Blog Post # 100! and Happy Valentine's Day

Wow. I can't believe that I have really written 100 blog posts. I want to say thank you to everyone who has joined me in this journey (and spread a little love on this Valentine's Day) so I have a set of magnets to give away to anyone who leaves a comment today. This is a collection of my fairy images, and I am very excited to announce that my fairies are going to have their own art show as part of Pecha Kucha night at the Water's Edge Music Festival on February 27th. If you haven't been to a Pecha Kucha presentation before, it is a really neat networking event where people from all different backgrounds share 20 images x 20 seconds each. I have posted all the information on the evening here.

So here are the fairies that I am giving away:

To enter to win a fairy, leave a comment letting me know which day of the week is your favourite: Mixed Media Monday, Inspiration Wednesday, or Photo Friday.

Thanks for coming along on this journey with me!

P.S. The regular Mixed Media Monday post will be up later today, featuring my Mothering Authentically art journal.

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