Home Page: written down

I think this was intended to be a positive entry, but I made it serious! I “cheated” a bit, though, because I began this page last week, not for any assignment in particular. It was missing something, but when I got this week’s assignments, I knew that I needed to add the image of Sean with wings.

This was definitely a thereapuetic page, created to express what I find hard to talk about. I often feel guilty for my art time, because it takes me away from my son. Yet I know that I need that time for myself and my own passsions…it’s a struggle, no doubt.

**I watercolored over an old journal page. Fun, because I usually prefer acyrlics to watercolors! Added the border in Portfolio watersoluble oil pastels. Then stamped and added images and journaling. The winged Sean was the final touch!

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When i read Shimelle’s prompt for this week, I knew the exact picture I wanted to use for the wings. I’ve had this picture of my dad when he was about 2 that i absolutely love. (circa 1948). Found the book page with the title “the heart of a boy”, and that is what I went with.

used 7 gyspies tissue paper for the background then added acrylics and glaze over it. Put some paper and book pages on top, then used some bubble wrap for stamping, along with the dragonfly and silverware stamp.
Journaling:
a little boys heart is full of happiness, full of love, and full of life. a little boy may seem rough and tough on the outside, but his heart is as soft as butter. a little boy love to build, imagine, and play in the dirt. little boys soon grow to be men, but they still remain boys at heart.
TFL!

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This is from the prompt several weeks ago. I am a little behind. LOL
I am more of a visual person than verbal. I like playing with supplies more than writing.
I seem to use b/w drawings on my background. I grabbed some wordsearch paper and a copy of the plat of our subdivision, and a cherub that I had laying around. Did a wash over those papers and repeated our house numbers along the leftside with big stamps, then embossed with copper embossing powders. I had fun cutting up text fom some old books. Added blue beads.
thanks for looking!
~Marilyn

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This week’s art journal entry – on the key word of aloft, with a challenge to incorporate some wings into the thing – is a digital for me. I started off mucking around with my cat, Frank’s photograph and then realised that I might as well do it all in digital, given then I was either going to cut the cat out in real life, or better still – with an erasor and magic wand tool.

The opposite side is a simple background in the same green with the text : –

I sometimes wonder –

if a cat has wings,

does this still make him a cat?

And would he still

spend his time

chasing birds?

At some point – and only if I can locate a decent white marker which will actually write – I will add more journaling to the free page opposite.

This is dedicated to my old cat, Frank – who we rescued from a cat home four years ago. Frank has now entered her retirement years well and truly – and we may not have her much longer. But she brings much comfort to me, especially when I see a bit of wind up her tail when she chases trailing sticks. If Frank were to have wings, she would spend her time just flying and appreciating her time off-earth.

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My one word was “self.” I used a photo of me that I used a funky filter on in Photoshop. All the descriptive words are ones I found in the dictionary that go with self, that I thought related to me.

Thanks for looking!

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the first thing that popped into my head when i saw the word one was the song by dave matthews band called “one sweet world”. i did a wash with watercolors and walnut ink and then ironed it while it was wet to do the background. then i printed out the words to the song off the internet and pasted them on. then i used my typewriter to also write out the words. then i just added some rub ons for the title and tape as accents. i actually thought it turned out so pretty cool. the reason i also was drawn to this song was because it is about our world. about being ONE as a whole world. about coming together as people. not judging. just accepting.

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I had my main room painted this week, and found a great new colour for two of the seven walls.
Choosing the right paint from the thousands available made it an obvious subject for my ‘one’ entry.

I played with tracing paper again, to dull out the other squares on the paint shade chart, then added some alphastickers, and inked the back.
The photo page was adapted from my truly playroom entry about the painting.
Added a lovely begonia pic found online, and a pic of my not-filthy gorgeous fresh new wall.
One artistjournal entry, simple-ish and sludge-free.
Thank you. xxx

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Because I joined late, I’m trying to catch up! This page is for the “home” prompt. I’m feeling a little lazy tonight, so here is what I said about this page in my blog:
——Home…a subject near and dear to my heart these days. I never realized how much I loved my house, or my hometown, until I decided to leave it. From the moment that James joined the Navy until the day I left Charleston- 10 months later- I tried to dig my heels into the present, make time slow down. It will be a long time before we own a home again.

I know…a home is more than the four walls that surround me. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the Navy sends us. Etc, etc, etc. But there is something so moving about eating breakfast every day in the kitchen where you saw your child take his very first steps. Even the dents on the walls and the dings in the doors become a part of that home, because you remember the life and energy that caused those imperfections. A home is steeped in the history of the family that lives within its walls. It’s a comfort that you can sink into.

Tomorrow, my father (Power of Attorney in hand) will be signing over my home to its new owner. How I feel about that changes from moment to moment-relieved, melancholy, heartsick, ready. Yes, sometimes I feel ready. Because despite all of the things that we gave up (the house, the comfort of family and friends living nearby, my full-time job, the roots we’d laid down), there is something that I find even more beguiling than the idea of home…and that is the idea of a journey. A journey is a great big leap of faith. Hoping that you will find a soft place to land. Knowing that you may end up regretting it, but fearing that not following your instincts would be the biggest tragedy of all.

I want to evolve to the point where I am secure enough in myself to feel at home anywhere I go. I am definitely not there yet. Only when I have that confidence, that sense of being centered and grounded in my own soul, will I truly feel that I have experienced my homecoming. —-

**I started this page off with the terra cotta paint, then added some white gesso, then celery paint. I did a bit of spotting with Portfolio watersoluble oil pastels in yellow and yellow-orange, and rubbed it in. Then I played around with the images- one of my mantle and one of a mysterious door. The page took off from there, and I added some stamping, stickers and journaling.

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At first I started out doing something about escaping and relaxation, but my stress creeped into this and it turned into something more therapeutic.

I started out with a magazine clipping of an entrance to the beach. I sprayed some of that Krylon spray stone stuff on it to give the sand texture, and then added watercolors and acrylics to the ocean and sky. My letter stamps are making memories in two colors to give the words a little depth. Then I took some hemp cording and tied it in knots and then wrote all the little things that are stressing me out on paper and then stuck them onto the hemp string. The journaling says “I need a break from life right now” and at the top of the page it says “there really ain’t no cure for the summertime blues”.

Thanks for looking!

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This is the journalling text, written yesterday:
Walking in Tooting today, hassled because I have to go collect parcels from the depot which is only open mornings. But…
The vibrant colours, the rich smells of fresh fruit, the intermingled sounds of bangra music, gossiping young Indian girls, gossiping old men, Caribbean accents INVADED my senses. I relaxed. The sights and smells of East India linked me to our childhood in Sri Lanka.
I am so lucky to live in such an amazing, multicultural bustling neighbourhood. From homes all over the world, to a home where worlds meet.

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