Fabulous Faces - Assignment # 1

I finished my first assignment and I'm so happy with it!  I think it's way better than the previous one that I did while watching the class video.  Here it is...

More and more I'm realizing that if you want to learn how to do something, especially something like this....you have to practice, practice, practice....and then practice some more, until you get it.  And then you have to keep practicing to develop your own style.    I have a long way to go, but I'm totally into it now.  The key will be finding enough time to practice and to do more classes while I'm still journaling.  Rumble on.

Art Journaling - My New Passion

During the past eight months my interest in art journaling has blossomed into a passion which I believe I was led to in order to help me through a very difficult time. I started journaling back in March. I had kept a journal off an on throughout my life but always ended up ripping out the pages and destroying them for fear of someone reading them. I no longer have that fear. The need to express myself has exceeded the fear. Along the the line I also started doodling in my journal, which led me to Zentangle, which was, and still is, a fascinating and very satisfying way to decorate my journal entries. From there I discovered art journaling, and have become hooked on the concept because it allows me to excavate my heart, mind and soul, combining many of my interests - journaling, doodling, painting, Zentangle, collage, photography, meditation and yoga. Yes, I said meditation and yoga. Believe it or not, art journaling can help clear and calm the mind, which makes it a form of meditation and, combined with intention and the breath, it is also yoga (not quite that simple, but it will do). Pretty cool, huh? 

OK....I'm not going to get all serious here. I just want to say that this blog will primarily cover what I'm currently involved in, and right now that's art journaling and all it entails. So if anyone's out there, I'll be posting at least weekly, and hopefully more often once things get going. In the meantime, I'll be posting photos of what I've been doing and learning more about blogging as well.   Here I'll start by posting photos of doodles and tangles - the first things I tried...and I loved it.  It's just so meditative and unrestrictive...and there are so many places you can go online to learn how to do them.  It doesn't take long at all!  Just Google "doodling" or "Zentangle" and a whole new world will open up.

I stuck a bunch of happy face stickers on this page and doodled around them - and Voila - a Happy Garden!

Excavation - Tool or Distraction?

Twenty years ago or so, Sarah Ban Breathnach (not sure of spelling) wrote "Simple Abundance" and a couple of other books to assist us in excavating our authentic selves.  Before that, and ever since, with the help of Oprah and countless others, we've been working away at finding our true selves, following our "bliss," looking for happiness, and creating joy in our lives.  I'm no exception.  I've been digging around inside myself for a long time now, trying to figure out what makes me "tick" and what I really, really, really am inside.  I'm still digging.....and I'll probably be digging for the rest of my life.

The thing is, sometimes I think we dig too hard.  At least I think I've been digging too hard.  So hard, in fact, that maybe I'm missing the point.  But what is the point?  Am I digging just to learn more about myself, or just to learn, period.  Am I really trying to make my life better?  I guess I must be, but it occurred to me this morning that I get so busy "excavating" that a lot of times I'm missing out on life itself!  That's kind of defeating the purpose, isn't it?   Excavating my soul is supposed to improve my life, isn't it?   Or is it just distracting me from it?  I don't know, but I'll keep working on it.   In the meantime, here's my photo for today for Project Life 365.  I call it Bloom Where You're Planted (which in this case is on my aunt's dining room table).