Remember This – Week 12

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.

March 25, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, The Walk, Weekly Art Journal | Leave a comment

Remember This – Week 11

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.

March 18, 2014 | Classes, Remember This, The Walk | 3 comments

Remember This – Week 10

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.

March 11, 2014 | Classes, Life Book, Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

Remember This – Week 9

This week’s page is for My Mind’s Eye. I couldn’t connect with the work for Life Book this week so I decided to do something different. I tend to be one of those people who always worries and assumes things will go less desirably than planned and this is a reminder I need in my life regularly:

give up that there’s something wrong, life can be sweet if you let it.

This page is pretty simple, just some hearts and a title with a lot of my favorite yellow paint. It’s warm and shimmery and makes me happy.

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

March 4, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | Leave a comment

Remember This – Week 8

And this one is from Life Book week four. The assignment this week was to use three things you loved. I decided to use a lot of tissue paper and create texture. I then made a tree and a little bird. I know it’s not super sophisticated, but it’s really textured and was a lot of fun to make.

I have been frustrated with not knowing the answers to some of the questions in my life and so I decided this week’s art would be about how it’s ok to not know and how if I listen it will all eventually show up and how things are unfolding just as they should be. So that’s what my little bird is doing. She’s sitting and being okay with not knowing.

Here’s a side look hoping it shows the texture.

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

February 25, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | 4 comments

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.

February 18, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

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.

February 11, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

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.

February 4, 2014 | Mixed Media, My Mind's Eye, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

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.

January 28, 2014 | Mixed Media, My Mind's Eye, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

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.

January 21, 2014 | Mixed Media, My Mind's Eye, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | Leave a comment

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.

January 14, 2014 | Mixed Media, My Mind's Eye, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

2014 – Remember This Intro and Week 1

 

I 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
Paper: Dylusions 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.

January 7, 2014 | Mixed Media, Remember This, Weekly Art Journal | One comment

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