Thursday, September 13, 2012

Faces, Tangles, and Journal Pages oh my!

I love mixing styles -- can't you tell?  Fairies are on my mind because Inspiration Avenue is gearing up for the Fairy's Tea party on September 23.  And when the Diva's challenge this week was to break free of the traditional string, fairy tangles seemed the thing to do!  Then, A Year in the Life of an Art Journal challenged us to say something to ourselves of 10 years ago.   So I decided to put them all together!

Ten years ago, I was a 44 year old mother of an 11 and 1 year old.  Samy, then 1, demanded constant interaction and connection.  She was sweet, loving, cheerful, and exhausting.  Mariel, then 11, was just starting see me as a separate human being, and of course beginning to notice that I was less than perfect.  That summer, she developed Bell's Palsy as a result of lyme disease and her face was partially paralyzed (it has since gone away).  Her dad and I were in an extremely acrimonious phase of our often turbulent post divorce life and were only able to communicate through a mediator.  Needless to say, life was stressful.  Now that Mariel is 21, and Samy is 11, most of my days are calm and joyous.  I learned so much about myself and life over the past 10 years.  Even though Samy still loves to chat, she can also become immersed in a book.  Mariel's dad and I have an uneasy friendship, and of course, Mariel is glorious and all grown up now -- 21 and a senior in college.  Ten years ago, I couldn't imagine that I would be in a place where I would spend significant time painting, meditating, practicing yoga, and working in my garden.  And although the journey was sometimes difficult and traumatic, the years seem to have flown by.  Sometimes you have to look back at your past and smile at how far you've come!

The challenge at Stampotique is to use orange, mustard and navy -- not colors I usually use too much.  But I love how they all worked together in this piece.

The lady in this art journal page was inspired by this photo on the Moxie Fab blog.  I'm sorry I didn't photograph the process on this page -- the background went through so many different variations -- and most of the time I hated it so much!  But in the end, I rescued it and now I like it -- something I wouldn't have believed I could have said even 2 hours ago!

I got the idea to add the rectangle for journaling from this great video on Roben-Marie Smith's blog.  If you haven't seen her tutorials, check her out.  She's amazing!  Also, she is closing out her online art shop and there are a lot of great deals to be had!

I watched another great tutorial on layering stencils on Ronda Palazzari's blog.  She has created albums to store all her stencils, and shows how she decorated the album covers.  This tutorial is applicable to all sorts of projects, and I highly recommend it!

Speaking of Ronda, she will be our first guest artist on "Fall Fearless and Fly," the challenge Carolyn Dube and I are co-hosting at Artists in Blogland.  Every other week, there will be artistic prompts designed to get you thinking about setting intentions and shedding emotional baggage to step into 2013 as your bravest, most fearless self.  Have you ever done a juice cleanse?  Think of this as an art cleanse!  Any medium goes, and Aritsts In Blogland has great prizes and giveaways.  Each week, there will be an amazing guest artist participating!  Carolyn and I will be kicking off the art on October 1st.  Here is the line up of our guest artists: Rhonda Palazzari, Jane Davies, Maria McGuire, Marcia Beckett, Dina Wakley, and Joanne Sharpe!


While you are waiting for October 1st to roll around, check out the websites of these amazing artists & grab the blog button to help spread the word about all the fun we’re going to have!

Happy Paint Party Friday and Show and Tell Saturday and Creative Every Day!

Thank you for visiting! If you are so moved, please leave a comment. Hearing from you means the world to me.

40 comments:

  1. Wow what fabulous journal pages and I love the story behind them. Thank you so much for sharing with us at Stampotique Designers Challenge x

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your mixture of verse, color,zentangle, and design is always pleasure to behold!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wonderful drawings, love the hand lettering and tangles!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Your writing is like a mirror to you. I am sure some cleansing must have happened when you recalled your 10 years. Nice art too!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Gorgeous journalling pages, those colours were a challenge to me too! It was good to read the reasons behind the page. Thanks for joining us at Stampotique.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Great post ~ glad to hear you are doing so well ~ We all go through difficulties and learn from them as you have ~ love your art creation ~ very creative ~ (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  7. what an interesting and inspiring post. It is so interesting to learn how far you've come in the last 10 years and it certainly sounds like you're in a much better place in your head, heart and life in general these days! wonderful journal pages inspired by your story as well.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. Loving both your works but especially love the first picture. Happy PPF, Annette x

    ReplyDelete
  9. Wonderful artwork and post!
    So glad your life is full of peace and joy now!
    Inspiring!

    ♥♥♥
    Happy PPF!!
    Mary
    Mixed-Media Map Art

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Jessica!!!! love all of your work....and your wonderful story!!! wishing you a wonderful day!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Great colors, I love these delightful compositions, beautiful and sweet faces.

    ReplyDelete
  12. your pieces are beautiful... so reflective of your inspiring journey!

    ReplyDelete
  13. beautiful pieces, glad you are in a happy place these days!

    ReplyDelete
  14. What a rich post full of so much yummyness!! I love your girls the first pertains to me too with a similar divorce situation in my past!!

    The words about love are so true, I enlarged your work to see the words and I wish the world would focus on the love. It's so worth it!!

    I'll check out all those blogs you gave us, and hope to join your fall art challenge.

    Happy ppf...your work is so BEAUTIFUL!! Love the colors too!!

    Hugs Giggles

    ReplyDelete
  15. Love your journal pages, and good to read your story. Hope life goes smoothly for you all now! Valerie

    ReplyDelete
  16. Beautiful work and wonderful sentiment. I love both pieces, but especially the first one!

    Rita

    ReplyDelete
  17. Isn't it wonderful to look back and see how far we've come... and to feel like we're in a good place!?! Your art work is a beautiful reflection of that. I particularly like the first piece. The colors are rich and warm and her zentangled wings are such a lovely representation of hope and positivity. very nice!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Wow! That's wonderful! I love all the colors in your painting and how you used the girly lamp thingy as inspiration. Great job! Happy PPF!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I really appreciate when artists such as yourself are open about sharing parts of their lives with the rest of us. It makes everyone that much more real to me.I can tell you from even further up the hill in life that it just keeps getting better and better. You sound like you are in a great place right now!

    Your art pages are fun and joyous. I'm glad you got over the hump with the one and are happy with it now.

    ReplyDelete
  20. It is such a positive thing to look back at bad times and see how they went away. Helps with the new bad or bad-ish times now:) I liked both the words you wrote and the image you created and of course, I love the colour you used.

    ReplyDelete
  21. This is absolutely awesome and so are your words. Thanks for joining us at the Stampotique DC

    ReplyDelete
  22. Wonderful artwork.
    Thanks for joining in with us at Stampotique this week.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh my - lovely pages! I especially love the first one and it's message!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  24. It's lovely to hear the stories behind the paintings. Beautiful work again! Thanks for sharing those links, going to check them out now!

    ReplyDelete
  25. It is funny how life changes so completely! I love these pages! Also, i received your aceo's thank you so much, they are great! I love your faces!... I have mailed yours out last week so you should have them soon! Take care!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Your pieces are magical. So true, its nice to be able to look back and smile at how far we have come. I'm very excited about the October adventure over at Artists in Blogland. Can't wait. Happy PPF

    ReplyDelete
  27. I admire you all the more now for your courage and honesty! writing about and looking back at the past with a smile is a BIG thing! Thank you for inspiring and the beautiful art!

    ReplyDelete
  28. OHMYGOSH! 1st time I have ever been here and there is SO very much to see! and so many links to venture off on. LOVE the message you shared in both your words and your art! I'll be back ... happy PPF all weekend long!

    ReplyDelete
  29. What a beautiful page - very inspiring story and message. Thank you for joining in with us over at Stampotique and hope to see you again. Polly x

    ReplyDelete
  30. I can't even imagine the time it took you to do your doodles, I am too impatient. This post made me think back to where I was ten years ago, Still in an abusive relationship and about to become pregnant with my son, so hard to believe where I am now, and that that was even my life once. Back then I couldn't even have imagined I would be painting one day, or happy and peaceful. If only I could have seen into the future!

    ReplyDelete
  31. Beautiful journal pages and story to go along with it showing how far you have come in those years. Thanks for joining us at SDC this week.

    ReplyDelete
  32. just love your pages...and your handwriting so gorgeous

    ReplyDelete
  33. Lovely pages and lovely colours. Thank you for uploading to the Stampotique challenge this week. x

    ReplyDelete
  34. Your journal pages are spectacular, and I love the sentiment, so very true!!!

    ReplyDelete
  35. I wanted to thank-you so much for the mention on your blog! I really appreciate it and glad you have enjoyed the videos. Cheers! :) RM

    ReplyDelete

If you are entering a GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event we need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this:

jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!