Week 11: Let’s Pause to Celebrate

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Okay, this week is going to look a little different than intended. In part because when I started the follow-up to last week’s painting a memory, things went a little sideways. I need to figure out a different approach. We will get back to memory, but there’s another reason to do something different this week. Because this week, Week 11 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey, I’m launching 50 for My 50th.

50 for My 50th

I have a birthday coming up next month, on the 11th. It’s my 50th. To celebrate, I’m gifting a $50 Blick Art Materials gift certificate to one of you.

And more about that later.

First, the art.

If you’d like to watch the video before you read, scroll on down…

Let’s celebrate

Today’s art is celebrating YOU… celebrating US. One thing on the 52-Week Art Journal Journey suggested supplies list is old magazines. We’re going to use those this week. I have several discarded from the library where I work, as I, like more people than when I was growing up, don’t subscribe to any magazines. How many of you who read magazines get them digitally? That’s another thing you can do with a library card!

For this small art, you’ll need at least one magazine (that everyone is done with) to look through for things that appeal to you, that represent aspects of your self and life, or literally describe you.

That CELEBRATE you. Your uniqueness.

You deserve to be celebrated. And you deserve, more than that, you need time for creative self-care.

Getting started

There’s more than one way to approach this week’s art fun.

You can go through your magazines, choose your elements, then create a composition based on what you find.

I decided that I wanted to just break out the colors and start with painting a background.

You don’t need to have a background; it’s completely up to you. You may not even have any uncovered space on your page.

Start as you want. Create as you want. Finish how you want.

As long as it’s you.

Express yourself

If you watch this week’s video you’ll see that I didn’t quite stick to the “rules,” at least not the original rules to create a journal page all about just celebrating me.

Have fun.

Express yourself. 

Capture something real about you, about your life, about something that means something to you, on your journal page.

Or more than one page if you find the time.

Go through your magazines and find the words and pictures and colors and textures that catch your eye in a meaningful way, that represent something about you… your experiences… your goals… or even “just” your creativity itself.

You many need scissors, but sometimes tearing is the thing to do. You’ll definitely need glue. Paint, markers, colored pencils or other means of laying down color are optional and at your discretion.

What I created

My first page painting for this week rather followed the theme of my less-than-pleasant memory painting from last week. Happy sunshine days are wonderful. Those cheerful positive moments when so much seems possible.

But life isn’t all sunshine and flowers.

And that’s okay.

We don’t get to choose all of our experiences.

But we don’t have to let them define us.

We’re more than what’s happened to us.

And we’re more than what we’ve done.

Some of you know that for several years I struggled with, suffered with, barely survived SEVERE depression.

And if you’re feeling broken, lost, hopeless, I’m here to remind you that, yes, the sun always does shine again.

I love using my thick dark deep purple paint. And I also love using yellow. I think that’s because that’s what’s real. That’s life,. That’s ME. There’s the dark. And there’s the sunlight. For a while in my life, the swings between the two were dramatic. But with, yes, medication, healthy choices, and refusal to give up paired with learning to just ride it out when I had given up, I’m still here, and reclaiming my art is something that keeps me even more stable.

 

Thank you for joining me for another week of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey, and for taking the time for creative self-care. It’s so important.

Be sure to enter for your chance to be gifted a $50 Blick Art Materials gift certificate, and help me celebrate my birthday by encouraging you to be creative. Here’s the link.

And here’s this week’s video…