WHY IS IT .....

 

Something of a cry from the heart here ... I'm sure most of you will have experience of this phenomenon too.  Sigh.  We've been back 10 days and it feels as if I haven't had a moment to myself since!  Well obviously I must have or this page wouldn't exist, but that's only because I determinedly carved out a little time to play here and there, so that I wouldn't go completely crazy!

Anyway this background was very quickly and simply done, just using Promarkers. It began with outlining some shapes in dark pink and then filling them in.  Stripes like this seem to encourage me to write across them ....  but sorry about this picture which was taken in electric light, making the colours look a little strange.

Once I began to write in black the pink started to look a bit washed out (these are the true shades) so I ended up edging the panels with black to make them stand out.

And of course it was irresistable to do zentangle type doodling in some of the spaces once the writing was done!  This kind of work is just SO restful somehow.  The other colouring (ie burgundy) is also Promarkers - I seem to have periods when I use these constantly, and then I neglect them for a bit.  So many pages have been paint related lately that maybe its just a reaction to that?  Maybe we just have fads on particular media and then need a break from them.

Back from our USA trip with lots of lovely craft stuff bought from the likes of Michael's, Jo-Anns and A C Moore.  Happy days .....!!

SACRED SPACE

 

Yet more paint splish sploshing about - you'd never guess I used to really hate using the stuff would you?  Below you can see what passes for an "arty" background with me - I was just splodging around on top of a gesso coat, rubbing paint in with a babywipe and then smearing some or all of it off again: nothing very clever but it looked OK.  Its easy to forget that you're going to write/draw all over it, which means it doesn't have to be anything more than a bit interesting.

I also used a mask and some dark blue paint to give me the honeycomb effect, and then for some reason drew a white line across the page with a Posca paint pen.  It must have made sense at the time, but I can't for the life of me remember why!

The writing I then added was done with Promarker - although I am a fan of these I do think the range of blue shades is a bit disappointing, and I've actually added a few blue Copics to my collection to get the colours I want. 

The idea of the unsuspected self really appeals - don't think its original, I probably read it somewhere, but the concept speaks to me.  It works particularly well in terms of journalling for me because, so often, I am amazed by what comes out when I just go with the process and let it happen.  Sometimes  things come out I didn't know I was feeling, or hadn't understood were forming a barrier I needed to get past.  Stuff like that. 

I also have this thing where I get stuck in monochrome mode and work pretty much in one colour the whole way through - shades of blue in this case.  I do admire the work of Teesha Moore and wish that (more often anyway) I could work in the variety of vivid colours she uses.  Its somethng I'm working on but clearly wasn't expressed here. 

There's something almost biological about the structures I've drawn - arterial branches and cells perhaps - an organic element anyway.  It may have been deliberate .... not sure now.

But it makes sense doesn't it - if the body is a temple of the holy spirit then it is also sacred ground, a space which contains all our deepest meaning .... and indeed the unsuspected self, the true self that sometimes we don't even show to ourselves let alone others?

Gosh, I am in reflective mode today!  Its probably because tomorrow we fly up and away - visiting Virginia in the USA.  Fear not, I have packed a small travel journal with prepared background pages, plus some new drawing materials and a notebook ... just in case the spirit moves me to work in one of them.  What's the betting I'll be so busy eating ice-cream and gazing at the views that I forget to do any of it?

See you in a couple of weeks or so. 
Rosie X