I am captivated by the concept of lamenting and the role it plays in our faith walk. Originally, I wanted to do this piece in grays, browns, muted colors to represent the lamenting. But , as I began to work, the rich colors that I love would not leave. Then I realize that in my moments of lament, there was still belief, there was still faith. A paradox, I know, but most of my journey with God has been full of those seemingly contradictions. I believe it is an added burden to interpret our lamentations as a lack of faith. The color is there as a reminder that the tears of lament can still be full of faith.
I slept until 10:00 today. Simply unheard of unless I am sick, which I’m not. Last week was a week of hardly any sleep thought so I guess my body needed to recover. The really amazing thing is the half of my children were awake and occupied themselves quietly, evidently.
Once I stumbled into the dining room and started suggestions for getting the day moving forward, I sat down to check my email and received such a gift of favor.
Randi’s pendants are fun and unique. I love so many but this one in particular called to my heart as being made by a teenage girl who seems to know herself and accept herself so well. Oh, to have had that confidence in my teens.
That’s my favor for today. I really am looking forward to establishing my own art form that I can offer to the world. Though there is really no desire within me to market myself or my art, I’d love to the opportunity to give art away.
Inspired by a post by Rice Freeman Zachary about letting our art journals be JUST that … OUR art journals and letting others have their way. There is no wrong, no right, no better, no best. What it is about is making our mark … whether that be writing words, painting, sketching, doodling, collaging.
I realized that I had allowed myself to become totally distracted with the art of others … in some ways, becoming my own journal nazi. The source of inspiration was impeding my own creation. I didn’t think I was comparing … but I was because either I wouldn’t journal or create because it might not be good enough OR I would try to replicate what another person had done. The intuitive way that I approached my art had been lost.
Is there something to learn from others? Absolutely. But there is also a lot to learn from myself. Last night, I went back to the beginning and loved it.
And here are a few more William Blake quotes I found last night as I was verifying the wording of that one of my journal page:
“The difference between a bad artist and a good one is: The bad artist seems to copy a great deal; the good one really does.”
I love this because it was so much fun layering on colors and playing and I tore the page and didn’t freak out, then one page started ripping out of the journal and I didn’t freak out but just grabbed the masking tape and taped it back in and each time I sort of messed up what I was trying to do, I didn’t freak out but embraced the mess and made it work. Maybe the subtitle should be: I Am NOT Freaking Out!
Well, my effort to keep up with Misty Mawns January Art Journal challenge has fallen by the side as I have spent time working on techniques for the Art Jouranling class that I teach at our homeschool co-op. Last night, I decided to upload images from that journal onto my flickr account for my students. Today, I am going to share some of my favorite pages. Those posts will follow this one. To view all the pages, visit my Art Journal 2009 set. (I was going to add a Flickr widget to my side bar but this theme doesn’t support that evidently. I really like this theme, so therefore, no sidebar Flickr stream.)
This is my favorite doodle art so far. I started her in class last week, while my students quietly worked on their own doodles. Finished her at home. I love the peaceful background and it certainly was ushered in with peace that day. Now that I think about it, I should have incorporated “Peace” into her hair.
This dragonfly was one in a series of pages that I did for my art journaling classes. I challenged my students to use the same image, differently, on four separate pages. This one inspired another class lesson on doodle art.
Here’s a little lady I like a lot. Last year, I began to work more on drawing faces, a practice I didn’t keep up very well. I think I have progressed and believe if I had committed to drawing more consistently, I would be even further along. This isn’t a realistic rendering but a fun, funky girl.
Sometimes I refer to my doodle art as Zentangling. When I discovered zentangles, I had already been filling in white space with patterns for a long time. This just gave name to my doodling. Technically, to be considered zentangles, they should be of a certain size, a 3 1/2 inch square, but I like to fill all sorts of spaces with patterns. I have learned from the site about shading and highlighting though and I am beginning to add that aspect to my doodles, as seen here in this heart.
When I saw this image in a magazine, I was captivated. The page in the journal was inspired by showing my students how to use rub on letters in their journals.
