You aren't alone in this

I've made a third new journal "55" that I'll talk about in the near future. But for tonight, this is the journal spread I'm posting.

 

Some really wonderful things happened to me in 2014. And some really hard things. Life is so very beautiful and so very hard. 

 Once again I used Sheer Heaven to transfer this image of an angel. Like so many others artists, I construct my journals using Fabriano Artistico Hot Press Watercolor Paper, 140 lb, 22 x 30 inches. 

I used spatters of paint and glitter and added a star embellishment. 

I did the brush lettering I love so much with a Pentel brush pen and stamped the text with some vintage rubber stamps I hoard. More paint and glitter sparkles and another star.  For what it's worth, I always stand when I brush letter so I use my whole arm and you can't be too precious about it.

We all need reassurance we aren't alone. Even when it feels that way. I hope the Angels look after all of us.

Be Daring

journal front

Quite unlike me, but I made 2 new art journals this year. My last journal took 5 years to finish, so maybe these two new ones will see me into my golden years (I'll post the 2nd one in the future).  I call this one my "moon journal". Which automatically makes me think of the "moon roof" from Game of Thrones, but that's a post for another day.

The lovely illustration I incorporated here is from Melissa Sweet, an illustrator I worship. I really truly love her and everything she creates. She illustrated the most beautiful book about the poet William Carlos Williams, A River of Words, and this illustration is from that book. It goes without saying that I honor her work and only use it for my own personal use in my journal and in this blog post.

A recent double-page spread. Unlike scrapbookers and many artists, I never use photographs from my actual life in my journals. I  have boards of color palettes and inspirational photographs
on my Pinterest site and I use them constantly for  journal fodder.

For this spread, I watered down some Jewel-It glue and made splatters across the pages. I covered those splatters with fine glitter.  I have to have a little bit of glitter in everything I do.

I have a close friend who's daughter is named "Dare". Isn't that the most awesome name for a child, girl or boy?!

journal back

Be brave, be daring, and just jump.

Harsh and Exciting

And the lovely poem that inspired this set here. 

Show your magic

Part One

THE AGE OF MYSTERY

Egypt Before Time

...It is quite one thing to perform the mysteries on inanimate objects, to cause boulders to melt into lava, to dry up a stream with the force of one's breath, for it is well-known that all things exist in all forms at all times; it's merely a matter of learned skills to shift them from one state into another. But to transform oneself--- that is the thing that will tempt and terrify every Practitioner, in one form or another, for as long as he lives. Many an adept, quite competent in all other areas, will never achieve the state of simple Oneness that is necessary to become another living being. But for the three of us, in that long-ago time in the House of Ra, the gift came easily. Perhaps too easily. 

 There has been much debate over the millennia as to whether the transformation was literal, physical transmutation of matter, or an equally literal, but far less demonstrable, transfiguration of spirit. Did I become the frog <deer>, or did I merely cast my consciousness into the essence of frog-ness <deer-ness>, and did I do it with such power and conviction as to cause others to see me as I saw myself- in the form of a frog <deer>? I tell you now it is one and the same. All magic is an illusion, and all reality is only what one perceives it to be, and in the world in which we lived the fine line between these two planes of existence was so faint as to be almost invisible.

This passage is from Donna Boyd's excellent work The Alchemist. If you are a fan of Lev Grossman's The Magicians, you'll find Boyd's lyrical writing just as wonderful. Although I'm only  four chapters into The Alchemist, it makes me think very much of Norman Mailer's Ancient Evenings.  You may be asking yourself, "what does a deer in the woods have to do with ancient Egypt?" In fact, the real inspiration for this spread was the beautiful book, Sunshine by Robin McKinley. Published in 2004, before sparkly vampire-mania exploded, Sunshine is just that, a beautiful prism of sunlight piercing through the dark genre and it puts the Twilight series to shame. It's wonderful.

Reluctantly returning back to this time/space continuum, this is one of my very favorite journal spreads. I used bleach to get that mottled look, a deer stencil that I cut out and glittered, stars that I stenciled and connected with a stardust gel pen to get a look of constellations.

I'm sorry the pictures just don't do the pages justice. I guess some things need to remain a mystery.

I call myself beloved

And did you get what you wanted from this life, even so?
I did.
And what did you want?
To call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on this earth.
- Raymond Carver 

*The beautiful bird photographs are from Pinterest.The lovely main bird is by Naoto Kitamura, and I'm not certain who the artist is for the small yellow bird.

What are all these kisses worth?

From my Spark journal. One of my favorite pages.

Love's Philosophy

The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of Heaven mix for ever
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single,
All things by a law divine
In one spirit meet and mingle -
Why not I with thine?

See the mountains kiss high Heaven
And the waves clasp one another;
No sister-flower would be forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
And the sunlight clasps the earth,
And the moonbeams kiss the sea -
What are all these kissings worth
If thou kiss not me?       

 Percy Bysshe Shelley