Selling an original painting is like saying goodbye to a dear friend.  Recently I sold this oil pastel of a young girl we encountered while traveling from Burkina Faso to Niger back in 2005.  The buyer is a complete stranger from a far away state who came across the painting in my Etsy shop, but I was happy to hear that she had actually traveled to the region, and has a heart for the children of the area.  I feel that God used the internet and my artwork to connect us– two people who have never met, and probably never will.  A part of me, an intangible part that is colors and marks and feelings that are uniquely mine,  will dwell with her family now, blessing that family, I pray, as I was blessed to see the beauty and the image of God in the young girl at the border of Burkina Faso and Niger.