I choose courage
the previous week's prompt at inspire me Thursday was nervous. these days I have a hard time relating to that thought. I decided that the opposite of "nervous" would much rather suit my present state of mind. this art journal page reflects that choice, together with a tiny touch of what "nervous" has done to me in the past.


a couple of journal pages from recent days. we've had very much wind and so i start thinking. all my own words



a couple of sunset captures from late Saturday afternoon on our way home from Saskatoon



my good buddies relaxing in the sun


The world does not remember us by our style or by our wit; it does not remember us by our knowledge or our words; no, the world remembers only one thing: The world remembers love.

Author Unknown
Inspiration Peak

Contemplation - cereal box art for Inspire Me Thursday:
One of the more recent prompts was to use a cereal box. I decided to investigate Carla Sonnheim's lead regarding what she has done. I chose to use some of Carla's techniques and some of my own. I have been enjoying using my own handcarved stamps and also Tsukineko inks so used both. I also love doing gel transfers so used one of my own photographs, extended and stretched it using the outline and then painting and again inking. I used some water soluble crayons as well.

contemplation

"Out beyond ideas
of wrongdoing and rightdoing,
there is a field.

I’ll meet you there.

When the soul lies down
in that grass,
the world is too full to talk about.

Ideas, language
- even the phrase “each other” -
do not make any sense."
Rumi

These glorious words by Rumi were the prompt for this past week at Inspire Me Thursday. While I am very late with my entry I could not resist this idea of looking to the sky. I love clouds, and angels.

To me, if one is
"looking up
to the ancestors

finding with awe
angels
and spirits"
- nothing else would really matter

Unfortunately our modem died last night and I was unable to submit this for Inspire Me Thursday as I would have liked. That is quite fine. Fitting to my resolutions I laughed and will share it here with you now.

Resolutions: while I am not much for New Year’s Resolutions I have decided to share with you a couple of hopes I hold in my heart for this year. I realize that it is also quite late to be sharing these but Inspire Me Thursday still has “New Year Resolutions” for its theme. I thought I would go ahead.

The art journal page is about laughter. It looks at kisses tickling. I was thinking of any kind of tickling, including tickles of one’s sense of humour. It all works. My hope for this year is to try to remember to laugh more often. Laughter is very good for my body and soul.



The flat canvas is 8 x 10 inches. “Sunshine on my shoulder” brings to me the hope that I might feel sunshine within my heart even on the cloudiest of days.





Angels be with you,
Wendy

Happy Halloween: Inspire me Thursday has the prompt of trick or treat for Halloween. On Saturday my husband took me for a bit of a drive in the country and we were able as our last stop to get quite close to this abandoned house. I've a particular interest in abandoned buildings and so took the opportunity to take some photos.
I didn't step inside of this particular house. As my husband pointed out there's a basement, which this picture shows, could be dangerous.



















The floor looks absolutely beautiful as do some of the other details. Unfortunately it's been left behind to stand as a perfect example of a spooky Halloween house. I didn't spot any critters at the time of day we visited but there are definite indications of house swallow nests from the past.














Here's wishing all a happy hallow's eve.

Autumn 4x4s: For this week's prompt at Inspire me Thursday the word "square" was chosen. If you are an artist you know that this opens numerous possibilities. I've decided to go with 4x4s. Because I love autumn textures and colours and feel so blessed at this time of year, I've decided to go with an autumn splendour quartet. The fourth is quite different from the rest in that the background is blue and the picture is different. I happened to already have it cut to a 4x4 size.
This first one was done on a piece of yellow cardstock. I printed my own background of rust onto it and then applied gold ink. After a couple of minutes I rubbed the ink with a baby wipe. Next I applied a stamp over the entire piece. I used the printed photo and sewed it on. I finished it with stamps for the words and the addition of the brad.











The background for the second was done on watercolour with acrylic and water. Then I used inks which I again rubbed off with baby wipes. I used stamps and I think some walnut ink spray. I glued the picture this time and also used a sakura goldie for some of the words. I did a tiny bit of sanding on the photo edges.

















The third was just done on a piece of decorative paper.
For this one I tried using a gel transfer for the words. Same picture, same sewing, same application of brad finalized this one.



















The fourth was using a blue background done with acrylic and water on watercolour paper with a bit of salt. After it was dry I printed some of my own handwriting which had been scanned and stretched a bit, onto the paper. Different picture, same treatment. I used a gold ink pad and pencil eraser to do a couple of gold stamped images.

Teeny-tiny watercolour and a befuddlement: Watercolour again done quickly. Inspire me Thursday had watercolor for the theme this week also and so I squeezed in this quick 3.5 x 5 inch watercolour based on the photograph. I'm feeling better with this but would really like to get into it more. I used a black uniball for the details and added a tiny bit with caran d'ache crayons again.

Life is kind of a befuddlement at this time. I won't go into details but will ask for prayers for a high school good friend that had a baseball sized tumour removed in a major surgery yesterday. I just learned of it this afternoon. Her name is Jeanne.
There are all kinds of other challenges as well but know that I am doing very well considering and that for some reason numerous people keep sending me angels in spirit and angel pictures and all kinds of angels. Thank you sincerely.



Angels be with you,
Wendy

She looked to the setting sun: The theme this week for inspire me Thursday is watercolor. I think I tried that theme once before and just never got back to the watercolours. I often think I should try to do more sketching and painting but, when I get into my 200th year perhaps, maybe heaven? I started with too much paint, not enough water. It got too dark.









After it dried I misted it with a very light spray of tiny pink in water. That lightened it quite nicely.










I thought it was a pretty boring piece so decided to add the tree, and some words, and the angel. For those I used caran d'ache crayons and a silver marker. I got a bit carried away with the marker on the angel. Oh well. Notice the wind blowing gently through her hair. Hmm, I think the wind is blowing her skirt in the other direction. A spinny angel? Reminds me of someone I know.



Angels be with you,
Wendy

Dancing purples

Copycat: The weekly prompt this week for Inspire me Thursday is copycat. While cruising around on flickr this morning I happened upon the photos of Ms. Ladyred. This is my first feeble attempt to do something remotely along similiar lines. The original was taken at the farm, creekside, last weekend.

Words: For inspire me Thursday's theme this week we are to choose some words and be inspired by them. I chose to do a bit of a different twist on this and created around the meaning of all words in my life. I tended to be more of a writer in the last few years and only within the past year have been trying to merge into the visual arts while still using words, usually my own, within my art.
The collage is blue paper with handwriting applied to 81/2 x 11 card stock and then stamped with ink. The larger words and image are done digitally and then printed onto the card stock. The buttons - chosen to add some whimsy.


These are the words found in "my tiny treasury".

May words inspire you with every step you take.
Angels be with you.

Tears: "There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than 10,000 tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love. "

Washington Irving

This is a quotation from Inspire me Thursday for this theme of tears. It was actually the theme for last week. I was having difficulty posting last night.

I've not actually been crying very much in the past weeks, months. When I stop to think about it the feeling is like having lost a very good friend. I am tending to keep things bottled up inside instead of letting the tears wash them away. Sigh. Hopefully that can change for me soon.

Angels be with you.

Books - last week's theme for Inspire me Thursday. I'm a bit late as it's Thursday and a new theme is posted. I'll share this with you anyway.

Layers - a journal quilt made with fabric of cling wrap. I saw this technique on the blog of faerydi. As I knew I had some fuschia coloured cling wrap in the basement, someplace, for a number of years, I decided to give this a try. Basically you layer fabric and thread bits on top of a piece of cling wrap and put another layer of the wrap again. You iron this together, of course with parchment paper on top and bottom, and then you add as many layers as you like. There are real fabric layers because I turned it into a kind of quilt. I just used flannel between the top and bottom. The binding, if you can call it that , is quite rough. That's the way I wanted it. Besides, I didn't have lots of time to study up and practice as I wanted to finish this to get it into Inspire me Thursday. I hope I'm not too late.

"Wanted" is the word I pointed at when I chose one of the books closest to me, opened the book and pointed at a word, as instructed for random word spark, be inspired to play, for Inspire me Thursday. At first I looked longingly at the words close by - seasons, color. Then I stopped to think about this word. How close could one be to the word wish? There are many things for which I wish. There must certainly be something artful I could create surrrounding the word "wanted". I had thoughts, ideas. My mind took me to a place in time to which I return, expecially when I allow myself the time. You see "I wanted", and I still want...

This is also the second last day for AEM. I may not get to posting any art tomorrow because I must prepare and travel for meetings in Regina on Friday. Starting tomorrow afternoon I will be away from computer for more than 48 hours. Hmmm. Might be tough. I'll try to post on Saturday if I am able to actually do any art tomorrow, November 30.

I was having difficulty with this art journal page. I ended up doing things over a few times. Consequently the words were done mainly with a cheap bic pen. I would probably go over them with a gel pen if I did not need any sleep this night.

The rider and horse are not that which I saw a few years ago. That rider was long and lithe, perhaps more so because her limbs seemed to flow, together with the horse. She rode bareback.

Some day...