Journal Page – Antique Letters From Paris

This collage incorates lots of pieces from all parts, places and times in my life…that’s what I love about collaging, a collection of memories can come together and make a now moment!

Enjoy….and have a Happy Saturday!

Love and Peace

Journal Flip – 365 Days 24-29

Another Journal Flip…Enjoy!

I Hope that you are finding inspirations everyday in the small things that you do…How incredible is it that we can create and control a life worth living…

Just reclaim your Passion!

Love and Peace

“Day 8…Forgiveness Is Fundamental”

Day 8…Journal Entry… I found myself writing my feelings…no images just words…

It was very cathartic…I realized I had a lot to release a lot to forgive myself and others…

The first words I wrote on the page were…”Forgiveness is so fundamental for healing”

We can carry pain and blame others for what they’ve done to us or why things have turned out the way they have…

Or we can forgive them and ourselves for allowing it..

saying yes to it…

going along with things…

and just move on…

You see if we don’t take responsibility for what has happened in our lives and to us, even when others are involved…we give up our power to change things…

Because it will always be something outside ourselves that created the problem and therefore beyond our control…

But when we say yes we allowed this thing and now I don’t, I can then change the outcome and the results in my life…

In the words of Einstein “The definition of Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”

We often times do this with the decisions in our lives…we see the repeat patterns, and somehow keep playing the same song…

My journaling allowed for self examination and a renewed view of myself…

What forgiveness can you do today that may lead to a renewed spirit?

Much Love and Peace

“Day 7…Things That Make Me Happy”

Day 7 Journal entry was about beginning to explore my inner happiness…

Creating art always makes me happy it settles me and rolls away the stress…

And so as I began the process of allowing myself, without judgement, to explore my life…thinking about what makes me happy… became a natural progression…

Take time today to ask yourself…”What Makes Me Happy?”…make a list and spend sometime feeling the happiness that comes from the items on the list…

Then ask yourself… “How many of these happy makers am I allowing in my world right now, everyday?”

Celebrate the ones you are allowing and make room for more of the ones that you’re not…

Much Love and Peace

“Day 6…Crosses”

Crosses are another image that appears frequently in my work…

In part because of my personal spiritual beliefs…

And in part because it is such a strong graphic symbol and has appeared in cultures from the beginning of recorded time…

As an X or drawn by two swipes of the finger in a clay or paint…

It’s universal…

What’s your universal symbol? We all have something that speaks to us and directs us at an emotional level…beyond words, beyond thinking….

If you don’t know right off spend a little time discovering, just walk around your environment you’ll soon find clues because it will generally be repeated…in paintings, or literature…or form.

It could be a circle or a spiral or a square…a bird, a flower or an element like water, fire, earth or air…

Enjoy the weekend discovering!

Much Love and Peace

“Day 5 – Stimulating Ideas”

I’m a huge fan of Black & White abstract art…when I see it my mind immediately begins to whirl and I seem to go into a trance, imagining all sorts of things that the lines, curves, strokes, dots etc. release…

I’ve spent some time studying this and found that when our brain develops at infancy Black & White simple shapes play a large role in the brains development…This is why so many baby toys have B&W lines or polka dots on them….

In this journal entry I painted on paper using sumi ink, then I cut the art into 4’s and then reassembled it…

I took the opportunity to stimulate my creative thinking while being willing to look differently at what I had just created…then be willing to cut it up… and try something different!

 

I feel that we have to be willing to do the same with our lives…we’ve created them…there moving in a particular direction…

Do you like what you’re experiencing everyday?  If you are…ask yourself “how can I make it even better?”…then be willing to make some changes, alter things a bit..

And if you’re not crazy about what you experience everyday…you want different results…be willing to start cutting away, re-arranging and adding new experiences that are more in line with where you want to go…your goals and dreams…

I believe that we don’t make mistakes in our lives because every road we turn down creates an experience we can grow from…however I believe we can arrive at a point that we can say, “well I have had enough of that experience, I don’t feel it serves me anymore”…and then make changes… and this includes our education and Degrees earned, our job or career, our marriages or life partners…if it ain’t working fix it!

Don’t be afraid move onward and upward!

Look at the Black & White of your life today…see what you discover!

video production Zion

Much Love and Peace

“Day 4 – heart takes flight”

Today’s Journal entry was assembled from some of my favorite images….

Hearts, feathers and old script….these images find there way repeatedly into my work although the hearts look more organic….

generally I don’t do the classic heart shape but more of a biological constructed image

It was free form collaging that allowed me to take flight and free myself from preconceived ideas…moving forward into uncertainty…

Let your heart take flight….

video produced by my 12yr old Zion….

Much Love and Peace

“Day 3…the big question mark”

It’s amazing how day three can always be that challenging day…when related to our week, it’s Wednesdays better known as “hump day”…

With fasting it’s called the cleansing day…that day that the body finally gets the email that no food is being in-taken and it wants to rebel…

And so too it is with my journaling…I faced the page and went blank…absolutely nothing came to me….

My response was to put a big question mark on the page…and with that a flood gate open….

mini-movie produced by Zion – music: Goldfinger

That was the day to ask lots of questions, memories flood back, lots of unfolding and peeling away…exposing myself to this process, allowing myself to get raw…

With one swift thought I realized “I’m on a journey back to self!”

What’s your big question mark?

Much Love and Peace

“Journal Day 2…Dawning”

Dawning… Day 2

This entry relates, looking at my situation with fresh eyes new perspective, new thinking, new ideas…

Dawning of a new time, a new space, an awakening of the spirit, my-self, the forgotten self, the newly evolving self…

It’s amazing how over time we slowly move away from ourselves incorporating bits and pieces from others, conforming, in some cases transforming….

And then at some point it “dawns” on us, to ask ourselves the question “do I know me?”…

The answer can be profound!…when I asked myself this question I was so far of center that I was doing very little that made me happy…I was successful…but not happy…

I wasn’t walking in my lane but one others had created for me…it’s a gradual process… it always is…

And re-claiming yourself is gradual too! Be patient, and loving, move into the “dawn” without judgements or regrets…

But with incredible expectation and joy…

mini-movie produced by my 12yr. old daughter Zion… she loves doing this kind of thing and it allows us to collaborate and share creative ideas!

Much Love and Peace

“What Do I Need To Remember Today”

Hey Guys!

How’s your summer been? Hopefully creatively inspired and full of lots of projects…

It seems blog land goes into hiatus in the summer and so, I guess I did too!

However I took the time to re-inspire myself, really examining the direction of my work/creativity, by doing a 100 day challenge that 120 plus days later is still going strong!

I thought I’d share this journey with you since I feel the first part is complete and maybe others may be inspired to do the same…

Back in April I was surfing blogs in an never ending search for inspiration and came across Lilou Mace who has a webTV channel and a blog which is a “100 Day Juicy living Challenge” here

I was so inspired by Lilou that not only did I take on the challenge, I became a subscriber to her near daily webTV episodes, that are always so inspirational as well as hugely informative..

She is willing to interview people who really think outside the box, now whether or not you can support every subject she interviews, I encourage you to relax, suspend judgement and go with it, many of the topics will certainly expand your capacity to think larger about your own world view and the possibilities of where you’re headed!

I began journaling…I determined that the first 30 days would be done in the form of an image journal…(it turns out the the entire 100 days became image journaling with spontaneous writing intertwined…

I selected an Emily Carr blank journal I had purchased years ago at a Museum Shop and had been saving for the proverbial “right moment”…thank God it arrived…lol

Actually if you know anything about Emily Carr choosing this journal was very appropriate for this self imposed hiatus..

the preface page of the journal reads…

“What do I need to remember today?

I begin this journal on a 30 day discovery back to myself. My language, my soul images, my power, my love. The realization of my oneness to the fountain of all creativity”

This statement unknowingly became the foundation for all the future journaling that I did… daily I asked myself, the knowing self, the one locked away in the creative place we keep…
“What do I need to remember today” and boy did she have a lot to say!

Here is the first day 4/16…

My plan is to share daily with you this journey commenting on the images in this book…
and certainly challenging you to explore your creative/innovative self and ask the same question…

“What do I need to remember today?

LOL…have a pen ready because you have been waiting quite a while to ask yourself this question..you have a lot to say!!

Much Love and Peace