I, Kerstin Maxwell -an artist living in western Canada- will start this blog-journey by sharing some of the major things in my history which have led me to be who I am today.

If you stick with it you will truly get to know what drives and motivates me,
and as a result I HOPE TO INSPIRE YOU!

I grew up in the small town of Tidaholm, Sweden. Both of my parents provided for us. My father was a sales rep to farmers in the area and my mother worked as a caregiver for children. While I and my two sisters were younger she ran a day home. On Sundays we went to church as the Christian faith and tradition had been handed down for several generations.

By the time I was 12 I refused to attend church but eventually, two years later, I came to have my own personal conviction and became a very zealous evangelical Christian. In my teens I grew pretty tired of school and longed to travel and see the world. By the time I was 18 I graduated from Gymnasiet, with an equivalent of a Junior College degree in Commerce. I joined an interdenominational youth-mission and a summer turned into two years and then into another eight. By then I’d travel through or visited at least 18 countries.

I spent eight years in the sub-continent. I had come to understand very different cultures and
belief-systems while living on three different continents. I had also managed to fall in love, get
married and have two children. In 1994 my Canadian husband and I decided to leave missions
and settle in Calgary, Alberta. We lived there for 12 years before moving to the rural Town
community of Three Hills which we still call home.

Depending on your definition of Christian, I may or may not “fit”. I still believe…I still hang
on to Jesus as the one who showed us who God is. I still believe He is the Life-giver. I do
believe in his unconditional love, mercy and grace. Do I fully understand him – Life? Absolutely
not, but I hang on, because I can not Not do that. Life is definitely a faith-journey of trust and
“hanging on”.

A big part of this Journey started to include Art nine years ago. (I’m still finding my way to “my style” but loose, impressionistic, and fantasy with realism kind of fits). Which now has led me to
this blog…and whatever else is on the way, to that I say Yes! For if nothing else, life has taught
Kerstin Maxwell that living mindfully, passionately with intention, is the only way to live.

Are you feeling motivated/inspired yet?!?  Hang in here…and you will 🙂