Jimmy Abegg
I was born and raised in western Nebraska. Although many would find little to love about the flat Nebraska landscape, it shaped me artistically and taught me to see beauty in simple things. For me, the high prairie grass, big open skies and The Sandhills are striking and unforgettable.
I fell in love with making art at age five and making music at age six. In each instance, it was obvious to me what I was made to do, as I quickly excelled past everyone else around me.
As a young, creative, free spirit living in an arguably boring area of the country, my love of making music and art where coupled to a sense of carefree adventure.
As a teenager my friends and I hopped freight trains. With not a care in the world, we would ride for hours and sometimes find ourselves hundreds of miles from home, with no thought given to how we would make it back home. I also hitchhiked routinely, once making it all the way to the Pacific Ocean. Although I didn’t stay there at the time, I knew I would be back someday.
As luck would have it, my family left western Nebraska for Denver, Colorado in 1971 and then onto to California in 1973. There I studied art and music at American River College and then Sierra College.
In 1989, a career in music led me and my young family to Nashville, Tennessee.
Today, we still call nashville home and I am proud to say that the years have been generous and full. I have been given so many opportunities to provide for my family and care for others while creating things I love. Be it, playing music on the road, recording in the studio, making fine art, showing in galleries, designing record packaging, photographing musicians, writing music, or mentoring others on all of the above; my life of creativity has explored many mediums.
Over the past couple of years, macular degeneration has taken away the majority of my sight. You can hear all about that in my conversation with John Thompson on the True Tunes Podcast (Listen Here). The good news is, I can still make art and plan to do so for a long time. In fact, some of my favorite pieces have been created during this time. I also have a lot of extra time on my hands now that I don’t have to worry about driving or operating a computer…
For a limited time, anyone who sponsors a child through this page (or Jimmy’s direct link) will receive a personally signed, one-of-a-kind, hand-painted print by Jimmy Abegg once their second month of sponsorship has been completed.
“I’m so excited about the idea of helping kids in need,” Jimmy says. “This has long been a passion of mine. I can remember many occasions from my years with Rich Mullins where we able to raise funds to build a school in Ecuador – to traveling with Michael W. Smith and Randy Stonehill to visit sponsored children in various countries. My wife and I have been child sponsors since before we were married. I can tell you that for more than 43 years this has been one of the main things in our lives. One of the ways I think I can help is to offer a print, free of charge, to anybody that wants to sponsor a kid. I think it’s an amazing opportunity to join the freight train heading for goodness. So get on board, let’s get this thing rolling!”
These prints are valued at between $100 and $150 so Vision Trust greatly appreciates this generous offer from Jimmy.
“Thank you to Vision Trust,” Jimmy continues. “Thank you for having the vision to sign up a blind man!”
