 | My name is Jodie Venter. I was born in California in 1984. However, if you were to ask where I was from I may not know how to respond. Life threw some hard curves of divorce, poverty, and close to homelessness. Which caused my family and I to move 8 times by the time I was 16 years old. Constantly moving and life in general became chaos at times. While in California, I lived in Pittsburgh, Brentwood, Red Bluff, Igo, and Redding. Then my family and I took a drastic leap and we decided to move all 7 of us to Oklahoma, site unseen. After 4 years of living in the middle of nowhere, my family (now with 8 of us) pulled out a map, randomly pointed to a state we had never been and within a month we moved to Oregon. Through it all, in my quiet moments, I knew I could create my own world and go to a safe place within myself just by pulling out a pencil and paper. At the age of 16 I began to go blind in one eye. Steadily more symptoms followed. I suffered from horrible body pain, migraines, a siezure, lost my ability to walk and eventually ended up bed ridden. With a possible diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis looming. My dream was to become a famous artist but with my body failing I almost accepted that my dream was only that....an unreachable dream. Thankfully I could not accept my physical circumstance. I had faith that God could heal me. I spent my time in prayer and watching OPB artists on tv. I learned a lot about the basic rules and principles of painting. I began to claim my healing, I had a vision from God telling me I wasn't finished and it wasn't my time to go. I clung to that. I knew that I wasn't created to lay helpless in bed and unable to draw or paint. Slowly through the years I have regained ALL my functions. I praise God for my healing and my giftings. I am now striving to show the world my calling. You would never know what I have been through by looking at me. There are no outword signs of my past. But I pray that through my art I will be able to express the emotion of where I have been and the joy of overcoming. Thank you for taking the time to stop by. I pray God's blessings for you today.
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