Inspired by Lament by The Dirt and the Flood

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.

I won this profound pendant!

from Randi via a giveaway at Random Musings about Art and Life.

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.

Just label that part of my life as coming soon …

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.”

The true method of knowledge is experiment.

Come play with Suzi and us at Mixed Media with Suzi Blu.

My Response:

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.

This on is my husband’s favorite.

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.