Ana Maria Balmaceda is a Chilean painter. She met St Josemaria in Santiago de Chile in 1974. She learned from him to fill her work with faith, to "blaze a trail to God through colors." "Keeping on painting when I don't feel like it.... that's my sanctification," she explains.

I met St Josemaria one rainy afternoon.
It was the first gathering he had
when he arrived in Chile, or the first with women.
I'd been invited to the gathering with women.
At the last minute I was told not to go.
But I went anyway. I was expecting a baby,
it was due a few days later, and I said, if I don't go now
I may never meet him, and I'd been looking forward to it.
So I smartened myself up a bit, and went.
Come forward, my daughter, take care.
She's very brave!
She's expecting a baby, and yet she comes here.
You could see his strength and at the same time,
his naturalness, his joy, it was great.
He was so strong -- his hands, his eyes, the way he spoke.
St Josemaria has obtained several favors for me... several.
There's a book I find very moving: Furrow.
The title itself is moving, because that's it: blazing a trail or following the trail,
there's a furrow, there's a way forward.
I seek God through colors, through shapes,
through what I'm saying in my paintings.
Now where I find God most is in nature;
in the sea, in the forests.
St Josemaria helps me to paint,
helps me keep going. He helps me a lot.
That keeping going, painting whether I feel like it or not, that's my sanctification.