Art Journal Catchup

I have fallen terribly far behind in the Documented Life Project that I talked about in my first post. This week I jumped back into it completing a page digitally for one of the weeks I missed. I also made a print out of all the challenge information so that I can look for inspiration. Below is that missing week as well as several previously completed challenges.

Week Five

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 31

Art Challenge:  Under Paper (paper on your work table that gets all inky while you work)

Journal Prompt:  What Lies Beneath?

January Focus Word- Truth

“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.  But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.”

James 1:5-6 (NIV)

When I saw the prompt I immediately thought of sea monsters, kraken, sea dragons...I think its the geek in me coming out. The verse for the week also struck a chord with me. For quite some time my husband and I have been struggling with fertility issues and trying to decide what route to take has been complicated and stressful. While we both try to keep a positive face we always have stress and doubts about our options and decisions lurking beneath the surface. I had originally intended to write about our struggles and bury it under a painted copy of the wave but got distracted by other things. I created the version below by combining several other pictures in photoshop.

Week Two

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 10

Art Challenge:  Gesso

Journal Prompt:  “The beginning is always today.” -Mary Shelley

January Focus Word- Truth

"Show me your ways, Lord, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you  all day long." Psalms 25:4-5

I focused on the theme of paths and journeys, and was also inspired by Psalms 119:105 ( Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.)

Week Three

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 17

Art Challenge:  The Color Wheel

Journal Prompt:  "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way . . . “ - Georgia O’Keeffe

January Focus Word- Truth

"Lord, teach me your ways, and I will live and obey your truths. Help me make worshiping your name the most important thing in my life. Psalm 86:11 (ERV)

I decided early in this week that I wanted to try Zentangle for the color wheel but I never found a really good way to connect it to the verse. I looked up verses about rainbow and included one along with the regular weekly verse. For more information about Zentangle check out https://www.zentangle.com/.

Week Four

January Theme-The Blank Page and How to Face It!

January 24

Art Challenge:  Writing

Journal Prompt:  Words with Friends

January Focus Word- Truth

I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Right before this challenge came out my husband and I had a kind of strange conversation. When I can't sleep its usually because my brain is too active so I play a game to distract myself where I try to come up with words in a certain category for each letter of the alphabet. This particular night I was actually doing a trio: Animal, Food, and Place. So I came up with Rhinoceros from Russia who likes Rutabagas. Sometimes if he's awake Bear will help is I get stuck on a letter. In this case we were both nearly asleep and had a whole conversation about how maybe the Rhino worked as a guard in a Siberian Prison and only feed the prisoners Rutabagas. . . Lack of sleep makes all sorts of things funny. Anyways I used that as my words with friends inspiration and made a totally separate page for Documented Faith using a card created by Documented Faith organizer Stephanie Ackerman.

Week 6

February Theme-Layers You Will Love!

February 7

Art Challenge:  When Not To Stop

Journal Prompt:  "Don't Stop Til You Get Enough!" (Ooh)

February Focus Word- Believe

“If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." Matthew 21:22

This page was also inspired by our fertility struggles but came at a time where we were both hopeful and felt like we were finally beginning to make progress. That bird is ready for some eggs to fill its empty nest. Yellow and turquoise are one of my favorite color combinations. The bird was created by Becca Kallem as part of a set of Christmas ornaments.

While I feel a little bad about being so far behind I'm still glad that I'm at least trying to make time in my life for art and I hope you enjoy seeing what I have so far.