This is week ten of Life Book which is taught by Tam. The Lesson was on painting over collage.
This page started like this:
which was a model from the Antropologie catalog.
I am not crazy about how it turned out. There’s something about the face that’s bothering me. I don’t like the lips or the hair. I really dislike the dress. It just all looks too fake to me.
But still… it was a new technique and again something I would never have done on my own. So I am grateful.
The writing says: there never was anything wrong with you.
It’s from a book by Cheri Huber. Something I really want to remember.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
We’re back to Life Book this week. This is week eight which is taught by Alena Henessy. The Lesson was to just paint intuitively. This is not natural to me but I just decided I was going to do it anyway. So I sat and painted without thinking and let whatever came out emerge.
I used a bunch of gold which you can see in this view:
And the word that came up was heal so that’s what I wrote down.
So here’s another week. Not anything I would ever have done with Alena. But I like it.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
I am taking Ali Edwards’ One Little Word class for the third year in a row this year. I love this class and it helps me stay connected to my word.
Occasionally, I will try to share my assignments and some thoughts here. Mostly to keep a record of them.
This year started with a cover page of my word, a photo of me, and the definition of my word. I used a bird from Maya Road because I decided birds are my symbols this year. I have a sense that they are good at listening.
The back has some thoughts on why I chose my word and a quote with my word that resonates with me. I added a little paint because it felt happier.
The next page is a lot of thoughts on how i want the word to be in my life and what i want to do more/less of and what i am most worried of and what i am excited about.
And the back is my intentions for the year. I specifically called out health as I want to be healthier this year than I’ve been in 2013. The other categories I used were my core desires I’ve talked about before.
That was it for January. A lot of writing, thinking and planning.
For February, we did actions. What are some actions I want to take this year. I spent a long time avoiding this one. I think because January (and some of February) was really rough on me so I created my cards with white cardstock and some washi tape. Some stitching, too. And I sat on them for a long while.
When I finally did them, a lot of them came from my intentions from January.
The eight I have so far are:
– Create a morning and evening ritual.
– Spend time in nature every week.
– Get in the photos regularly.
– Show up (I want to be more engaged, choose to participate.)
– Choose Nourished over Full
– Heal (Choose to let go. Release and embrace the light.)
– Declutter (Clean up one corner each week.)
– Reach out (and connect with the people I care about.)
Even though I struggle with having my handwriting on these, I decided part of making peace with who I am is making peace with my handwriting, so I am letting them be.
The second assignment for week three of The Walk was about creating art piece around the treasures we want to collect on our walk.
I wanted to do something simpler this week. I knew my treasures were my four core desires: grace, whole, engaged, and serene and then I added healthy, self-compassion, and peace to that list.
I made a tree and decided to hang some “heart” fruits off of it. To symbolize the fruits I want to collect for my heart.
I didn’t work too long on this. Just wanted it to be simple.
another closeup.
And here are the two pages for week three next to each other.
Another reminder to keep my core desires in my heart and in my path. They are what I want to remember. They are what I want to hold. They are the treasures I seek.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
One of the assignments for week three of The Walk was about creating art piece around your guide on your journey.
As I mentioned in my previous art, when I did this a while ago, what came to me was a little kid who gave me a box that represented the light within myself and told me that when I let it shine inside myself, it would guide me.
So I decided to draw me sitting down and then the girl sitting next to me, on a rock, and handing me the box with the light coming out of it.
then I added my journaling on the light rays a micron 0.005 pen.
On the bottom, it says “thank you for helping me.” and the journaling is all the things I choose for myself even if they are hard, uncomfortable, etc.
This is one of those pages I will come back again and again. It’s good to remember that I have choice and what it means to make these choices every day.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
Week seven’s Life Book assignment was by the amazing Jane Davenport and it was to pick three of your positive qualities and create a pop-up.
The first thing I did was to pick my three qualities and draw three girls that symbolized them. I used the amazing Willow Tree statues as my examples and drew one girl reading, one girl holding a heart, and one girl with a bird. I first did rough sketches with pencil leaving a half of an inch in the bottom to fold over:
then I went over each of them with a micron 0.005 pen.
I then used watercolors to color my girls:
The next thing I did was to use the same paper in the same size (4×6 in this case) and create three flaps. I then painted the flaps and adhered them to my blank page:
here they are open:
Now it was time to make my page. I took all the 3×4 and 4×6 cards from the Record It! line from My Mind’s Eye and pulled out a bunch of them that spoke to me at that moment. I layered them all over my page without thinking too hard about it. I regularly reminded myself not to think too hard. Here’s what I had by that point:
I then took them all off and covered the page with Mod Podge and adhered them all down. At this point, I moved stuff around mostly because I couldn’t remember where I had originally put them. I also cut some of the cards. For example, I cut out the love circle and the words out of some of the cards and the see through white heart, etc. I added a few bits and pieces of washi tape and layer one was done. The next task was to cut out the flaps I’d adhered. I used an exacto knife to find the seams and cut them. It wasn’t super-easy but it also wasn’t super-hard. At this point, it looked like this:
Here’s a side view so you can see the flaps:
The next thing I did was to glue my girls inside the flaps. At this point, I realized I hadn’t thought this through really well and I needed the bottoms of the girls to be longer, so I adhered some more paper to them and painted it black. I journaled all over the background of each flap on why this quality was important to me. Then I added some paint to the cover page and I was pretty much done. Here is a look with the girls in there:
and a look at each girl popped up. Authentic, holding the bird:
Curious, holding the book:
Kind, holding a heart:
and here’s a look with the journaling when the girl is laying down:
And a final look at the page closed.
And that’s it. The girls aren’t popping up as smoothly as I’d like but I still loved this assignment. It challenged me and I was able to sketch, watercolor, acrylic paint, and collage all in one page!
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
We’re back to Life Book this week. This is week six which is taught by Tam. The Lesson was on playing with spray inks. Spray inks are not and have never been my friend. I just don’t like how they are never easy to use. I have sprayed my face, hands, and all the items on my table in an effort to use them before I just gave up.
When I saw that this week was sprays, I almost walked away, but I decided it was a sign and that I had to at least give it a try.
so I did.
Even though the paper wasn’t perfect for it, I did the spray part on the right page first and then I drew the profile on the left and painted it with oils. The oils are still a challenge for me to use and I am trying to learn. They also take forever to dry.
Once it was done, I did some pen-work like Tam did and wrote my little reminder message, which says: We accept the love we think we deserve.
That’s from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. A book I love.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
I realized this week that I never shared my last OLW page from 2013 with you. Last year, I didn’t do any of the OLW assignments past June. The individual assignments didn’t inspire me and I felt kind of blah the second half of the year so it just never came together.
After I beat myself up for a while, a long while, I decided to do one mixed media page that would allow me to reflect on my word and all its gifts to me throughout 2013 and then let myself move on. I had some fun and wrote some journaling and ended up with this.
With that, I was able to release 2013.
This week’s page is also from The Walk. Week two. One of the assignments this week was to collage a self portrait and then write/collage a list of things about yourself. What you’re good at. What’s your essence, etc. I decided to draw mine and made this girl.
My girl is holding a box. Last year, when I was in a Coaching course, we did a visualization exercise where we were to find out our Captains and what came to me was this little girl and she gave me a box. When I opened it, it was filled with light. Over that course and the next few months, I’ve come to believe that it represented the light we each have within ourselves and she was giving me mine and telling me to open it so it can shine through me. And also that this is what I want to do with others. Help them let their light shine through.
So once I drew my girl, I made some lines in the background and journaled all over it.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
This week, I decided to switch to showing you my work from The Walk. The first week, our assignment was to create a collage to represent The Carnival and the Campfire. Without going into all the detail of the class, the Carnival represents the distractions that take you away from your essence and places where people tell you who and how you have to be and how you’re never enough and what you do is never enough, etc. And the campfire is where you’re perfect, enough and accepted (welcomed even) just the way you are. This is different for everyone, of course. For me, it always about being enough and accepted.
Instead of using collage, inspired by someone who posted on the fb group, I decided to draw a ferris wheel for my carnival and a fire in the woods for my campfire. I then wrote all my journaling along the lines of the wheels and the bottom of the fire (as well as the flames.) The journaling is all about what you hear in these two locations.
This was a very powerful assignment for me and I am struggling with both locations in different ways. My version of my carnival is mostly active in my head and my campfire seems mostly unfeasible so my biggest takeaway from this is that I am the biggest impediment to my healing. (Not that this was a huge surprise.) On the positive side, this also means I don’t need anyone or anything else to heal. I just need me.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
And this one is from Life Book week Five. The assignment this week was to do draw a cotton candy girl and some sweets. I decided that what I wanted to draw was a piece of Dr. Seuss cake and a reminder that the goal when eating is not to feel full but to feel nourished.
This page has a lot of texture. I used heavy body paints and lay them down thickly. Even though the colors make me smile, I am not a huge fan of the page overall. It just doesn’t feel like me, not sure why. But alas, this is more about experimenting and having fun and I did both this week.
Remember This is a project for 2014. You can read more about it here.
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projects for twenty twenty-four
projects for twenty twenty-three
projects for twenty twenty-two
projects for twenty twenty-one
projects for twenty nineteen
projects for twenty eighteen
projects from twenty seventeen
monthly projects from previous years
some of my previous projects
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