I’m not very gifted at culling photographs. I took so many, but I’m going to share just a few. Yes this is just a few compared to all the ones I took.

Yes, they are all very similar. I still love each one I chose for a different reason.

This trip the other night was a much needed trip back to nature. It was magical and special and I learned a lot on the mountain that night with this sunset and in the dark afterwards. If you think these are just another set of pics online to brag about where I’ve been or about what I’ve done, you probably don’t know me or who I am and you may not want to read any more if you don’t care. I am an empath (a Christian empath for those that might be afraid of the word) (I just figured this out today after fasting for exactly 66 hours and not a minute longer a few days ago) who paints and cares and shares the lessons I learn from painting and in nature, to connect and to hopefully give hope and joy and beauty to people through what I do! I paint because I like it and because I have a degree in art history and it is just nice to be on the other side. I paint because it helps me handle all of the pain and hurt I see and feel in the world. Painting is worshipful and therapeutic and prayerful for me. My paintings are abstract because I did my time learning and recreating what God has already done. My paintings are abstract prayers and songs and poems. They are stories and lyrics and words of encouragement I wish I could say. I just use paint when words don’t do the trick or when I know that colors and paint would say it better and clearer and might just be “heard” better and because sometimes for an empath like me, it is just much easier than saying words at all. I use words and photographs too sometimes. That is why this studio website has this blog feature, as well. I made it private the other day thinking that it would be best because so many people I long to connect with or the one’s I long to want to get to know me better or to understand me more weren’t reading it or the ones that were reading weren’t acknowledging that they had read it. I knew that that reaction was centered and focused on me. I understood that. I have since realized that some people do read it and the hard things I feel that I need to say just need to be said and whether or not people like what I paint or like what I do or what I say can no longer determine whether I do what I was born to do. No one would ever tell someone born to be a doctor to not be a doctor or for a teacher not to teach. Why should I let the actions of others make me doubt if I should do what I was born to do? So, I’m going to keep doing me and being the empath painter that I am. And I know myself well enough to put these words together now. They matter and they go together. And they are what give me the motivation and clarity and purpose to keep going whether anyone reads my words or buys my paintings or writes a comment. I gotta do what I gotta do. I changed the name of the page like a restaurant changes its name or like a company rebrands. This painting thing never came into my life to make Mandy Miller a famous artist. It has always had a bigger purpose. I understand that completely now. I was just reminded of a dream long ago that I have documented and a whole album on my computer of pictures of the craziest collection of baby e’s and a collection of puzzle pieces that have continued to lead me along on a journey that has looked weird and wild and crazy to a disconnected onlooker, but that have kept guiding and leading me to follow my passions and to use my gifts the way they were always meant to be used. The new name for the site is the '“e” Path studio (“The ‘e’mpath Studio”). I actually renamed it the “e”mpath Studio, but the computer would not let me type it that way. I think that is because it always has been all about the ‘e’s and the puzzle pieces and the journey has always felt like a path following someone and these things were my breadcrumbs and I was meant to be reminded of that. And I have to point out that empath does start with an ”e” and paths are one of my favorite things to photograph. Maybe just maybe the “e”s had a purpose. And maybe I was following God and Holy Spirit. I’m being funny here. I’ve always known they did and I have always known I was. It was what always kept me going. My faithful parents and a precious 23 year old girl, that is not even related to me, and my loving grace-filled husband have encouraged me to keep doing what I’ve been doing ‘cause they will keep reading and appreciating what I share and they know like me, it is what I’m meant to do. And the truth is even if they didn’t, for the first time ever, I know and accept myself for who I am, for the gifts I have, and for the unique way I see and express myself in this world and I’m going to confidently keep on doing it and posting it on here. Here’s to a new chapter!