Home Page: written down

A Wednesday night spent relaxing in front of the TV, watching American Idol and journaling in my book. All I had was an 8 pack of thin markers (unless I wanted to get my butt out of the big fluffy chair which wasn’t happening) so this is it. That day I had been thinking about how I wasn’t pushing myself artistically, that I wasn’t growing as much as I wanted to. In retrospect I am pushing a lot of limits, but they just don’t always show up in the journal. I’m working on some really great things, but in a variety of media and it won’t always translate to my current art journal. So I figured I needed a little perspective on this. Fair enough.

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One of the reasons I’ve been so busy and getting behind is that my many gardens have been beckoning to me. I’m not thrilled with the weeding part, but the exhilaration of seeing the grape hyacinths peeking up through the old mulch somehow brings up an energy that I didn’t know lay dormant for so many months. I’m currently suffering from the weekend warrior blues (lots of physical exertion on the weekend and sedentary office job), but I love the feeling because I feel so alive! The flowers announce spring and it must be savored because the heat and humidity of the Virginia summer is just around the corner. Love every minute—just like life. So I suppose I’ll just have to love those summers, too! Hail the spring, smell the flowers, be full of life!

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When we are young we see the world through rose colored glasses. Some of the fun in being an adult is still seeing through those glasses which do become a bit shaded. While we find out that there are no fairy tale endings with knights in shining armour riding in on white horses, with work and perseverence we can all have our happy lives.

I still don’t know what I want to be when I grow up, but one thing is still certain whatever it is I will be happy…

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I really struggled to remember the things I wanted to be when I grew up, I certainly didn’t have as vast a list as Shimelle did!!
I think that’s probably been my biggest problem, probably why I’ve ended up in a job I don’t particularly like as I never really thought about what I’d do as a 9-5 job. Well, I’ve solved the problem by resigning and am now ready to follow the yellow brick road!

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...I know I can!
Well I don’t think Shimelle really intended for us to make such a significant change – please don’t think I hold you at all responsible!! It’s just pure coincidence that this prompt came along as I had a couple of weeks of big decisions to make. The outcome of which has been my resignation from my job this week – I’m so completely and utterly relieved, and surprisingly not freaked out by the fact that I don’t yet have a new job lined up!!

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In response to Holly’s most excellent “where is everyone?” post, I decided to stop slacking and post some of my recent pages. :-)

This page is sort of in response to the “Overheard” prompt, although I didn’t follow through 100%—still waiting to overhear some tidbit that I can spin a story around. But the prompt made me pay more attention to conversations of the voice and email variety.

The quote here is from an email sent by a new friend who lives in New Orleans, about what she’s learned after surviving Hurricane Katrina: “Rebirth and rebirth and around again and suddenly the word auspicious took on a fluidity and certainty that I released myself to and allowed to happen without wondering why.” Love this quote—what a great lesson.

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This page was sparked by the “What’s Mine” prompt. I was thinking about what I feel I own that really doesn’t belong to me, and New York City, my home town, came to mind.

I’m a third-generation NYCer (at least on one side of the family tree) and we native NYCers seem to be rare creatures, everyone else here seems to come from somewhere else. So I feel like the city belongs especially to us “born-here” folks.

At the time the prompt came in I was writing part of a guidebook for the city and was doing a lot of historical research. So the prompt morphed into a record of the coolest facts I discovered about the city; how Captain Kidd once lived here, how we once had two police forces that hated each other and would release each others prisoners, how the two fire departments would compete for business and even hire gang members to “protect” fire hydrants from the other department… just a record of some of the more festive bits of “my” town’s history.

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This page was sparked not by a prompt but the pox—my husband came down with a case of Chicken Pox. The vintage photo of the two little kids in quarantine really captured our mood, and I added a Lotteria card, used some hospital forms for the background, and wrote out some of the reasons why this nasty little disease was dubbed “Chicken Pox” on the black strips.

Thanks for looking everyone, and I look forward to seeing everyone’s work here soon!

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Well as always this didn’t turn out as I’d expected it would, but I’m still happy with it! The right page is a simplified sketch of a tulip – one that was on it’s last legs, it was way too opened up, but I liked the lines it produced. I took a photo of it, I’ll post that here too.
The poem is from a book I’ve had for years, with different poems and art work for different times of the year, this one seemed perfect, especially as I’ve been bemoaning the start of spring this year… I was taking photos of the first daffs to open in my garden this season, at 7.30am this Saturday, in my PJ’s, in the front garden…. my neighbours must think me crazy! Just for good measure I’ve included one of those pics too – I think I like these so much that I’ll print them to stick in my journal.
Anyway fellow art journallers, thanks for checking this out!

Tracexx

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Hi everyone—I am not intending to be inappropriate, but rather to rally our “classmates” and see how it’s going. So, in that spirit….

I think the largest part of any community is the shared learning and experience. There’s been incredible artwork posted and I commend you all for your exploration! I’ve learned a lot by your interpretations and thank you!

I wonder if there would be value to more dialogue? What are your key thoughts and findings so far? What other art are you working on and how has this project impacted you? Are there methods, resources, etc. that you’d like to learn more about? Perhaps not, but I thought I’d take a risk and throw it out there since we seem to be a much quieter group recently.

Food for thought. Happy spring week to you all!

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