Advent Study - Day 3

Running a little bit behind in my study already ... but hoping to get caught up (or close to caught up) soon.  Day 3 focuses on God's strength and how He is glorified more as we admit our weakness and let Him work through our weaknesses.  Oh how I sometimes wish I didn't give Him so many areas of weakness to work with LOL  It is still difficult for me to rejoice in my weakness knowing that it will glorify Him, but will keep working on that.

This lesson also focused on Isaiah 11:1-10 ... a prophecy that the line of Christ would come from the branch of Jesse.  I just love this passage, but the book of Isaiah in general has become one of my favorites; I find it so full of hope.

I collaged a variety of text pages down for my background and added a thin layer of gesso to mute them.  I drew a tree stump and a branch shooting out in charcoal.  Then I added a wash to the background using dye re-inkers ... loving those more and more these days!  I am having to get creative to find a way to use my Christmas stamps in these pages, but oh so fun!

Advent Study - Day 2

I just finished day 2 of my advent study and it spoke of God's promises ... especially His promises to Israel and Judah ... despite disobedience and unbelief.  The point to ponder is what promises God has made to me and kept.  There are many biblical promises He has kept certainly, but my heart always goes back to the promises He made me when I was little ... when I was unable to defend myself in a cruel world.  Before I was even in kindergarten, He told me He would protect me from the worst ... that nothing I experienced would cost me my life ... and that one day He would save me.  I didn't know exactly what that meant, but I knew it would be a day of celebration.  Reflecting on that, I see a chain of broken promises from imperfect people ... and a chain of fulfilled promises from a perfect God.

I focused on the advent prompt for my journal page.  I scanned and enlarged an old Polaroid of me from that time.  I got gobs of pixellation, so I painted the image, but it is still a bit blurry.  I added a red ribbon to highlight Isaiah 9:2.  My eyes look haunted ... a reminder of all that God has brought me through ... and a reminder of what my own spiritual death looked like.  I felt like my mouth needed to be covered ... a reminder that I grew up with a social handicap and that God is my voice when I let Him :)

My life is full of life.  I could not always say that, but walking with Christ, I can say that.  He remembers His people ... and He is Truth ... and He fulfills His promises.

Advent Season and a New Journal

Well, I have been terrible at blogging the last few years, but hoping I can be a little more consistent over the holiday season.  I started a new art journal to record my artistic responses to an advent study I am doing over at Pause, Ponder & Prepare.  I am still embellishing the cover, but started on the study part.  Many of us are starting on the study in November and will go back through our study, journals, etc and reflect more in the month of December.  I am not likely to get this done in a month, so hopefully I can finish up in December.

I don't know that I am going down the path the study writer intended ... but God is leading me somewhere with this study :)  I used the word prepare on my page, because the real meaning of the word is starting to resonate with me.  If Christ came back tomorrow, I would be excited and also disappointed in myself.  God chose the word "persevere" for me this year and I have persevered through much for sure ... but my first instinct usually is to run.  I want my heart to be ready for Him when He returns ... and all the hard stuff He has asked me to persevere through this year is meant to prepare me for Him.  I have to keep reminding myself of Jeremiah 29:11 ... that God has plans to prosper me and not to harm me.

The scripture at the bottom is from 1 John 1:5.  This scripture has came up 3 times in different places over the past month, so God is speaking to me.  Most of my life -- especially childhood was filled with a darkness I did not understand.  My heart was heavy and without hope ... without light.  Only through Him have I dared to live in the light ... and had reasons to hope.

Here is to a God who loves ... never tires ... and will continue preparing my heart ... rooting darkness out of my heart, so that there will be more room for Him.

Journal -- Framed!

Recently I found an old art journal I started several years ago in a class with artist Kelly Kilmer.  Each page has a frame cut nad I will be making works of art to insert in each window.  I decided to try collaging across some of the windows, glue on some extensions, etc ... just to shake things up a bit.

I didn't have any real design for the cover, but just felt like adding a starfish and painting.  I like the look, but it may take some additional work to keep it from looking like an ocean-themed book.

Bird Journal

These are pages and the journal I made for a holiday/season themed altered book round robin.  I wanted really eclectic looking pages with stitching ...

Egyptian Fragment

I have always been drawn to Egyptian art.  I did this page a few months ago while I was taking a Kelly Kilmer class.  I was actually working in a journal I made in her class the year before ... the Reclaimed Artist Book.  This book has been my favorite book ever!  If you get a chance to take that class, please do! I just loved the fragmented look of this face.

Pages for Funky Fusion

Still working on that book title LOL
Here are some pages I did for the inside. My favorite is the geisha picture. I've had that image for a long time. She was on a pink background, which I loved -- but I do have to say I like my background even more LOL

Chameleon's Breath

I started this page quite a long time ago, but it is a Picasso-like self-portrait. The drawing was pretty quick and easy, but I set it aside for a while and just completed the journaling to go along with it. This style of drawing was a stretch for me -- but so were the colors. I tend to do really complicated backgrounds, so lots of solid colors was waaaaay outside my comfort zone LOL


This also goes along with the GPP Street Team prompt this month on adding words to your art journal pages. I started out adding very little text and am slowly learning how to blend the journaling with the art. This was an unusual style for me, so it took a while for the words to come. I used to use rub-ons and rubberstamps for lettering, but have been getting braver about writing my own.

There is no grand meaning in what I wrote on this page. Sometimes I like to just write things that evoke a certain feeling or require imagination to visualize it. For this one I brainstormed a few words that popped into my mind based on my portrait and spun them into sentences afterward.

Heart Page

Admittedly, I was suppsoed to be doing my homwork -- but I felt utterly compeleled to make a journal page -- so I did LOL I was feeling guilty that my treasured Heart Speak book had been abandoned for so long, so I did a page.

I learned something though -- it seems I am driven to create from the bottom up -- meaning I do a base layer and that layer drives the rest of the page. I tried to do my heart and embellishments and then figure out the background, but it won't really work that way for me.

I had more plans for this, but I got such an ethereal look with the Leonardo image -- I couldn't bear to add anything else. I am also posting this for an impromptu prompt (catchy phrase LOL) on The Altered Heart -- just so people don't think I completely abandoned the site LOL I haven't done much heart work lately -- but I'll try to get back into my hearts a bit more ... especially with Valentine's looming!

Also -- this is a bot of a stretch to call it fabric art, but I layered some neat cheesecloth paper I got from my friend Nancy and stitched it on. I love this cheesecloth paper and I see all kinds of potential for it!

Unmasking ME!!

Wow -- It feels like forever since I have psoted! I've had a mountain of homework, but also got caught up in the whole self-portrait thing going around LOL I'm not one to stick with just a drawing, so mine is incorporated into my journal page. I drew my image by looking in the mirror without looking at the paper -- mostly without looking at the paper LOL I was supposed to do without lifting the pencil, but I did cheat a but and lift the pencil.

My brother didn't care for the fact that I did'nt finish the eyes, but it seemed importatnt to keep them hollow and let the background show through. I couldn't figure it out until I sectioned off my page and started journaling, but it seems to represent a mask.

I am going to call this my face book LOL Every page will have a large face -- or maybe a collection of faces -- not sure there yet. Last year I saw this supersize wooden photo album at the thrift store that looked like it was straight out of the 70s; I couldn't pass it up. I want to get a few pages done before I figure out what I want to do to the cover. This had those magnetic film pages with cardbaord inserts. I peeled all the film off and am using the cardboard pages as my bases. They are large -- almost 12X14". I meant for my faces to cover the whole page almost, but so far they are ending up a bit smaller than I anticipated -- so I improvised with all the writing. This is new for me too. Almnsot almy journaling has been in one font mor or less -- so I tried mixing up some styles here.

This is also inspired by the "Taking Flight" book. I am so loving the whole patchwork paper background thing -- although I ended up covering a lot of it up here ...

Christmas Doodle Page

I was determined to get these doodle apges finishe I've been working on for while. I was really tired when I drew the first elf and I realized he was upside down the next morning LOL -- so he is now dangling from the top tangled in some Xmas lites LOL

I used souffle pens and a black gelly roll pen to do my doodling.

Halloween Doodle

This is a doodle page I did in response to a Soul Journaling prompt. I didn't set out with the intention of doing a Halloween page, but I couldn't shake the Halloween feeling with my orange background LOL I wish I could take credit for thinking up the skinny man ... but I used an image from Dover clip-art for my inspiration. My section dividers are pieces of embossed wallpaper.

The nervous prompt on Inspire Me Thursday seemed appropriate for Halloween too, so I also worked that in. This wasn't the most soulful journaling, but it was way fun ... and I needed easy after the crazy schedule I signed up for at school LOL

Junk Mail Journal

I altered a little 3-ring binder to store my junk mail journal pages. I had lots of leftover images from previous collage sheets from the Collage Play with Crowabout group, so I used those on my cover.

This is also an anything-goes entry for the Rainbow Lady's Challenge.

Ravaged Heart

I'm a little late, but this is what I did in response to Sarah Whitmire's taped page soul journaling prompt. I'd like to try it again with the tape laid out in more of grid. It was a neat background for sure, but it didn't feel done until I put some writing and images on top ... so I did one of my hearts. This heart felt a little naked; I'm used to gunking a lot more mediums on top. I found a good use for some of my rusty nail collection though!

This is also my entry for Inspire Me Thursday. I didn't really plan it this way, but it includes lots of opposites ... dark and light ... hard and soft ... vulnerable and tough.

Vampyres

Here are some pages I did in a vampire-themed AB. I was realy excited about the challenge of working in a dark theme. I did my art first and then I couldn't figure out quite how to finish the pages off or how to come up with a storlyline that would explain the images. I ran across a site about a legendary vampire in Rhode Island named Mercy Brown, so I used her as inspiration. I added some new characters to tie in with the altered cabinet card I did. Here is the storyline I wrote to go along with my pages:

Mercy Brown was 19 when her physical body succumbed to consumption in 1892. She was buried in a crypt until the cold winter Rhode Island ground could thaw. How could her beloved daddy know that Frank and Steve Longstretch had given her everlasting life in the dark world of a vampire and that she had been sustaining herself on the blood of babes?

Mercy’s brother was also ailing from consumption … wasting away and growing weaker daily, as was most of the small rural community. The Brown family doctor approached Mercy’s father with his theory that his deceased wife or daughters were undead and responsible for bringing death to his doorstep. Fearful of losing his last child, George Brown agreed to have the three graves exhumed and inspected for signs that they had crossed over to the undead.
One can only imagine how distraught he must have been to learn that Mercy had turned in her grave in the above-ground crypt. Fresh blood in her heart confirmed the doctor’s theory. They acted quickly to burn her heart and put her vampiric soul to rest. Ashes from Mercy’s burnt heart were fed to her brother Edwin in an attempt to break her spell over him, but alas … it was too late.

Dark Souls - Pages

I haven't been very productuive here lately -- but I did manage to get my pieces for my Dark Souls box done last weekend. I had this plastic mask I've wanted to alter forever -- but the shape was unappealing to me -- and since I chose the Phantom as my Dark Soul, I cut down the mask to a size and shape more appropriate.

Ethereal Urania

Yippeeee! This has been slow RR, but it is finally complete. The longer between mailings, the harder it is for me to keep up my momentum.

This looks better in person than my scan does. I painted on transparency and boy was that fun! I'll be doing more of this -- too cool!

Eagle Eye

This is a round robin spread for an animal totem book. There were a few different animals that came up for me, but this one hit home and I've been seeing eagles and hawks everywhere lately -- so perhaps this is a sign :)

I wish I could say I thought up the eagle drawing, but I'm not that good LOL I tried to draw my own based on another illustration -- but I did manage to think up the lines for the copper embossed feathers on my own LOL

Veggie Pages

Here are a couple pages I did for a quickie RR. I forget the exact theme now LOL -- But it seemed like it was meant to be about veggies, so here is what I did ...

Fabric Page

Here is a fabric page I finished for the 9 Muses RR.