Bloom Where You're Planted

Another day, another challenge.  This time, from A Year in the Life of an Art Journal.  The challenge is to use the prompt: "Bloom Where You're Planted," and to use flower embellishments or stickers.  So here's what I did:
1. cover page with gesso and scrape it with the side of a credit card to get texture.
2. use that credit card to move around blue, white and some green paint for a background. 
3. use a circle stencil and a baby wipe to scrub away paint to reveal white gesso underneath.
4. think about using, but then reject, flower embellishments and go for drawing flowers with a Pitt Pen.
5.  paint the flowers with acrylic and Sakura Souffle pens.
6.  Mask off flowers and stamp some small circles using yellow acrylic paint on the stamp.
7. Add more circles with a white uniball pen.
8. Add the phrase with a mixture of my handwriting and letter stamps.

I loved working on this prompt because it fits right in with my yoga practice.  We so often look for happiness in external things -- a new job, new relationship, new clothes or tech gadgets.  These things might give us a jolt of pleasure, and then the sensation wears off and we look for the next thing.  But until we are content wherever we are and with whatever we have -- until we can bloom wherever we're planted -- lasting happiness will always escape us.  For a great video on this, check out one of my favorite teachers, Lama Marut.
Thanks for visiting!