Thursday 4 April 2013

NOPE, I WOULDN'T TRADE ....


Here's me challenging myself to try new things again - I gessoed the page (still hate gesso for its chalkiness, but it does make a good base for paint) and pasted on some strips on text, then added paint on top, and a stamp made to look like bubble wrap.  I know, and its a double page too!  Positively revolutionary for me, must have been watching too many videos on You Tube ... 
Then I put in the headline text (cut from a newspaper) and went and had a coffee while I thought about what I wanted to say awhile.  I often surprise myself with what I come up with, but I've been banging on about this for years, it was just the right time to get it down on paper....
I get so frustrated by all the advertisements telling me I should want to look half my age, made incidentally using models who are very young photographed in soft focus!  As if.  I'm perfectly happy in my own grandmotherly skin, thank you - the lines on my face demonstrate a lifetime of laughter, and I'm not ashamed of any of them.  Sorry, I may get off my soapbox in a moment, but it IS true.  I look back to the low self-esteem, lacking in confidence young woman I was, and then at how my life's journey has formed and shaped me into somebody I'm (mostly) proud to have become.  I am undoubtedly still a work in progress but would not want to turn back the clock even if it could be offered.  The wisdom I have (often painfully) acquired is probably the most priceless thing I have.

Some of the seed heads on this are stamped, and the white ones were just drawn on to match.  The face is a Teesha Moore stamp.

Rosie

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great page! x

Suzy said...

Rosie I just love your page. As someone who turned 50 last year I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments and well done for embracing the paint and gesso. I seem to get better results from paint but have yet to try the neocolours - need to save up for some

Pat Beaumont said...

Another fabulous page Rosie

alexa said...

Lovely celebration and honouring of the things which truly matter and can only be gained through living and reflecting, not through buying and tweaking. Seed heads feel so appropriate here - we are both flowering but nurturing the seeds of what we can still become. I love your page!

Claudia Hemmings said...

Absolutely love this Rosie. Really meaningful page.

Anonymous said...

Love the page and how you share your process. That is so helpful.

... but love the message more.

I am encountering this attitude while trying to find a physician. Everything is geared to making an almost fifty year old woman look and feel like she is twenty-five.

I am fine the way I am, thank you very much.