Strength Through Art Journaling

on

The past week has been full of a personal challenge. I began to wonder if I’d be able to handle it. Thank heavens for art journaling! Instead of staying in my head & letting that inner critic loose I chose to process it through art. That’s why my character has no head – since that is where my inner critic resides. I am standing on my resolve while the wings represent my personal power and strength. That strength protects me from the rain, rain that comes from the challenges of life.

The base of this page was leftovers. Papers I die cut were glued down. When I was painting anohter die cut I used this page to catch the excess paint. At this point no idea what it will be. It just gets color and texture on the page.

A layer of gesso to unify the background & bring out the textures.

Using a dry-ish brush, added colors.

Added the diamond stencil & the wings. The wing stencil was made using a Tim Holtz die cut.

Added the die cut of a dress form & raindrops using a stencil from Balzer Designs. The yellow I used did not show up the way I wanted so I outlined some with orange paint.

Used Portfolio Crayons to write the word resolve. I wrote it then used my finger to smudge it. Those crayons smudge spectacularly!

Added the words to the wings with white paint.

{ 9 comments }

Snow White Whistled To Me

on

The background started as a painted background. I went over it with watercolors and let that dry. When I used gesso with the stencil the watercolors mixed to create very soft shades.

Needing some inspiration where to take the stencil next I searched my rub ons. The birds screamed at me to be used.

Once I added the musical notes I began to think of Snow White and all the little birds that were her dear friends.

A quote from a song Snow White sang finished this journal page. Perhaps I was drawn to birds and bright colors to counteract this winter thing here…

{ 16 comments }

What If My Dog Had An Inner Critic?

on

I was tossing sticks for my dog to fetch when I realized I want to be like him. Not furry and not 4 legged, but his attitude. I tossed branches after a wind storm, he chased and chewed.

I tossed sticks that were so much larger than he could drag back. Not a problem for him, he just found a smaller part and started chewing away. He really likes to chew, hence his name, Chewie. After a while the huge sticks became medium sized sticks, like the one in the photo. That one he could drag to his favorite place in the yard. I don’t think he has an inner critic. If he did, he would act very differently.

When I tossed the huge tree branch if he had an inner critic saying, “That is too big for you to get. You can’t do that, ” he never would have chased it and never broken it down to more manageable sticks.

When I throw 2 sticks at once if he had an inner critic saying, “Be sure to pick the perfect one, you don’t want to make a mistake,” he would just look at both sticks and never pick any up.

When I throw a stick and he can’t find it if he had an inner critic saying, “See, you can’t do it. You blew it. You took your eyes off the stick and now it is gone forever,” he would not want to play next time.

What if I saw a project or idea as just a big branch and started on any accessible part? What if I made a mistake and moved on? What if I was just present in the moment? Sometimes, I just need to chew on the damn stick.

{ 15 comments }

Search My Blog

Search by Category

The Fine Print

Strength Through Art Journaling

Snow White Whistled To Me

What If My Dog Had An Inner Critic?