Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #19

This prompt is Come out and Play. How often do you let go and just play? With no agenda, no rules, just downright having fun?

I spend time playing in my art room most days and I'm happy to potter about on my own, but I really enjoy have time to play with other artists. There is so much we can learn just watching how others do things, seeing which materials they reach for first, what colour combinations they like. Playing with others can push us to try new things that we might not even think of. How often do you watch someone do something and say to yourself, Huh! I never would have thought to do it like that!

I found a great post here about doing collaborative journal pages. Must give that a go some time :) For now I'm happy to be part of a circle journal/round robin and am looking forward to being inspired by everyone else's work, and hopefully inspiring a little myself.

Copper jewellery

Like many artists I like to work in lots of different media. I recently found a piece of copper that I'd forgotten about so I pulled out the jewellery tools and had a little fun. 

Some cutting, annealing, folding, doming, and texturing ensued. I spent a happy afternoon wearing a face mask :)

I like the aged look that the finished piece has.

Spikes and vegetables...

First the spikes. Once I'd stamped and stencilled on this page it felt a little spiky, much like the world feels to me at the moment. A few too many prods have meant lots of tears. Do you ever feel like that?

And the vegetables? Well, as I peeled a beetroot last night, the peel fell to the work surface and when I gathered them to throw away, they left a fabulous pattern. Hmmm, I thought, I wonder if that will work on paper? A quick trip to the art room proved that, yes, it does! I just let the peel fall on to the page. I love how there is a pattern like a fingerprint when you look closely.

close-up

full page

And some close-ups of the spikes:

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #18

This week's prompt is Self Talk. What is the 'tape' that goes around in your head? How often do you berate yourself for something that is said and done and can't be changed? What lies do you listen to and allow to direct your behaviour?

As a Christian I have an antidote to the negative self-talk that goes on in my head: I listen to God. He always tells me the truth. Sometimes He has to tell me more than once as I don't always believe it :) 

But in the end He removes the corks that stop up my ears and speaks truth to me; truth that my heart recognises and my spirit holds on to. Truth that eventually drowns out the lies.

So remember: you are loved always, absolutely, and unconditionally. Grasp hold of that truth and believe it.

Direction

This page started out with a gelli-print. Then I added some stencilling, trying out the new stencils that I cut last week. The circles are done with water-soluble graphite. A couple of strips of washi tape and then it sat on my desk for a couple of days.

I looked at the chevrons and they were saying 'direction' to me. Which direction?

I started to think about how people decide which direction to go in. Do you ask for advice when you need to make a decision? Who do you ask? Or do you wait to have a destination in mind before you start moving?

I'm all for moving first and being open to course-correction along the way. I start to head out and pray as I go. The first step is the hardest; once you've overcome the inertia the rest just flows. It is easier to change the direction of a ship if it is already moving than trying to haul the prow around to face the right way before moving. So step out!

And here are a couple of close-ups because I love the many layers showing through and the great textures they make.

Have a fun weekend!

Out of time

Another on the 'less is more' theme for Art Journal Journey (see the sidebar for a link). This was such a simple page and came together in about ten minutes. Spray paint through an alphabet stencil, print off the excess paint, stick down a silhouette, and journal on it. Done!

Do you ever feel as if you've been born in the wrong time? I sometimes look at the things I do - dressmaking, knitting, crochet, tatting, baking, the occasional patchwork - I sometimes think I should have been a 50s housewife :)

What about you? When would you like to have been born?

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #17

A new chapter in Journal Fodder 365 and the prompt is being present and being absent.

If I am absent from something spiritually or emotionally, even if I am there physically, then I am not bringing my best self to the situation. We are all a unique mix of gifts, talents, skills, temperament. We are all necessary. If I am absent in some way I cannot contribute.

If I am fully present, bringing all I have to the party, then I can bring my unique viewpoint. I can give and receive, bless and be blessed, love and be loved, grow and cause growth.

When I am absent, I am isolating myself from community.

When I am fully present, I can play a part.

Stencils galore!

I've been having fun making stencils over the last couple of days. There is a pile of card in the drawer, all of it printed on one side and therefore not immediately useful for a lot of things. Then I had the idea - cut some stencils! I've seen some beautiful backgrounds made with stencils, but my budget doesn't run that far. So I cut my own.

Here are some of the things I've done with them so far, in the journal where I clean off my brayer and gelli-plate.

Round robin/circle journal

A couple of weeks ago I put out a call for anyone wanting to join a circle journal/round robin. Well, I am pleased to say that there are now seven of us who are participating, from five different countries.

This is the journal I have made for the project. It is a concertina book with pockets at the base of each page. I have left the ribbons long as I anticipate that the book will gradually thicken up as each artist adds their own take on Thoughts of Home. Look out for further updates once the project gets under way at the end of the month.

Journal Fodder 365 - Prompt #16

The last prompt in this section about seeking solitude and finding sanctuary is making personal space. 

How do you make time for yourself and your thoughts?

As will have become apparent, I am very protective of my personal space. I have to make time for myself every day. How do I do that? By being deliberate. I say no to all the things that are not going to help me towards my goals. I say yes to the things that will help me to grow. And every morning I closet myself in my room for at least half an hour to read the Bible, pray, and journal what I learn.

I know that I need time to process things. I don't think well on my feet - I'm the one who thinks of the witty retort 24 hours after the event. Taking time to reflect each morning helps me to keep things in perspective.

Bits and pieces

I find I have several pieces that I've finished this week that haven't found a place on to the blog in any other place. I'm just bringing them all together in a 'bits and pieces' post. I think this fits with the Art Journal Journey topic for this month - less is more - and also for the Soartful Challenge which is a single flower with a minimalist design. 

Here I was just having fun with some colour, trying out a technique that didn't work for me, but hey, I had fun anyway. My daughter read what I'd stamped and decided that she should do just that, so the purple splodge at the top right is hers :)

This page is a large transfer of a photo I took at Wakehurst Gardens in Sussex, UK. I used Transfer Artist Paper for it. Not that happy with the writing, but never mind. It was a ten minute page and there's only so much you can do in ten minutes.

And this one... well, I've just bought a book on self-portraits. As someone who hates having their photo taken, doing a self-portrait is not something I would think of doing. I couldn't bring myself to do any more than my eyes this time. And even then I posterized the photo in Photoshop. Still slightly unsettled by it and haven't come up with any words for the page yet. I really like the background, though.

So that's my round-up. What have you been up to? 

Life and all its parts

 

Do you ever find a theme emerging in your journal pages? I finished the above page a couple of days ago and the one below today.

Obviously my mind is working on the disparate parts of my life and how they fit together. I can't see all the connections at the moment, but one thing I am sure of: they will all fit together in the end to make a whole and beautiful cloth, a life worth living.

So at the moment I'm just hanging in there....

Less is more

Art Journal Journey's theme for this month is Less is More.

So in the spirit of that, here is a very simple page and a short post.

Sometimes less is more.

A simple, heart-felt gesture can say so much more

than a thousand well-intended but clumsy words.