Joy Journal Project - Assignment 3

For the last several months, I have been participating in The Joy Journal Project. August has been a hard month for me -- physically, emotionally, spiritually . . . so I wasn't sure I would get this entry done. However, after a good chat with my husband about why I need to create art (with him giving me the reasons, me questioning the value at this point in my life!), I used a free afternoon to do this spread, which was to include the use of a silhouette. I started the spread without any clear direction because the assignment was to reflect on myself as a child and myself now, and I just didn't know where to go with that. As I was creating random layers (starting with maps of places I have lived over the years), I heard a lyric in a song, "the girl with the dream in her eyes." That reminded me of something one of my teachers had inscribed in a book he'd given me at the end of the school year: "To Paula, with the sunshine of hope in her eyes." (I found the book on my shelf just to make sure I remembered correctly!)  The recollection actually made me cry in light of how desperately I've been hanging onto Hope this past year, and how people have commented on how my hopeful spirit has blessed them. It was humbling and encouraging and altogether uplifting to know that the Sonshine of Hope can still be seen in my eyes. 

So my teacher's words directed the rest of my spread. The profile picture was taken just after my cancer diagnosis last fall, and the picture from which I cropped my eyes was taken the same day. A wee bit of photo editing gave me the variations in the eye images. I think they're kinda cool. The unedited ones in the top left corner remind me of my eyes as a child when I see them without my face. (Funny that ;)

The gold-glittered silhouette, I decided, represents my spirit. I didn't plan it that way -- but that's how it turned out in my mind. (The word in the black box that I squared off from the text papers I used says "resurrection"! ;)

I chose to also include the profile from which the silhouette was made (I just traced around it), but I wanted to use a mix of the plain photograph (back of my head, earring, left shoulder) with a painted picture (below), so I just painted the rest of the photo with acrylics. (Doing that makes me feel like a skilled artist cuz that's pretty much what I looked like when the photo was taken ;) 

Butterflies make me think of new life and hope, so they seemed like appropriate embellishments to finish the spread (along with some black splatter to tie everything together ;)

I think this is one of my favourite journal spreads so far. I was slow getting started with it because I wasn't sure what to do, but once I got started, things began to fall together and I really enjoyed the process, though it really did tucker me out! LOL (I like to work start to finish in one sitting as much as possible.) 

Now for next month's challenge, which will be posted on Sunday. If you think you'd like to join in, don't hesitate to jump in! (At my rate, I likely won't have it done until it's almost October! But it doesn't matter, does it?!)

Life Lists - Art Journal Spread

As you may know, art journaling is my latest creative passion. So when I saw Laura Grace Weldon's post about Life Lists, I was inspired to make a journal page about life lists. It's simple -- but it was fun and relaxing to create it. Now, if I'm ever stumped about what to journal about, I have a list. In fact, the lists could become a theme for a whole journal! 


Are there any other life lists you could add to mine? 

Dancing Doodles

During my recent hospital stay, I spent some time doodling in one of my art journals -- my latest passion :) Here are some dancing doodles. I have yet to decide if I will embellish them with colour . . .

I am learning to embrace the imperfections of my art! Who cares if their arms are too long and their legs too short -- or their hands and feet all wonky?!?! I'm having fun playing -- and these girls are cute and quirky :)

Joy Journal Project: Quiet

The theme for the second assignment of the Joy Journal Project was a spread about "Quiet." 

 For some reason, The 23rd Psalm has been resonating in my head, so I thought I would incorporate it into my journal as the main text. The background collage paper is also a page about Jesus calming the tempest. I thought that was appropriate, so I highlighted some of the words that popped out at me from that story.

I wanted to incorporate a painted lady in my spread, and finally settled on having her resting in the green pastures by a quiet tree (no birds, no rustling leaves). 

I started this spread at home, and then jammed my journal into my portable art kit. Alas, the pages stuck together and tore the paint off in some places. Instead of lamenting this and calling it all "ruined," I decided to embrace the imperfections as all part of the process.  I even took some sand paper and added some distressed sections, as well as smoothed out the torn parts. Whatever, right?

This art journaling thing is quite a learning process. I sometimes start with a certain vision, and get frustrated when I can't realize it the way I would like to do. But I'm realizing that my art journals are really just a place to play and learn and grow. The final product is not what's important. If I like it -- great! If not -- what does it matter?


I thought I wanted to do more with this page, but at this point, I'm not sure what I would do. So, for now it is "done." Perhaps I'll come back to it some day. But for now I'm ready to move on.

Faith Art Journal Spread - "my self"

I have been having a blast watching art journal videos and playing in my art journals (I have three going now -- my Joy Journal Project, my Faith Journal, and just a "play" journal.) 


This spread about how I feel -- like my self again (not "a whole new person") -- having lost 90lbs (last year) was inspired by Claudine Hellmuth's "poppets" :

My poppet makes me smile :) She has a little more "shape" than Claudine Hellmuth's ladies do -- but that feature was important to me in this spread given the subject matter ;) The photo of my head was from the photo shoot of my head-shaving party  when we all got silly with wigs and feather boas. (My sister made the awesome video, and my friend Helen took all the fun pictures.) 

I feel like the spread needs some more layers, but I'm just not sure how to go about adding them. So for now, it's done. Any suggestions?

Joy Journal Project

For years now, I've been collecting books and reading blogs about art journaling -- but I've never actually started an art journal that documents my life in some way. This past year, I've also spent a lot of time thinking about joy, and recognizing the link between joy and gratitude. When I came upon Amanda Jolley's Joy Journal Project the other week, I realized it presented the perfect opportunity for me to start art journaling with a purpose. And because it's a once-a-month class, it seems manageable for me. If I get behind -- it will be easy enough to catch up.


The first assignment was to journal about someone that brings joy to our lives. Since my husband and I will be celebrating our 21st wedding anniversary next month, and since he still lights up my life -- I chose to journal about him. After gessoing the page, I started by free-writing about how wonderful he is. That all got covered in paint -- but it got the creative juices flowing -- and I know it's under there! Outside of layers of paint, ink, and metallic crayon, I simply used a couple of photos and a bit of scrapbooking paper (the numbers -- which are representative of days and years of joy together) and added some text. 

I love the idea of altering books, so I chose this library discard as my Joy Journal base. It's thin enough that it's not intimidating -- but it has enough room for about a year's worth of monthly journal spreads. I plan to alter the cover, of course -- but I'm not sure how I will go about that yet.

Have you ever tried art journaling? What are your favourite tools and techniques? How do you find it differs from regular journaling?

New Art Journal

I've almost filled my drawing book, and since I purchased two when I started using Carla Sonheim's Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists, I decided to get ahead and decorate the cover so it's ready for use. 

I love the leathery texture of layered tissue paper, so I started by gluing pieces of old sewing patterns (nice, natural coloured tissue) onto the front cover, scrunching the pieces as I went to create texture. Then I layered chocolate brown, ochre yellow, and metallic gold acrylic paints, lifting some off here and there with some more tissue paper. To protect it all, I layered more glue on top (glossy ModgePodge). Glittered letter stickers and a piece of my old art attached with some leopard tape finished it off. I thought of adding more elements, but I want it to remain flat, so I decided to leave it at that -- at least for now :)


I've discovered that I can't use a journal or workbook as it is; I need to decorate it and personalize it.


Is there anything you need to "make your own" before you feel comfortable using it?  

Art Journal Pages - My First Swap

First of all, if you are one of the 10 participants in the christian paper artists yahoo group's art journal page swap -- you may want to skip this post so that you can be surprised by what arrives in your mailbox :) 


For the rest of you, I thought I would share the pages that I made for my very first art swap! The idea was to create 10 art journal pages and send them to the host, who will assemble and bind together one from each participant before mailing them back. Of course, the naysayer in me had a hard time even signing up for the swap, but I'm glad I did. It took MUCH longer than I anticipated to make my pages, but I think that's because I tend to think too much about it all -- AND because I decided to decorate the backs of all my pages, which really meant I was making 20 journal pages instead of 10. Anyway, here are the results -- largely influenced by my spiritual journey this summer. Each front is followed by its back side:

I recycled some work that I've done in the past, which made the process a bit faster. But I still felt like I was rushing through at the end to meet the deadline. Oh, how good it felt to be making art, though! I'm thinking about participating in a Christmas ornament swap -- it's just the time factor that worries me. I still feel guilty taking time to be creative. 


Anyway -- I'm really excited to see what appears in my mailbox in a few weeks! Art swaps are such a cool idea -- committing to making art AND getting real mail from other artists all over the world! How sweet is that???


Have you ever participated in an art swap -- or any other kind of creativity exchange? What were your experiences?

Art Every Day Month

I just had time to doodle in my art journal yesterday while chatting with DD13 and DH. Of course, it's another tree . . .

DH says it looks like an Alice in Wonderland kind of tree. As I was drawing it, I was reminded of those black, wrought iron stair railings from the 70's.

My little homemade art journal is getting full. That pleases me:)

Art Every Day Month

I'm going to have to look into this tree obsession of mine . . .

I created the tree and coloured the blocks last night, but wasn't sure how I was going to fill in the branches until this morning when I read Skip to My Lou's post about being thankful.

In case you can't read the writing on the sky background, it says, "I am always thankful for . . ."

We're between Thanksgiving celebrations in Canada and the US, but are you thinking about the things for which you are thankful? I need to do that on a regular basis!

Is It Good?

DD8 was flipping through her art journal tonight and said, "I don't really like my art journal."

"Why not?" I asked.

"I don't know. I just don't think my art is very good. I don't really like it."

"Well, I like it!"  I replied.

"Really? Well, if I take some pictures of it, will you post them on your blog so other people can see the textures, and how the colours blend, and how shiny the shells are on the cross?"

Perhaps it was a test to see if I really DO like it enough to show it to other people.

Well, I do like it, and I'm proud to show you -- so here are the photos she took of her own work:

Was she really insecure about her art? If she was, why? Is that just how we are -- not sure if our work is good enough to be liked by others?

I know I've asked this before, but are you ever afraid the product of your creativity -- whatever it might be -- is not good? Where does that fear come from? How do we overcome it?