Past Work

Here’s my first radio interview regarding Happy Heart! It is wild to hear your own voice and exciting at the same time!

With getting orders of paintings and ornaments completed in time for Christmas, my studio area remained pretty messy! Not much time to clean-up after arriving home from my full-time work at Liberty University. I kept my supplies out so I could come home, sit down and begin painting. Anyway, as you can see from the […]

Matthew 1:21: She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” We are sinful. It’s a fact in the record of history called the Bible. Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, […]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CHILDREN: THE MESSAGE IN THEIR HEARTS New Children’s Book Brings Light To Children Learning To Plant The Word Of God In Their Hearts Lynchburg, VA – December 12, 2013  Liberty University Alumna, Michelle Marttila, releases her new children’s book, Happy Heart: Fill’er Up! Providing a resource for parents to help their children […]

BARN DOOR FRAME I just love reusing items and giving them new life! While looking for some Christmas decorations to jazz up my front porch table, I came across this old country blue barn door frame. It was just collecting dust in my garage and would be perfect for what I had in mind for […]

Since we are approaching the winter season, I decided to have my 1st – 3rd grade students work on sparkling snowflakes. With a little demo on what to do with lines & shapes each set off to design their snowflakes. They first used pencil to practice and come up with their snowflake designs. Then I […]

Our projects during this session was all about how special each and everyone of my students are in life. I wanted them to know that are wonderfully and uniquely created. The artwork focused on them and showcased their uniqueness (YOU-NIQUENESS)! Project 1: Be You-nique Word Art

Working on designs with my 1st – 3rd graders that incorporate the element of shape called the “dot”. So in keeping with this, we discussed pointillism art. I had the students look at artwork from Georges Seurat www.georgesseurat.org

New Release, November 2013 – “Happy Heart: Fill’er Up!” Happy Heart: Fill’er Up! is a unique story that takes the young reader on a quest to find lasting joy and peace. With engaging rhymes, children journey with Happy on his whirlwind search through games, activity, and gadgets galore for the true source to refuel his […]

As the cool air of fall approached, I decided to give my front porch a little boost of autumn tones to bring in the season! I love all things metal and I was thrilled to score this old bundt pan at a yardsale for pennies! Also, I grabbed a few other metal pieces that were […]

My first art show was birthed out of supporting a foundation my brother started to find a cure for childhood leukemia. My nephew, Eli Seth Matthews was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) in 2007. While he was undergoing treatment for the second time, I decided to sell what artwork I had on hand to […]