its might to be filled again, but it’s the ocean that comes and refills it till waves return, lapping up on our rocks. The seals and crabs swim back in.
I’ve seen that drained cove everyday and oh how I know the feeling, depleted and empty. It’s only with the power of another that it’s filled.
That is how I have come to know true strength over the last years of depletion and weakness. I’ve found the strength that sustains comes when I’m dependent and surrendered to the external power- that ocean of love that fills me up more fully and truly than any amount of willpower or self-reliance.
I don’t have what it takes to conjure up the kind of strength I need to perform the work before me with patience and love and grace, but when I’m weak that’s when God’s strength moves faithfully in full force and fills again.
(above from a 2021 journal)
Verses for Peace
Scripture has sustained me through particularly tumultuous seasons. Focused time early in the quiet morning has been vital. I truly believe staying daily rooted in God’s Word is the key to living my very best, most fulfilling days. Here are a few verses that have been constant companions during those trying seasons:
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid. John 14:27
…we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Romans 5: 3-5
Your unfailing love, O LORD, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, Your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O LORD. How precious is Your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of Your wings. Psalm 36:5-7
I will never forget this awful time, as I grieve over my loss. Yet I still dare to hope when I remember this: The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each morning. Lamentations 3:20-23
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7
In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4:8
“...I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” John 16:33
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:3-5
Click Image To save PDF
all art by Katy Rose