imagine peace

Just popping in today with a quick post

of one of my recent journal pages.

I tend to be a very "clean and simple"

kind of artist, so this page was a challenge to myself

to try to create a page much more complex and chaotic

than I normally would make.

I wasn't sure what the topic of the page would be,

but then I grabbed out a stencil of mine and the

words "imagine", "peace", and "believe"

jumped out at me.

I really believe that John Lennon had it right

when he said we need to be able to

imagine peace to achieve it.

But sometimes when I see the amount of conflict around me

I wonder if we can ever get to that point.

My journalling on the page says:

How can we imagine peace on a

global scale when a simple teacher's

three-day strike evokes so much

hatred?

In retrospect, anger would have been a more

appropriate word to use, but you get my drift.

We live in a world that seems to thrive on conflict,

in our news media, tv programming, and everyday lives.

As a sensitive person,

I try to limit the amount that I engage with media,

and carefully limit the people I have around me.

But we can't do that all the time, can we?

Anyhow, just some rambling thoughts there.

If you have any thoughts to share on imagining peace,

I would love to hear them.

Have a beautiful day!

Make a House a Home

 

Continuing the theme of home for this week, and wondering what it is that makes a house a home to you? For me, it is that my house is a reflection of who I am. From the colours to the artwork and furnishing, every piece of my home tells the story of my life.

I loved this post by Stephey Baker at Marked by the Muse this week. Here's a quote that really stood out to me:

Part of being human is to create. We are all Artists in this sense.

We are all creating our masterpiece called LIFE.

I have spoken to so many people who say to me "Oh, I'm not creative" or "I'm not artistic." But isn't it true that we are all creating our lives? Whether we cook, garden, or paint to express ourselves, it is all part of the same creative energy.

So while we may not all be able to draw or paint the way we would like, we can all look at something in our home and ask ourselves, how can I make this reflect my beliefs, my values, my personality? And I think we all do this, which is why I always love seeing someone's home for the first time.

On this theme, tomorrow I'll share some of my favourite places in my home.

Until then, hope you are having a beautiful day:)

Visual Journal Monday - The Finished Page

Every week of this visual journaling course I have learned something new about art and about myself. This week was the final step of creating the page, and after watching the final video, I sat down and started the project all over again. Here is what I learned from that experience:

* Sometimes it really helps to know what the end point is in order to get the whole picture.
* Just because it is being taught, doesn't necessarily mean it is right for you.
* Just because I'm not following all the steps exactly doesn't mean I am not learning something.

This is part of an ongoing process of discovering who I am as an artist, and where my artistic direction is heading. I am starting to get a glimpse of that, and I am excited to see where that leads. So here is the final version of the visual journal page I made for Pam Carriker's Strathmore workshop, and a sneak peak of a background for a new piece I am working on.

This background is the start of a new series of mixed media pieces, so starting now, Visual Journal Mondays are Mixed Media Mondays. That has a better ring, doesn't it?

Have a beautiful day!

Joyelle

Visual Journal Monday - Fairies!

So I have made a few minor changes to my image from last week, but not significant enough to show you. I am thinking about starting the whole thing over from scratch, just because with all the experimentation, I have learned better now what mediums to use, and how to use them to achieve what I want to. So, with nothing new to show on that front, I figured I would share two quick collages that I made this week from a couple of my fairy images. It's fun to get to re-use these images in a different way!

The first image was created from a Pier 1 Catalogue that came in the mail. I thought, hey I can play interior designer, and build a little room for my forbidden lovers to share, what fun! I thought it was a cute touch of irony to have bird art on the walls;)

This one was just a little ATC-sized experiment with different mediums. Having struggled with the gesso and oil pastels that were assigned with week 2 of the Pam Carriker visual journalling course I am taking, I tried substituting fluid matte medium and soft pastels with much better results. This is all new for me. I have never done visual journalling before, and I have never taken a mixed media course before. It's a bit of a learning curve right now.

Things I have learned this week: Sometimes it is better to start over from scratch than to keep working with a flawed piece. I am also finding that this applies to life in general. There are times when you have to just walk away from a situation that is fundamentally flawed. 

And I think this is what art journalling is all about: finding a way to reflect your inner wisdom back to yourself. It is the same reason people use tarot cards. The cards themselves do not contain any innate wisdom. They are only a medium through which you can over-ride your habit-ridden conscious mind to access that intuitive part of your brain where true wisdom resides. Art at its best brings out the best in us.

Coming up on Wednesday, and excellent example of art as a medium for greater understanding: the art of David Mack and Lynda Barry.

Have a beautiful day!

Joyelle

Visual Journal Monday - Week 2

So I have had a heck of a time with this image today, nothing quite coming together the way I want it to. Meh. I hate those days when the universe (or art supplies) will not cooperate with you. But, here is my evolving visual journal page.

On the plus side, one thing I have learned from this visual journalling exercise is that the next time I am stuck with a painting, I will take a picture of it, print out a copy, and then experiment on the print out. Since I have several half-finished paintings right now, this is a big revelation for me.

Another thing I have learned is that creating every day is absolutely possible for me. And absolutely necessary right now, as I struggle to process some very old wounds.

Wishing you beauty and hope.

Joyelle

Create Every Day - Day 1

Happy new year to all!

I am very excited right now to be starting Pam Carriker's FREE Visual Journaling online class, which is being offered by Strathmore Papers. I have been wanting to experiment more with multi-media, but have been a little intimidated by layout, so it is a fantastic opportunity to learn from such a talented artist. Today was day one, which involved re-using some of your old art to create a journal page. I made two versions of today's image, one layered and one very simple.

That's a photo of me with my guitar, Cherry, in the background. The wings and anatomical heart were prints of digital art pieces, and the sheet music that I used was an extra copy of one of my favourite arias from back in my classical days, O Cessate di Piagarmi.

Here is version two, which I created with the scraps from version one:

I have been pondering my blog format for the past few weeks, wondering how I would like to change it up for the new year. It brings me back to the orginal question of why I started this blog. And the answer is three-fold: 1) To have a degree of accountability in consistantly creating art, 2) To become part of an artistic community, and 3) To share ideas and inspiration with other creative people. So here are the minor changes to my blog format for 2011:

Music Monday is now Visual Journal Monday. For any artists who are also participating in Pam's workshop, I would love if you would post links to your work in the comments section for this day!

Wednesday is now Inspiration Day, where I will share some links to artists or websites that inspire me.

Friday is still Photo Friday, where I will post images from my weekly photo excursions.

I am so excited that 2011 is here! Here's to new beginnings...

Joyelle