Friday, July 24, 2015

Memories Lost but Found {Art Journaling}

DLP July 17 Lost Memories

This week’s Documented Life Project:

July Theme -Ephemera
July 18 - Art Challenge: Photographs & Memories
Journal Prompt: "All that I have to remember you"-Jim Croce

None of the elements in this collage are MINE. I have many vintage photos, saved for Heritage Scrapbook Albums I WILL get done someday. I am the photo collector/keeper for my entire family. So, there are any number of photos I could have used for this challenge. But, for some reason, I kept thinking about the trips my husband and I have made, to antique shops, not looking for antique furniture pieces, but for old music, books, and other vintage ephemera. Invariably, there are old photos (snapshots, "studio" portraits), music that has someone's name on it, old postcards, etc. While I love finding such things, to take home and use in my art journaling, I am at the same time SO SAD to think about why those items are in an antique shop....instead of in the hands of loved ones...it is just so sad to me. Will that be MY sheet music one day?

So, this piece is" Lost Memories" and is basically nothing more than a collage of an old piece of sheet music (1928), a couple of vintage postcards, and an old photograph. None of these things were mine. But they belonged to someone. Some time long ago. Memories. Lost.

I posted the above paragraphs, along with the photo of my project, on the Documented Life Project Facebook group page, and have gotten some comments that remind me that, now, these things have been “saved” and have been shared with others. That does make me feel some better, but it still does seem that loved ones should have these things in their possession. Or maybe I should say, someone should have been close enough to this family that they would have WANTED to have these things in their possession.

Memories are important to me, and they are almost always happy, for me. But lost memories—that is sad to me.

Monday, July 13, 2015

He Makes it Beautiful {Bible Art Journaling}

Bible Art Ecc 3-11

I love this passage (I say that a lot; I mean it every time). The KJV says “he hath made every thing beautiful in his time.” I love that, because it reminds me that it is all about His timing. What does not seem beautiful at all today may be breathtakingly beautiful at a later time (an image of a caterpillar comes to my mind, because I don’t like the picture of anything that resembles a worm…but we all know what happens to a caterpillar in time).

Most other translations say “in its time.” I don’t think of it any differently than “in His time,” because it’s still God’s timing. The time for something to be beautiful is up to God. He is after all the Creator and Sustainer of Life.

Often, a part of a verse that is memorized and quoted by many will be within a passage whose entirety gives a much broader picture. That is the case with this entire verse:

He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
Ecc 3:11 (NIV)

Monday, July 6, 2015

Vintage {Art Journal}

DLP July 4 Sisters History

Documented Life Project:

July Theme - Ephemera
July 4 - Art Challenge: Using Old Maps, Letters, Tickets & More
Journal Prompt:  Life...with a history

I used vintage papers, sheet music, a very old book and a post card collected from antique shops, as well as a vintage Simplicity pattern, and a studio photo of myself and my sister from 1951.

I had just turned 4 and she was almost 3. I remember the dresses. Mother made most of our clothes, and she dressed the two of us alike most of the time, except for the colors of our dresses. These dresses were polka-dotted with solid trim. Being a redhead, I did not wear red. My sister’s dress was red, and mine was navy blue.

Thursday, July 2, 2015

Circles and Sticks {Art Journaling}

Chalk Challenge-Blackboard Circles and Sticks

One of my challenges this week (I have three per week) is to use CHALK in an art journal spread. Although I recently did another piece on primary school, I reverted to the theme once again, as the challenge prompt just directed me that way!

I have noticed in the last few days, I find myself creating from my inner, private, comfortable, happy place. I think it’s my reaction/rebellion to all the CRAP I’m seeing in social media and in the news. I love the simpler times, and I love the values that were honored—and TAUGHT—in those times. For me, the happy memories of the way-past always include classrooms, teaching, teaching supplies and tools, and primary children.

I used Chalkboard Paint (yes, there is such a thing) to make a blackboard in the middle of the right page. I used a white chalk marker to write on the blackboard, using manuscript letters of circles and sticks (that’s the way we taught manuscript printing back in the day).

I just put down some basic primary colors (acrylic paint), remembering the year I taught kindergarten, and how we would have a day of the week for each primary and secondary color. It was such fun! On RED day, for example, we wore red and everything we talked about and worked on that day was all about RED. See, simple! (When you saw Mrs. Ford’s class in the lunch line, you didn’t have to wonder what we were studying that day!)

Yes, I admit it. I long for the simpler times. I smile, just remembering!

Chalk Challenge-Blackboard Circles and Sticks

Wednesday, July 1, 2015

A Word Fitly Spoken {Bible Art Journaling}

Bible Art Prov 25-11

My mother had several verses that she would quote as her favorite verses. This was one of them, as was the verse about “A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger.” (Proverbs 15:1, KJV)

Mother was not particularly soft-spoken, and I often thought she liked to quote verses that she wanted herself to hear. I believe that, because the same is true for me—I often preach to myself (if only I would listen more attentively!).

This verse is more often quoted with something like “settings of silver,” but the KJV “pictures of silver” is the way I memorized it, and this sketch I created in my KJV Journaling Bible is a representation of what always came to my mind when I heard or read this verse.

A major frustration for mixed media artists is that when we use anything shiny or glittery or metallic, it is next to impossible to take a photo that shows the shine. I used metallic silver and gold Gelatos for the frame and the apples, but it’s not obvious that they are “silver” and “gold.”