The Thriving Christian Artist

From Pain to Purpose through Creative Healing: An Interview with Karen Bulbuk

• Matt Tommey: Artist, Best-Selling Author, Speaker, Entrepreneur and Artist Mentor

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In this heartfelt episode of The Thriving Christian Artist Podcast, I talk with multi-talented creative Karen Bulbuk, whose artistic journey has spanned fine art, graphic design, music, photography, and more. 

From her small-town Massachusetts roots to her current home in Michigan, Karen shares how her creativity has been a constant companion—even during seasons of caregiving, transition, and uncertainty.

We discuss the unique challenges of pursuing art alongside other life responsibilities, the powerful ways God has spoken to her about the purpose of her art, and how she’s learned to see creativity as a language for communicating His truth. Karen’s story will encourage any artist who’s felt “on the sidelines” to step back into their calling with renewed passion and vision.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • How a diverse creative background can enrich your artistic voice
  • Lessons from blending art with life’s changing seasons
  • Why creativity is a language for communicating God’s truth
  • Overcoming discouragement and finding encouragement in community
  • The importance of aligning your art with God’s purpose

🌟 Favorite Quotes from This Episode:

“Art is like a language… once you learn it, you can communicate God’s truth to people through visual images.” — Karen Bulbuk

 “So many artists tell me, ‘I was an artist… but then life happened,’ and yet God is still calling them back into that creative place.” — Matt Tommey


🌐 Connect with Karen Bulbuk: http://heartcreations.net

✅ Stay Connected & Grow as a Thriving Christian Artist:

Find out more about The Created to Thrive Foundations Course 

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Speaker 1:

All over the world, artists are awakening. Painters and potters, writers and weavers, poets and dancers not chasing followers or fame, but sons and daughters called for such a time as this, Transformed from the inside out, creating with purpose, releasing the glory of God and living in the power of the kingdom. Right now, this is the Thriving Christian Artist. Well, hey, friends, welcome back to the podcast. Super glad that you're here. You know so many artists that I meet over the years have told me Matt, I was an artist, I am an artist, but then this thing in my life happened and everything changed. Maybe they became a caregiver for a spouse or a family member. You know a friend, a child, and life just became different. And my guest today, Karen, who's not only a member of our mentoring program for a lot of years but just a great friend, great artist. She's got a lot of experience in walking through this. And, Karen, I'm so glad that you're here today because I just believe God's going to use this so powerfully. So, welcome to the podcast, so glad you're here.

Speaker 2:

Thank you so much, matt, and I really appreciate the opportunity to be on here, and I just hope that whatever I have to share will be an encouragement to some artists out there maybe, who are feeling discouraged.

Speaker 1:

So yeah, yeah, absolutely so, for those folks that are just kind of getting to know, you tell everybody what you do creatively, maybe where you are in the world, and then we'll kind of jump into a little bit of the backstory.

Speaker 2:

Are in the world and then we'll kind of jump into a little bit of the backstory. Well, I say my creative journey has been all over the map, both literally and figuratively. I've done a lot of different things and I've lived in different places. Currently I'm living in Michigan and I'm from a small town in Massachusetts and I've been a lot of other places. But artistically I've been a fine artist. I've always loved to draw. I've done graphite colored pencil, pastels, I've done watercolor painting and a little bit of acrylic and more recently I've done digital drawing and painting. And I was also trained as a graphic designer and worked as a graphic designer for a while. And I also am a musician. I play the flute and I play the guitar and I sing and I've been on worship teams in various places over the years and I've also done nature photography for about 20 years.

Speaker 1:

You're just one of those people that got extra, karen.

Speaker 2:

I mean come on right, I know, well, you know, I didn't realize until I became part of Created to Thrive that a lot of artists are like that.

Speaker 1:

They just have a lot of different areas that they're involved in.

Speaker 2:

So it was kind of like, oh, there's other people like that too. That's'm not weird, right yeah, right, so, um, anyway, that's those. That's basically kind of what I've done artistically. I, I, um, I've made. I did blank greeting cards and prints for a while, sold them. I made some books and a video with my nature photos and some of that.

Speaker 1:

So that's through the years that you always done your art as a hobby, or part-time, or full-time, or how has that that looked for you over the years?

Speaker 2:

It's been well. I started a business many years ago and, um, I didn't have you. I had no idea how to do it. It was really a very expensive hobby. It was not really a business, it was more of a hobby, but did it part-time.

Speaker 2:

I did some portrait commissions. So quite a few years ago I did a few portrait commissions and that sort of thing and I tried to start more of an art business but it never got off the ground. So it's been kind of on the side and I've been one of those people where I knew I was an artist and I even started out in college as an art major and it was in the early 70s and at that time the philosophy in the secular world regarding art was just not something I could get into.

Speaker 2:

I ended up dropping out of that and ended up getting a BA in psychology, and so I haven't really pursued the art as a real strong business, it's just been always kind of on the side. But God's given me some strong words about it, like he gave me at one point, showed me that art is like a language that you can communicate If you learn the skills of drawing and painting. It's like learning the grammar and syntax of a language, and once you learn it, you can communicate whatever you want. And that way you could communicate to people that you didn't even know their language, but you could communicate the truth, god's truth, to them through visual images. And I was like wow, I really want to learn how to do that. I didn't really know how to do it.

Speaker 2:

And then also at another time, he gave me a very specific word this was about 20 years ago or more about that I was going to be used in a studio with art and music and playing the flute and that people were going to be drawn to me and that guy was going to heal them and give back to them the art that had been robbed from them and stolen from them and everything and that. And that was like wow. But again I was like I don't know how this is going to happen. It just kind of went on the back burner and I've had life happened. You know many times life happened. Yeah, yeah, sure.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you know, and you know this because we talk to each other just on our group calls and that kind of stuff over the years.

Speaker 1:

But you, you hear people I think a lot get so discouraged when life happens and they think that if they're not in a situation where they're selling their art full time or doing shows every weekend or owning a gallery or something like that, that somehow they're not a real artist, and that's one of the things the enemy loves to discourage people with. But I mean you, as well as anybody, know that that's absolutely not true. I mean, I'm sure God's probably done a lot of deep work in your heart to get you to the place where, no matter what season I'm in, uh what I, what I do, does not define who I am. And so talk a little bit about that process, cause I know that, even though you've been an artist all these years, probably expectations of how that would uh look in your life and and the outflow of that, maybe the timing of things is is become very different than than what you may have thought it would years ago.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, I, I mean, I went to. I actually, um, I went to, I was part of YWAM with a mission for several years and I went through training schools and a couple other schools and then I was in Hawaii and I was like I really want to learn how to do this. What God told me you know, maybe they have a training program here for that. Well, they didn't. So I was like, ok, god, well, do you want me to pray something into existence? And so I started praying and they eventually had a school of graphic design. So I took that and worked in graphics. But that wasn't exactly what I wanted.

Speaker 2:

And then my supervisor came to me and said they wanted to do, um, a school of illustration. So I was really excited about that, like, yeah, I want to take that. And he, well, he wanted me to lead it. And I'm like I want to lead it, I want to take it. He said, well, you can. He wanted me to lead it. And I'm like I want to lead it, I want to take it. He said, well, you can take it too. And so I ended up administrating the school not teaching or anything administrating it and I was able to participate some, but not fully. But that led me to the point of realizing and feeling that the Lord was calling me to leave YWAM and go get more training in art. So I chose Art Center College of Design in California and I went there. And very expensive, very intense school. I worked for a year, did a term, ran out of money, worked two more years, did two more terms, ran out of money. I was very good.

Speaker 2:

The training was very good, but, um, I just anyway. And then that was when life started happening. Um, I ended up, um, becoming a single mom to a teenage foster daughter. Um, not anything I planned. I call it my unplanned spiritual pregnancy. It was a very intense season, and then after that, I ended up meeting. Well, towards the end of that, I ended up meeting someone who eventually became my husband, john, and we got married and he was called to Romania and he is full-blooded Romanian, and so we ended up being part-time missionaries to Romania for 10 years, like yo-yos, going back and forth every few months and being in Romania.

Speaker 1:

Excuse me, I was going to say we have so many commonalities because did you know that I taught at the School of Illustration at Kona?

Speaker 2:

I do. I saw that you were doing that and I was so excited. I'm like, yes, that is so crazy.

Speaker 1:

And then I actually went to Romania. Uh, what was this?

Speaker 2:

Probably four years ago five years ago we did a book.

Speaker 1:

Uh, I spoke at several churches over there in Romania and uh and uh flew into Budapest and then drove over to Romania. How cool we could visit for a long time on that, oh yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, um you know, all this art stuff just was kind of on the back burner, I mean.

Speaker 1:

I did.

Speaker 2:

I was on the worship team there and I did a few things while I was there, but you know it was not a major emphasis or anything. I did some photography and stuff, but or anything, I did some photography and stuff. And then we ended up coming back to the US in 2010 because my parents my dad had prostate cancer and he'd been caring for my mom who had dementia and some other things going on, and so we ended up moving in with them and taking care of them. My dad passed away and I took care of my mom 24-7 at home for three years and then, towards the end, well, I ended up having to put her in a facility for the last year, which was hard, but at that point my husband, john, was actually starting to show some signs of having some physical issues and just a little bit of cognitive decline starting to go on.

Speaker 2:

He he robbed the cradle. He's 19 and a half years older than I am, but anyway. So shortly after my mom passed away and we ended up moving here to Michigan because most of his family is here, and so we moved here and he began. He went into a you know, more of a decline and it's been a slow decline over all these years and for now, three. Tomorrow will be three years and three months he's been on hospice which is a really long time, but he

Speaker 2:

went from very slowly. He would have some sharper declines and then he'd kind of come to a new normal and then you know, like that. But he went from being a very strong, healthy, active athletic to where now he is totally bedridden, functionally, basically like a quadriplegic. He can't talk, he can't even nod his head or shake his head. Really in communication he has been doing a little bit more that. He had a downturn on Mother's Day and since then he hasn't really been able to talk or communicate and he has vascular dementia. And he knows who I am, thankfully.

Speaker 2:

But um but he, you know it still has the dementia and stuff. So it's it's been quite a roller coaster to say the least you know it's been a difficult time, but that's kind of where my life has gone.

Speaker 1:

So you know, I've just, I've watched you over the years. I've heard pieces and parts of of your story and that sort of thing and you are always filled with with joy and faith and you're like I'm just amazed, you know, I'll see um, cause sometimes like John will be on, I'll see John on the call, with you, right there, you know you're sitting by his bed listening and and that sort of thing, and I and I get off and I'm like Tanya, I'm like God bless, karen, I'm like man. You are just the fortitude and tenacity and perseverance that God has worked in you and to be so joyful. I mean I just think how many people would have given up or just put their art and their creativity to the side and they're like, for whatever reason I just can't do this right now Like I gotta, and nothing bad on that, it's just like.

Speaker 1:

You know, some people just, but like you in the middle of this, it seems like your creativity, because you've not ever allowed it to define who you are. The Lord has been able to sort of reinvent that with you to where that's now a real place of solace and joy and maybe outlet for you in the middle of of caregiving. So I guess, for all of those people that may find themselves out there with mom or dad or a child or a spouse that is going through something like this and they've maybe laid down their creativity, we'd just love to learn some of the things that you've learned and are learning. Because, guys, before we started, karen's like I don't want anybody to think that I've got it all together and I said, no, none of us do. It's like he's still working on me. Right, we're all in process, but you've learned some things along the way. So I mean, just, however the Lord leads you, we'd love to hear some of those things.

Speaker 2:

Sure, yeah. Well, you know, at the beginning, especially when my husband just before and when he went on hospice, I kind of had this attitude at first of I'm just putting my life on hold and I'm going to help him through this time and then I'll get back to my life whenever, you know Well, that can be appropriate if it's going to be a couple of weeks or a month or so. And, um, and especially at the beginning, when something like that happens, it's just overwhelming. I mean, I had been in CTT for a year and a half and then I dropped out because I was like I can't even do this right now and I'm paying for something I can't even use.

Speaker 2:

You know, so I did, I dropped out for like a year and a half and then I ended up coming back a year and a half later, you know. But but I realized after, when I realized that, you know, he's apparently not going anywhere right away, so I need to learn how to be a caregiver and have my life as well. And there there were several things that came into that. You know, even before he went on hospice, that he was starting to need more and more of my time and my attention, and I admit that for a while I kind of struggled with feelings of frustration and even resentment about that, because it's, like you know, um, I say at this point, taking care of someone in John's condition. It's like trying to live two people's lives with one person's time allotment.

Speaker 1:

Wow, not to mention energy and focus, and all that right, right, yeah, right.

Speaker 2:

So. But when I before we moved to Michigan and he was already starting to have some symptoms and a good friend of mine looked me in the eye and she said help him finish well, and that has just become like my mantra and I realized this is a sacred privilege that God has given me to help him through this time of transition, however long it may be, but it's helping him to transition from this life to the next and I want to help him finish well and it's a privilege to do this.

Speaker 2:

And you know, jesus said whatever you do to the least of these, you do to me. So I think of it that way. You know I'm serving the Lord and I say I would not do this for money right now but I would do it for love, for love for the.

Speaker 2:

Lord and love, love for John, you know, and so that's been part of it. And then I call it embracing the season. I had to embrace the season. I had to let go of that feelings of frustration, resentment, embrace it, say this is. I had to let go of that feelings of frustration, resentment, embrace it, say this is God's calling for me right now and this is a season and it's a good season and he has a reason and a purpose for it and you know you helped me with.

Speaker 2:

you're talking about the joyful spirit. Well before I even joined CTT I read at least part of I think it was yeah, healing the Heart. What's the artist?

Speaker 1:

Unlocking the Heart of the Artist. Unlocking the Heart of the Artist.

Speaker 2:

There you go and you talk about journaling gratitude journaling I think so. Well, I have journaled for many years and it was my prayer.

Speaker 2:

I would do it as a prayer to the Lord, but a lot of it was just like Lord, I'm this, I'm that, I don't know, you know all my issues going on and this is I'm having this problem and that problem and whatever, and just pouring my heart out to the Lord, which was good, but what I started doing after I read that was like I went okay, before I start doing that, I need to write at least three things that I'm grateful for in my journal. And I started doing that every time and at first it was hard. It was like okay, thank you for the sunshine today.

Speaker 1:

Lord, because my whole outlook.

Speaker 2:

Right, I mean I was just amazed at God is just doing so many amazing things and so many times, even in the midst of this situation. I just find my heart overflowing with joy at what God's doing you know he's done so much in so many things that have been amazing.

Speaker 1:

So that's so cool.

Speaker 2:

I'm just blessed yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know so many people, I think. Think as artists, we can tend to think about our art from a production standpoint, like I'm getting ready for a show or I'm trying to sell this or that or whatever. But I'd just be interested. I think people would love to know, like, how is your creative process shifted? Like, is it more for your personal enjoyment now? Um, and even, what does you know? Quote unquote studio time look like, because I know that you know you're. It's not like I'm going to go out to the studio for six hours. No, that's not a reality.

Speaker 2:

You know Exactly.

Speaker 1:

So what does that look like for you that's wanting to create on a regular basis but but had the very real time constraints of the season you're in?

Speaker 2:

Well, I had to definitely make some shifts. I mean, like I said, I like to do watercolor and pastels and stuff like that. I mean I cannot go in the studio and do that. I couldn't leave him to go do that. But I had an iPad and an Apple Pencil so I just started experimenting with that and they've really made an incredible amount of progress with that. And I mean, drawing with an Apple pencil on an iPad is almost exactly like drawing paper. It's so responsive and it's just amazing.

Speaker 2:

So I just started doing digital art and so my studio is wherever I am with my iPad.

Speaker 2:

I can sit next to my husband and draw or paint something, and I've done portrait commissions sitting next to my husband and I've also seen how. I just decided like, okay, lord, I can't like go out and do these things, like I don't even get to go to church because, you know, I don't want to ask somebody else to stay with him so I can go. So I watched the live stream but I thought, well, my flute had been sitting there unused, I hadn't been using my guitar much. So I decided, okay, lord, you gave me this word because when I started going to CTT, it convicted me I need to take this seriously and do what I can. There's things I can't do, but I'm going to do what I can do. I can't spend five hours in the studio, but I might spend 20 minutes. I can't go be on a worship team, but I can play my flute along with a live stream from my church and get my embouchure back in shape with nobody listening to me.

Speaker 2:

Our worship pastor has a worship time at his house, sometimes on Sunday nights, several nights a month, and I've been able to go about once a month to that and he lets me bring my flute and play along with him, and that's been a real blessing. I got my guitar restrung. I got my flute overhauled too, because it was in bad shape. So I got my guitar restrung. I got my flute overhauled too, because it was in bad shape, so got my guitar restrung and ready.

Speaker 2:

And then the we have a senior group in our church and they decided to start doing a service at a rehab center that's real close to our house, and so one of the ladies who was in our senior group said well, why, why don't I stay with John, and then Karen could go play the guitar for us? So that's what we've been doing, and so once or twice a month I'll do that. There's another couple that does it sometimes, but once or twice a month I'll go to this rehab center and lead the singing for a church service there. But I have a couple of neat stories about also how the art and the music have ministered to me in the midst of this situation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely so my husband ended up going to the hospital quite a lot. His bladder doesn't function properly and he wouldn't get UTIs and so I was in the hospital. I went to the ER with him. He had 103 degree fever and he's lying on this gurney and if you've been to ER I've been there a lot with other people it's a minimum four or five hours and often more. So you're just sitting there waiting for doctors to come and test results and everything. So I'm sitting there and I had on my iPad I had my iPad with me, no-transcript I set up an iPhone on my husband's bed, put some praise music on it and then I just took that thing out and I started coloring it and I was like I just felt so peaceful and so calm and, you know, in the midst of this situation and it was like, wow, this is cool you know, it really helps.

Speaker 2:

cool, you know it's really helps. And then I've also ended up. I did one of one of the portrait commissions that I got, which I am now doing on my iPad. I was sitting next to him in the ER and then in the hospital and then in rehab, just working on this portrait.

Speaker 2:

And um, but another um situation happened just a few weeks ago, maybe about four or five weeks ago. He had some fluid in his lungs and the nurse who had come was you know asked the doctor to get a prescription for diuretic, which he did, but it hadn't come yet and that evening, as I was getting him ready for bed, he was really struggling to breathe.

Speaker 2:

Ready for bed, he was really struggling to breathe and he was having his whole chest and abdomen were just heaving, you know, and I had oxygen on him cranked up, I was had the bed, him sitting up in the bed, and he was just and he's just staring at me and of course he can't talk, he can't communicate to me, but he's just staring at me and you know like well, I knew if I called hospice they're going to tell me to give him morphine.

Speaker 2:

I had already talked to him about that and he confirmed he didn't want to be taking morphine and I there is another anti-anxiety med I could give him, but I'm just not a real big fan of meds, if, unless it's absolutely necessary. So I said, okay, I'm going to go do something else. So I went and got my guitar, I sat down and I started singing some songs and then, after two or three songs, I started singing in the Spirit, which, singing in the Spirit, it's like allowing the Holy Spirit to pray through you, but in song, and I didn't know what I was singing or praying. But I said the Holy Spirit knows better how to pray than I do.

Speaker 2:

And so I just was praying and I'm just. Our eyes were locked on each other, you know, and I'm singing. I just sang nonstop for like an hour and I for a while there. At the beginning I thought maybe I'm just going to sing him right into glory right now. I thought, well, that would be a privilege.

Speaker 1:

What a way to go. Well, that didn't happen. But and then I thought, well, that would be a privilege, what a way to go right?

Speaker 2:

Well, that didn't happen. And then I thought, well, maybe I can sing him to sleep. Well, he didn't go to sleep. But after just a few minutes of singing in the spirit, his breathing started slowing down, started getting calmer and by the time I finished he was calm, he was peaceful and he hadn't fallen asleep. But he was definitely calm and peaceful, breathing at a normal rate, and it was just like wow, you know, and a little while later he did go to sleep and you know, he was fine. So that was just a really neat experience.

Speaker 2:

It felt like a real holy moment, like the Holy Spirit was there ministering through that.

Speaker 1:

Well, it's just such a beautiful example of allowing God to use our yes and our creativity. And not judging the outflow of that, but just saying Lord, in this moment, this is all I've got to give. I give this to you as my fish and loaves, right.

Speaker 1:

You're the one that's got to take this and just watch him use it. I just that's just so beautiful and I think for all of us, no matter where we are in our creative journey, if we would just allow the Lord to the freedom of just saying take this offering and use it however you want to use it and I'm going to see. You know, sometimes we like to put our hands on the outcomes, right? And I think, if we I just hear that, so much in you, I'm just.

Speaker 1:

I'm just, you know, I'm doing what I have time to do, I'm doing what I can do in the season that I'm in, and God's using that not only to minister to you, but minister to your husband and even to others, and that is that's living in the kingdom. I mean, that's just. That's so beautiful. Karen, I wonder what you would say to somebody who's maybe finds themselves in the same sort of situation that you're in, and maybe they've, I don't know. Just, with all the stuff, they've just felt like giving up. Maybe they have given up, or just they push their creativity to the side and just says well, it's just, it's not the time, I can't figure out how to make this work right now.

Speaker 1:

Or maybe they even feel guilty for wanting to do their creativity you know whatever creative expression because they feel like they should be, you know, focusing on the people that need it the most around them. How would you encourage them today?

Speaker 2:

Right? Well, you know, if God has given you a dream, don't allow circumstances or the enemy or anything else to destroy that within you. Just hold on to that and believe god. It's like we do what we can do and we you always say that just keep showing up and being obedient and do what you can do and, um, like you, you would say you know, learn how to pivot.

Speaker 2:

You have to learn how to pivot, you have to learn how to pivot. It's like maybe you can't do what you did before, maybe you can't do it the way you did it before, but instead of just saying, oh, I can't do this, say, god, do you want me to do this and, if so, how?

Speaker 2:

and what at this time and in this season and you know caregivers, it's always a struggle Like there's a balance between being a caregiver and self-care, taking care of yourself and if you don't take care of yourself, then you're not going to be able to take care of the one that you love. And I have to preach that to myself because I know.

Speaker 1:

All the time right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and sometimes I do kind of feel guilty about, um, you know, taking time to do things, but I know I need that because if you're an artist, doing art, whatever or whatever your creative outlet is, is part of self-care.

Speaker 2:

if you don't do that, you shrivel up and die inside yeah and you become frustrated and you become irritable and you can't be the best for your loved one. And so taking the time to do that is really vital, and there are ways to do it that God can show you. And one important thing is don't try to do it all by yourself. You can't do it all on your own. First of all, of course, you need the Lord and you need His grace and you need His strength and you need His wisdom. But there's also other help out there. You need people, a team, a support team around you, and if you don't have that, naturally there are ways to do that. I am so blessed because John's family they're not my biological family, but they've been so loving and accepting of me and so supportive and helpful. I have a wonderful church, family, hospice staff, just have a wonderful support group that has helped me, and there's no way I could have done this without all of them.

Speaker 2:

And if you don't have that? I know everyone's family isn't like that and you may not have that kind of support, but there is so much online now that you can do. There's a website called Ageways and I believe it's in several states I don't know if it's in all the states, but they have caregiver coaches actually, and I got a caregiver coach several years ago that I would just talk with on the phone.

Speaker 2:

There's different ways they can help you out, but she sent me emails and information and we talk on the phone and she has helped me find ways to get some grants for paying for respite care, and so there are things out there, but you have to look for it. And I mean there's times and there's days and, like I said, especially at first, when it's so overwhelming when you may not be able to do anything, and that's okay.

Speaker 2:

To learn, to give yourself grace in the midst of this situation but eventually there, there needs to be a time when you do take that time to and find a way, and find a support team and a way to do it.

Speaker 1:

And it.

Speaker 2:

It just makes a huge difference. It's kind of like when you go on the airplane and they say, if the oxygen mask comes down, put on your own first before you put on someone else. And you have to do that. You have to be able to take care of yourself and do that. Otherwise you'll just burn out and you won't be good for them or yourself.

Speaker 1:

In fact.

Speaker 2:

I had to learn that from my dad. My dad was taking care of my mom for six years by himself and he would not let anybody help him because nobody would do things the way he wanted them done. And I'm a lot like my dad.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And he burned himself out. He died four years before she did, and so I'm trying to learn from his mistake.

Speaker 1:

That's right. That's right. Take it in the rhythm the Lord has. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, it's just really important that you do feed your soul and your spirit and do that. And you know, one thing I ended up doing a friend mentioned it to me and it has been so good. I got this little spy camera. I call it. It's a security camera, just a little security camera, and I hitch it up. It connects to the internet. I have an app on my phone and I can put that on John. I can see him, I can hear him and I can even push a button and speak to him. When I'm out, I can go out on a walk, you know. So I'm not because I felt like I was on house arrest. You know, this gives me an opportunity to go out for a walk and be able to see him and hear him and even talk to him while I'm out.

Speaker 2:

And so I've been able to do some photo walks, which for me is a real life giving thing.

Speaker 1:

So just making it work. Making it work.

Speaker 2:

I love it Well.

Speaker 1:

Karen, what a joy to have you on, and I know that those that are in this situation or make be anticipating this situation in their life. I know they've gotten a lot of encouragement from you today, so I know folks may want to find out about your artwork and about all that you're you're doing still creatively. So I know folks may want to find out about your artwork and about all that you're you're doing still creatively. So where's the best place they can connect with you online? Your website, maybe social media?

Speaker 2:

Well, my website is art creations. That's h? E a r t c r e aO-N-S dot net.

Speaker 1:

Okay.

Speaker 2:

And I don't have actually a Facebook business page at this point, just a personal one. But I do have a YouTube channel. It's under Karen S Bullbook and, if you don't remember my website name, if you search Karen S Bullbook, it will come up with my website, because there aren't too many of us, although there is another one close by.

Speaker 1:

How funny, that's great.

Speaker 2:

My husband's daughter-in-law.

Speaker 1:

So I call her the original Karen Bulbock. That's right. Well, karen, again, thank you so much. What a joy to hear your story and I know folks have been really encouraged by it. So thanks so much for being on the show today. Thank you, matt, I appreciate the opportunity, god bless. Hey, my friend, before you go, make sure that you're signed up for the Thriving Christian Artist Weekly. It's my free newsletter, full of spiritual encouragement, creative inspiration and practical tips to help you thrive in everything that God's called you to do as an artist in his kingdom. Every issue is absolutely free and it includes the latest podcast episode, featured artist spotlights, a worship song of the week and, again, tons of tips and encouragement and inspiration for you to keep you inspired and encouraged in everything that God's got for you as an artist in the kingdom. You can click the link right here in the show notes to join us, and it's a great way to stay connected. All right, love you. Bye.