"Inspired by Mercy"

By Amanda Patrick

Jan. 12 - Feb. 28, 2025

“Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” Psalm 23:6

Inspired by Mercy traces the role of mercy in my life, from my years working with Mercy Ships in Africa, time spent at Mercy by the Sea, and all the many moments of experiencing God’s mercy in between.

Mercy has so many layers of meaning—forgiveness, steadfast loyalty, and even thankfulness, with its root in the French word, merci. It is the common theme in all of my art. All the photographs were taken around the grounds of Mercy by the Sea, which are a constant source of inspiration.

I have loved art as long as I can remember, drawing prolifically as a child, and continuing to journal my thoughts in art over the years, particularly as it relates to my faith. On my global travels, I developed a strength in the use of colored pencils, partly because of the ease of transporting them around, often to very remote areas in Africa, but the medium also satisfies my love of color, precision, and detail. My work has always been expressive, colorful, and strongly symbolic, with calligraphic and typographic elements. 

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About the Artist

Amanda grew up in the Yorkshire Dales in the north of England, a rural area that boasts some of the most beautiful scenery in the world. Green rolling hills, sheep, farms, hiking trails, and country pubs abound.  

After completing her university studies in art history and theology at Leeds and Cambridge Universities, she left England to travel to Africa, where she spent the first part of her career working with two non-profit organizations. With Mercy Ships she lived on board a hospital ship called The Anastasis where she led a Bible school for adults and took small teams to remote areas of Africa to live and work for 2-3 months at a time. The nations she visited during these five years included Sierra Leone, Senegal, Togo, Benin, South Africa, Madagascar, and Lesotho, as well as the non-African nations of Haiti, Israel, and Albania. She was then the regional director for Southern Africa for Community Bible Study International for two years, working in South Africa, Namibia, and Malawi.

After leaving Africa, Amanda moved to the United States where she has lived and worked for the last twenty-four years. For almost twenty of those years she has been a communications director at Yale University for multiple departments. She also worked for almost two years as communications director for Mercy by the Sea. 

While working full-time at Yale, Amanda completed a master’s degree in international affairs, specializing in Africa. With the help of a Fulbright scholarship, she was able to spend a summer in Ghana, West Africa, working on her thesis about the cultural significance of Kente cloth (of Ghana and Togo) and mud cloth (of Mauritania). 

Amanda is currently head of communications for the Yale Institute of Sacred Music and is also a doctoral candidate in international relations at Salve Regina University, writing her thesis on the impact of China’s Maritime Silk Road Initiative in Africa. 

Amanda has loved drawing and painting as long as she can remember, drawing prolifically as a child and continuing to journal her thoughts in art over the years, particularly as it relates to her faith. She has developed a strength in the use of colored pencils, partly because of the ease of transporting them around, often to very remote areas in Africa. Her art is full of color and expression, intertwining words and symbolism that reflect the values Amanda holds dear, such as faith, diversity, and justice, all of which are without borders. She is constantly inspired by the wonders of nature and the enduring richness and relevance of sacred words, especially from The Bible. 

Amanda’s website is www.illustrationwithoutborders.com