30 Journals 30 Days - Featured Artist!

I am honored to be today's featured Art Journaler 

at Dirty Footprints Studio as part of the 30 Journals/30 Days project!!

I am beyond thrilled to be recognized by the lovely Connie and to share a place with such an amazing group of people.  To Connie and to each of you, thank you.

I also wanted to elaborate on the pages that I shared - it's been awhile since I've shared my Art Journal work here on the blog!  If you haven't yet read the interview, I encourage you to do so here.

If you ventured over here from the interview, welcome!  Please leave a comment and let me know you were here...I Adore the community that is created through blogging and art!

Evaporating

This is one of my favorite pages that I have done.  At the time I was doing a lot of research into our family history.  I was simply fascinated by the stories and photos I found tucked away in closets.

Each photo is a of a deceased relative (save for the little one of me in the bottom corner with my pink flower).  The large one is of my father.

I truly felt the connection to my ancestors through this research and by reading their stories and sometimes touching the very items they used to hold in their hands.  I was saddened by how locked away this essence of myself had been.

Around the photos is a light blue block of ice.  In the corner by me the ice is melting (slight drips on the right side) into a pool that flows into and through me and then is evaporated and released back into the universe.  No matter how many times I view this page, something more speaks to me.

(Technique: Photocopied photos, used Adobe Photoshop to change to blue hue, printed and tore paper.  Background and figure is mix of oil pastels, colored pencils, glitter glue, watercolor and acrylic paints, & gesso.)

The field.

I first heard this Rumi quote about a year ago.  Part of it includes what I wrote above, "Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field.  I'll meet you there."

This quote speaks volumes to me as I adore the challenging concept that perhaps - just maybe - there is no "right" and no "wrong".  Just consequences.

This journal page started with the quote - I knew I wanted to do something with it.  I plan to use it again as I don't feel this page gives it enough depth, but I'm happy with this one as is!

(Technique: Green grass is acrylic paint, flowers and fill in are mix of acrylic paints & oil pastels.  Text was done with Sharpie, page covered in clear gesso.)

Remember the Ocean

This was a fun one done while in Connie's Art Journal Love Letters class.  I had run across this quote on a Unitarian Universalist Church sign in our town - "Enlightenment for the wave happens when it realizes it is the water."  Such a beautiful way to remind us that we are whole with everything that is!

The cards were done as reminders of who I need to remember that I am...Reminders of who I have always been, even when I don't feel it.

(Technique: I made the background with blue and white acylics and the text with a white Sharpie paint pen.  It was outlined with various markers.  The pocket at the bottom is actually waxed paper, crinkled, then adhered to the pages via double sided tape.  The cards are just cardstock, cut on the sides with decorative scissors.)

Voices of the Cave.

This one was done more recently and is part of an emerging connection I feel to my tribal nature.

I started with the copper color (showing up more as brown here) and applied it with baby wipes.  I repeated this with brown acrylic paint, then white.  Noticing that the baby wipes had themselves turned into works of art, I tore them and applied pieces to the page using gel medium.  This added a delicious texture.  I made them fit more into the page by applying further paints over them.

I had not intended for this page to be "cave-like", but after applying the brown I knew it was the direction I was going.  After all of the above was applied, I took a piece of charcoal and made cave-like drawings over the page.

The poem/writing was then added by Sharpie on a piece of white tissue paper. (See below).  I added some ink (Tim Holtz/Ranger Distress Ink - Walnut, I believe) to the page and crinkled it.  Using a needle (I tried fingers first and made a mess), I threaded the tissue paper to the back page with a brown string of twine.)

The writing:

So long before me, they were making ART.  


Whether it was for a reason - to pass along messages for survival or to simply record; whether their names were recorded in history books or simply on those tongues of their tribe who have also become silent.  Their process was the same.  


They moved their bodies in harmony with the messages coming from within.  They created through themselves - drum beats or harps or wind whistling through nostrils providing tones as they danced with creation in caves or castles or huts or dark basements as family life continued on upstairs.  


No other reason than to create, and beyond that reasons could only be interpreted by the receiver.  What does it mean?  Ah, yes...and yet, the message is not the message.


I create and tap into this stream of my ancestors communication - those long dead and those who were alive to see my birth, those whose blood flows through me and those whose connection with me is solely through our divinity.


My tribe, I hear you.  I creat to continue your story, our story, my story.  I have no choice now that I can hear you, feel you.  I am filled with gratitude.


New: Learn how you too can become part of this Beautiful 30 Journals 30 Days Community!!  Yes, YOU!  Check it out HERE  before July 31st...don't miss this opportunity!