Home Page: written down

Week 2.

Shimelle’s prompt really resonated with me this week because I too am a non-meat eater. No political message in me either – I had a cancer as a child and it affected my tolerance of many foods, one of which was meat. I still dont tolerate meat so I dont eat it. But man do I hate having to EXPLAIN that to people and people saying (including my mother) “why dont you just try it?”. I dont eat meat. That is not going to change!

My other gripe is that I am not having children. Again for health reasons but I really resent that when I say “I’m not having children” people often respond with “you’ll change your mind”. UM, no I wont. I hate that I have to often explain my health history to people and I still get comebacks like “what about IVF/adoption/medical treatments?”. Um, NO. I’m just not having children. Dont get me wrong, I love kids, but I dont want any. This medical “affliction” just gives me a good excuse. I am still a worthy human being despite not reproducing!!

THESE are things that will not change!

TFL!

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I haven’t had time to post an introduction here… but I’ve stayed caught up on the assignments.

I’ve admired the art journals at written down for some time and knew it was time for me to take the plunge. I’m a scrapbooker/paper artist, so this is a bit of a creative stretch for me. I’m SO excited to have the prompts to push me beyond my comfort zone.

Here are my pages for the first two weeks.

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One thing that I can’t change about myself is being a constant worrier. My mother likes to remind me that when I was born, her doctor told her she had just given birth to a very nervous child. My hair literally stood on end, as photos of me as a newborn have recorded. My newborn hair-do was the inspiration for this spread. I tend to worry about everything even though I know there’s not much I can do to prevent most “calamities.” Since the news is most often the source of my worries, I decided to use pieces of newspaper to create my journal spread.

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There are a half-dozen or so things I’m 99% certain are hardwired into my soul and brain, but the one thing I’m absolutely, positively certain will never, ever change is my DNA. And I think sometimes our ancestors act and live on through us. So this page is a tribute to my Romany ancestors and the impact their contribution to my genetic stew has had on my life. The quote by Lord Byron sums up the outlook that I’ve had since childhood, and fully expect to have when I’m a (hopefully) snarky old lady: “There is something pagan in me that I cannot shake off. In short, I deny nothing but doubt everything.”

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I have often tried to answer the question, “What would be left if you lost everything—your family, your career, your friends, your house, all your possessions? Who would you be? What is at that inalienable core?”

I hope that I will never be in this position, but if I am—I hope I will still have my faith, and my ability to create.

Thanks for looking!

PS See all that white space I left?? I must say, I was tempted to fill it but restrained myself. :)

xoxo
LainE

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I’m always trying to change myself to grow and be open to new things. We are born with all kinds of possibilities and through school, being protected and finding the right way to do things we slowly start to limit the activities that we might naturally attempt. While I’ve been fairly successful at keeping myself open to new things, there is one thing that stood out about myself that no matter how many years it was on my New Year’s resolution list or showed up on an annual performance appraisal, I’ve had terrible success in changing it for any significant length of time without tremendous and conscious effort. I am and probably will be until the end a FAST TALKER.

Because I also love fish and have collected over 300 first names of fish (where the name is xxxfish), the mouth is spewing out over 200 of those names. It was a fun exercise in control to write all those names legibly. It was awesome to find a use for all my collected names. Thanks!

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Finally I had a chance to do this! I used Illustrator entirely for this – played with brushes, strokes, colours and layers. Very painstaking! I don’t mind the way it turned out – but I think it depicts me quite well!

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This one was quick and dirty. Tried not to anlayse my content, just wrote what came out first.

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Okay so I still haven’t fully completed the Week 2 challenge but have had great intentions all week and keep getting side tracked – like my 101 in 1001. Don’t get me wrong, the journal is filling up with all sorts of ‘anyting goes’ from results of colour quizes on the net (did ya ever do quizes like personality tests and then not know what to do with the results?), to photos of family etc, but I felt that my art journal wasn’t arty enough.

So last night I sat down on the floor beside the fire, paints in hand…..and what happened? I ended up painting about 12 ‘works’ (I don’t know if I can call them paintings and don’t know if they are finished yet). This is great because I haven’t really felt inspired to paint in a while, but I only got two of them into the book, with all manner of other sizes and prints of things on various papers and cards. See photo.

Maybe this is what is it all about? I’ve never kept an art journal, nor completed an art class, so maybe this is the idea.

Getting back to the challenge and ‘don’t ever change’ – I always want to be able to paint. I don’t paint for economic reasons and I don’t think I’m coming up with works of art that would win any prizes, but I get a kick out of it. I can relax and feel creative at the same time. I hope this side of me never changes.

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The constant of life…things are always changing…and I’ve found that the truth reveals itself whether I want it to or not. Some truths have been easy to accept, and others…well, they are what they are. Nonetheless, they are all part of the entire picture, the whole of me.

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