My love for photography began when I received my first camera from my parents when I was in grammar school. I captured many special moments with that camera that I have treasured over the years, such as pictures with my friends on graduation day, pictures at my senior prom, and so many other meaningful moments that you want to capture and never forget.
After I got married my love for photography continued to grow, especially when I went to Florida for the first time. I remember standing in awe at the beauty of the ocean and the sun rising and setting over the ocean, as well! Because of that I got up very early every morning while I was there in order to capture the beauty of the sun as it first began to rise over the ocean and hews of pink and gold spread across the sky for a few brief moments before the sun rose high in the sky .
When my precious daughter was born I took many pictures in order to capture those special moments as she grew so quickly: pulling herself up in bed for the first time, taking her first steps, and so much more! As she continued to grow I enjoyed taking candid pictures of her staring at a flower or when I caught her lost in thought as I waited for that special picturesque moment.
After my sweet son was born I continued capturing those first time precious moments in his life and those adorable and silly pictures that you must be ready for at a moment’s notice in order to capture and treasure for a lifetime.
When we went to California ten years later, I began to get more creative and took silhouette pictures of my daughter and son by the ocean as the sun was beginning to set. Babysitting jobs and a full time job that followed filled up the days and years after that, until 2008 when I purchased a little Samsung point and shoot, and my love for photography was renewed.
Now that my children are grown and on their own, and I have had a Sony A6000 since December of 2016, my desire is to learn how to take high quality pictures and to one day become a professional photographer. Since I am a Christian and my desire is to not only glorify God through what I write, but also to glorify God and to reflect the beauty of His creation through my photography as well as my artwork, the title that I chose for my site here on WordPress is ‘Reflecting His Glory (Fine Arts)’ based on 2 Corinthians 3:18 and 1 Corinthians 10:41.
I will be adding Scriptures to many of my photographs as well, so if these are the types of pictures you are looking for you will find many of them here. You can also expect to find pictures that focus on Landscape Photography, Macro Photography, Reflective Photography, flowers, butterflies, pictures of the moon in the day and evening sky, and more.
Here is my updated >ARTIST STATEMENT< if you’d like to read it. 🙂
I would like to share with you how my acrylic art journey came about, which was because of the strong encouragement given to me my dear sister, Noreen, whom we affectionately called, ‘Bunny.’ She was always encouraging me to do something with my photography. At that point I had never considered doing art fairs, and I hadn’t even begun to paint at that point in my life, either! You see, my dear sister was going through kidney dialysis because the pharmicist at Walgreens had given her the wrong medication which not only caused her to lose her precious baby girl during the last few months of her pregnancy, but also it destroyed her kidneys. When she was having dialysis I began to send her some videos of swans because she loved them and enjoyed going to Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg, IL, which is a beautiful park where they also have two swans –Louis and Serena. It gave her great joy to go and sit in the beautiful, peaceful surroundings at Prairie Center where she deeply enjoyed visiting the swans. She went there so often that the swans began to trust her, and she was able to get quite close to them, but she never tried to pet them; she respected the fact that they were wild, but beautiful creatures.
One particular day, as I was on YouTube looking for a swan video to send to my dear sister during her dialysis treatments, I happened to see a video of how to paint a swan. From that point on, YouTube began to recommend other painting videos to me, but I still did not start painting. That was back in 2020. Sadly, my dear sister died in January of 2021. In August of 2021 was when I decided to try paint pouring art after being intrigued at watching the process during some YouTube videos. 2022 I decided to start applying to art fairs in order to honor her request of ‘doing something with my photography,’ and was first accepted to take part in Arlington Heights Art Guild’s Art Fair, ‘A Walk in the Park.’ It brought bittersweet tears to my eyes to be able to fulfill her request as I displayed some of my nature photography, besides some of my acrylic artwork!
So, as you can now see, I owe it all to the encouragement of my dear sister, Noreen/Bunny, for the privilege of being able to take part in the many art fairs that I have been blessed to have taken part in thus far!
If you live in the Chicago area and would like to come to my art fairs to purchase some of my artwork, here is the link to the page on which I post all of the places where my art will be on display and available for purchase:
ART FAIR SCHEDULE 2025Â AND TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS
Thank you very much for stopping by! I hope that you will enjoy viewing the many photos that I will be presenting to you here on WordPress and I hope you will also visit me at some of my art fairs and my shop on REDBUBBLE!
Mary/Reflecting His Glory Fine Arts – Photography and Acrylic Art
Reflecting the beauty of God’s creation through natural and creative photography styles and inspirational acrylic fluid artwork.
“And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into His likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)
“…whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:41)