Remember This – Week 7

And this one is from Life Book week Two. The bonus assignment this week was to do some art honoring your word and wishes for this year. I decided to tackle my core desires. In honor of the bonus nature of the assignment, I kept things easy and small. I drew the birdies with stencils and then painted them all with heavybody paints and then just had fun.

nothing too sophisticated with this one.


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Today I Know – Week 6

This page didn’t turn out how i wished but I still like it. It was inspired by this lovely piece of art. I still need to work on my doodling and making smooth lines. It just doesn’t come naturally to me. When I watch others do it with so much east, I am always awed.

I think I used the neocolors on this page too. watersoluble crayons and then some gelatos and pencils on the background.

the prompt says: today i know what it feels like to envy

I wrote a lot about how grateful I feel and putting everything in perspective.


Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Remember This – Week 6

And finally the first assignment in the Life Book class. This is my inner artist guardian. And the little birdie is the animal for my 2014. I like how they look like they are perched and listening.

I made her face with the RH Pigment sticks and the rest is the Montana paint pens and some watercolor pencils. A few stencils and stamps for background and it’s all set.

I want to remember that there’s always a little bird on my shoulder whispering me to listen more, listen closely, listen bravely.


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Today I Know – Week 5

When I decided I was going to do this project, I went through my site and printed a bunch of photos that I’d taken over the years that I liked. I figured I would use them over the year. This page was my first attempt. It was trickier than I’d anticipated to come up with a way to combine the art and the photo but I do like the idea of this one even though the execution isn’t all that excellent.

I used the Neocolor ii watersoluble crayons to make the flower on this page.

The prompt says: today i know that i am very good at…

And I wrote about how if I decide to do something, I do it.


Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Remember This – Week 5

Here’s another one I made for My Mind’s Eye.

This page says: you are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

Ain’t that true?

I find that I often tend to think that there’s only one way forward. What I would like to remember instead is that there’s no one way. And that there’s no forward. Life is a winding path. What might look like “forward” might be a detour and what might look like a detour might be the real path to joy. Not that there’s only one path to joy. or success. or bliss. or whatever it is i am after that week.

Regardless of the notion of path or not, it is important for me to remember that I am free and not confined by anything except for the restrictions I am creating for myself. Being free and whole is a core desire for me. To feel whole, I need to remember to tear down the walls I create.

Here’s a photo that shows off all the shine in this page:


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Today I Know – Week 4

I pinned this doodled dress such a long time ago and I guess its time had finally come. I will say that this page took a long long time both to draw and to color. I did the coloring with watercolor pencils and then added a little water soluble markers.

The prompt says: today I know that I would never be where I am without…
And i wrote about how lucky I am for my parents’ support and generosity. and how it’s thanks to them that i am where i am. i am so very grateful. thank you mom and dad.


Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Remember This – Week 4

This page says: What is it like for this person?

Yet another gem from Tara Brach.

There’s some journaling here too and it says:
Because we are conditioned to pull away from suffering, awakening a compassionate heart requires a sincere intention and a willingness to practice. It can be simple. As you move through your day and encounter different people, slow down enough to ask yourself a question. “What is life like for this person? What does this person most need?”

How is that for a reminder? I love this thought and I love how it’s serving me and others.

I am not a huge fan of how this page turned out; it’s messier than I’d like but I still love the sentiment and it’s something I need to remember. I want to remember.

In the end, that’s what matters most.


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Remember This – Week 3

This is another page I originally made for My Mind’s Eye. It says: the most important thing is to remember the most important thing.

Another quote from Tara Brach and one that I want to remember.

I actually wrote a longer blog post about this one a while back. When I was talking to my coach, I had this idea of a pie chart showing what I care most about if everything I care about could fit inside a circle, how big would each slice be?

So this is my visual. It’s a bit less like what I originally imagined but I still like it.

The sections I have are:

  • creating
  • health
  • read
  • friends
  • work
  • service
  • family

I think this one might be worth doing again at some point. I feel like the categories might be slightly different even now. OR maybe not.

Either way, for now, I still love this. It helps me keep things in perspective. It helps me remember to prioritize what matters most.


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Today I Know – Week 2

This week’s page was to practice face drawing and a little doodle edging. I started out with this:

and then added the prompt: today i know that I am stuck in the rut of …doing what i already know.
I wrote about how I want to try new things, stretch myself.


Today I Know is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

Remember This – Week 2

It says: It did not happen to you or because of you. it just happened. remember it is real but not true.

This page was originally done for My Mind’s Eye. It uses mostly scrapbooking papers and paint.

This page came about as I was listening to a podcast with Tara Brach. She was talking about one time when she was working on her book, against a deadline, and the computer crashed before she was able to save the writing. She then talked about how we take it personally and think that something is happening to us. How we blow it all out of proportion and how we construct a big story around what happened and what it means.

I do this a lot.

I make it mean something about who I am. What I am worth. Or more like, not worth.

Since whole is one of my core desires this year, it’s really important to me to remember this one.

It just happened.

a few more shots:

 

 


Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.

2014 – Today I Know Intro and Week 1

talked about how I had different types of goals for my projects this year. Here’s what I had in mind for this one:

Skill to learn/expand: doodling, using different mediums, journaling, collage
Topic to explore: what i know to be true, lessons from the week.
Format: Squared notebook spread 11×8.5
Paper: Moleskine Journal Squared. This is just ordinary notebook paper.
Media: Mostly dry mediums but some gelatos, watercolor brushes, crayons, etc.

This idea also came completely from the Soul Comfort class. When Melody talked about the idea and showed some of her pages, I was immediately hooked. Coupled with the fact that I knew I wanted to focus on doodling this year, I decided this was a winner for 2014.

My goal for this project is to couple lots of journaling with doodling, sketching, and collage. And whatever else I am in the mood for. This is the first page I ever did and it’s a bit different than the ones that come next. As I did more pages, the idea expanded a bit and then settled down.

As with the others, I am not married to a particular way and this might shift and morph but for now, I love what it is.

Like the Listen with Intent project, I created a pinterest board for the ideas I want to try out. I am hoping to have a wide variety and to use this book to explore, have fun, and journal my heart out.

The pages in this book are thin so even though I hadn’t intended to, I ended up glueing every other page just to get them to be a bit stronger, but I also plan to stick to dryer mediums which will be a fun and interesting challenge.

The prompts are all from Melody and this first page says: Today I know that I would like to get better at….
and I wrote about not being so hard on myself when I am learning something new.

And the feather art was inspired by Jane Monk Studio and I used copics to color the feather.

Here’s to a year of meaningful and fun pages to record what I know.

2014 – Remember This Intro and Week 1

 

talked about how I had different types of goals for my projects this year. Here’s what I had in mind for this one:

Skill to learn/expand: Painting, using different mediums, portraits
Topic to explore: Things I want to Remember. Things that are meaningful/inspring to me.
Format: Portrait 9×11
PaperDylusions Creative Journal has a mix of white bristol like paper and manila paper.
Media: Mostly acrylics but collage, spray inks, oils, pastels and anything else I want to try this year.

I bought this journal last year because I heard how wonderful it is and I wanted to try it out. I usually have an intended purpose when I buy a new journal but I didn’t have anything with this one. It sat at my desk for quite some time.

Until one day I was particularly frustrated with myself and opened to the first page and created the piece you see above. I was annoyed with myself, With the way I see myself in the world lately. I was fed up and ready to be done. And I wanted to remember that feeling.

So I painted and I wrote.

It says: it is time to be brave. i choose to fly free. i am ready to break out of the cages i have created for myself. i am done being a victim. watch me soar.

I then decided this would be my book for remembering messages that are meaningful to me. Things that I lose sight of. Things that I want to make a point to remember.

When I was sitting down to think about my projects for 2014, I knew this book was going to be a part of it. I decided to couple it with something else I’d decided to take on for 2014: Life Book. I took a free class from Tam a few years ago and I have been a fan ever since. I was on the fence about taking this class in both 2012 and 2013 so this year I decided to just take the plunge. Knowing myself, I was aware that the best way to commit to a year-long class was to make it a part of one of my projects. So I decided this journal would be my Life Book for 2014. I plan to do the exercises/promopts/etc. in this journal. I might do exactly what the lesson is or I might just use the art technique and do my own topic, or I might just pick the topic and do my own technique. I am open to the possibilities and since I have never taken the class, I am not sure how it will turn out yet, but I am flexible.

I am also taking The Walk with Brave Girls in January, so I am pretty sure I will incorporate those lessons into this book, too. At least that’s my current plan.

I will also likely use it for my My Mind’s Eye Mixed Media pages.

This will be my book of experimenting, having fun, trying new mediums, and keeping in touch with Art Journaling this year.

For the first few weeks I will be sharing mixed media pages I’ve made for My Mind’s Eye last year in this book. They are all reminders that I need again and again.

Here’s to a year or Remembering.