Brickwork or pebble-dashing?

Brickwork or pebble-dashing? One shows the structure, the other covers it up.

The top left corner of this page has a brick pattern on it. The black and pink area on the right made me think of pebbles, hence the journalling on this spread.

When we build things, we can do it in a couple of ways. We can let the structure show - all the places where the bricklaying didn't go exactly to plan, the bricks that aren't the same colour as the rest, the flaws in the bricks, the joins where extensions were added - or we can cover it up, like with pebble-dashing. With the latter, it all looks neat and precise, but is the structure sound?

It's like with other areas of life: will you put a mask on it, or let things show, even if they're not perfect?

Interlocking

Interlocking: You do not stand alone. What you do affects others.

The wheels/cogs on this page made me think about how if you move one part of a clockwork mechanism, it affects all the other parts. We are much the same ourselves - what we do affects other people, sometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. We all interlock when we live in community.

How can you affect others for good?

seeds to trees

What will these seeds grow to be?

When I started this page I had no idea where it was going, which is nothing new. The circle kept calling for an image. I had a hand-carved stamp of a tree that fit perfectly, so I put it in there. For some reason it felt like I was looking into a crystal ball, which made me think about looking into the future. If I was seeing a tree in the future, what was it talking about now?

All plants start from seeds, so what seed am I planting to have a tree in the future? Am I thinking ahead and being deliberate in my planting?

Streamlining

Lots of places do things in certain ways because they've always done it that way - offices, workplaces, churches - but it's not always the most streamlined way to do things. When you arrive somewhere with fresh eyes you can see ways to improve efficiency; ways to do things differently.

The trick is how to implement new things without treading on any toes...

Adventures on canvas

I'm having fun at the moment playing on canvas. I use all the same techniques that I use in my art journal, just in a form that could be - deep breath! - hung on a wall.

These are the three I have on the go, plus some close-ups of different areas.

Below is a part of the canvas where I've applied paint and then taken it off with a baby-wipe through sequin waster. Just looking at the three canvases together, I can see that I've actually used this technique on all three, just in different colours.

The brick pattern in the corner of the canvas below is a gelli-print on greaseproof paper with alcohol ink. This is the ghost print after the stencil was lifted.

I love using foreign (to me!) language papers as collage items. They give texture without me trying to read the text through the paint.

Love the colour combo in the corner below. Must do a canvas in that orangey red, yellow, and lime green.

Chill mornings

Some days my art journal pages are just about the mundane things of life. There are no deep thoughts going on :)

At the moment I'm enjoying the crisp air in the  mornings. I'm looking forward to a chill Christmas where the days are short and carols really are by candlelight. Small things can bring joy.

Painful growth

None of us likes change, not really. 

We like 'comfortable'. 

We like 'familiar'. 

We like people who are like us. 

But there is no growth without change. Any growth will cause a change in you. Growth is a sign of life, even if that growth is painful. 

So embrace change, even when it's uncomfortable.

Not quite connecting

Not quite connecting... yet.

When you move - and in our case it's been a huge move - it can feel as if things should fall into place a lot quicker than they do. There is an impatience for connection, but connection and community take time.

I feel slightly disconnected and it's showing in my pages. I'm not loving them. They feel all over the place to me. I can't find words or I can only find the same words. As with finding community, I'll just have to keep going, pushing on through the difficult, messy patch in hope of getting there in the end.

Looking for community

Looking for community. It's one of the things that's essential when you move to a new place. Who will be the people that become friends? Who will we 'click' with? Who will become 'our' people?

It all takes time, and usually longer than you'd like it to. Finding those who are on the same wavelength as you, who will provide support and accept it is not an easy task. We have to spend time with lots of people to work out who will take a bigger role in our lives.

It can be exhausting, but is definitely worth it.

Projects

I've been venturing outside the art journal in the last week. Here are a couple of canvases I'm working on in the hope of doing an exhibition sometime in the next 12 months.

And I'm also doing some knitting.

Where else do you venture outside your journal?

Stand kneeling

Stand firm, even when you have to do it on your knees.

Standing firm is about refusing to be moved. It is about holding our ground. When we are on our knees we are harder to move, harder to push over or cause to wobble.

When it is hard to stay on your feet, stand firm on your knees.