Bold and Loud

This clementis is flowering out loud in the garden. Not one ounce of modesty, absolutely not. The colours are bright, the flower is large and the stripes are so bold.
Everytime I see them, I need to smile!

Little Guide Book: Remember Your Strength

Something to remember: all the things - great, small and even smaller - that I have achieved in my life. Just by not giving up, using my strength an determination to keep on going. Although I can see my weaknesses, I can also see the strength that I have developed during the past years. I think it is good to stand still so now and then, and remember my own power.

Little Guide Book: Nourish

Sometimes you need to take the time to nourish your soul. To fill it up with light, ideas, inspiration, peace and space.

Little Guide Book: Reconnect

Reconnect: the word says it all. Reconnect with oneself, with nature, with people, with the world.

Little Guide Book: Express

A great reminder: go ahead girl, express yourself freely. Something I have to get used to after all these years of carefully weighing my words and considering them before saying something.

Little Guide Book: Shine

Another spread in The Little Guide Book, a reminder to stand still and see what - despite all the rough years - I did accomplish in my life despite everything. There are no medals, no awards and no papers to remember these achievements. And I am way too modest to talk about it. I have to learn to let it all shine instead of hiding it all away.

This artjournal has good drawing paper, the pages were coloured with watery acrylic paint washes in soft colours. Gesso has been lightly brushed over the picture and page - smeared with fingers as well.
The big letter text has been traced from chipboard letters, small text has been stamped. Journaling text written with a thin marker (the old Tria Markers). The edges of the spread has been inked with a brown stamppad.

Question: Where Do Cats Come From?

So I finally understand where cats come from: they just grow in pots. And here is a snapshot from Pico (the dark, moody and black cat) proving this theory of mine. :-)

Have a nice day!

Art Journal Becomes a Personal Guidebook for 2011

My little art journal is starting to become a little personal guide book with kind reminders for myself. This spread was all about Compassion.

To me, it is so much easier to feel compassion towards others, even people I have never met, then to allow myself some compassion.

I expect from myself that I have to bounce back immediately after each adversity, I am very critical about the things that I have done and often blame myself when things are not going the way they should be.
Strange, because that is not the way I feel about other people. I experience patience, compassion, understanding and - as long as I am not driving :-) - I am not that crital at all about others.

So this spread is a reminder for me to allow myself more compassion to myself, the same way I feel towards my family, friends and even strangers.

Interrupted by Spring

Personally, I think Spring is the most positive season. After the long, grey and dark winter comes Spring and offers us hope and let nature become alive again.
The sun intensifies and the light gets brighter, nature start showing off her power and everywhere you feel the sense of rebirth.

I love to watch the tiny buds that start to grow and then burst open to unfold new leaves. It feels like Spring is opening up and showing the good and beautiful things in life.
So I really love Spring.

And with all the magic and wonder around me, I tend to go outside, away from the computer and watch all the miracles unfolding in my own backyard. Seems that Spring is getting all my attention and I forget to post the dozens of pictures that I took to post here on my blog.
So I apoligise for my absence, Springtime is my excuse, that is, if you need an excuse.

Here are more pages of the little art journal that I used to choose my One Little Word for 2011. The word Soul had then already been chosen, but I just loved the way of making a page about an inspirational word.
In a way, this art journal is becoming a kind of personal Little Guide Book.

Learn to Focus

My art journal had brought me the word of 2011 for me: Soul. But I did not want to stop here. It was so relaxing to work these pages in this simple style that developed throughout the book. The use of those gentle words and my own thoughts in journaling kept me coming back to this journal and adding more words and ideas to guide me through this year of transition.

So for this spread I had chosen the word Focus...

Life can be so interesting, if you open your eyes, there is so much going on right now. The internet is an enormous source of inspiration - and it brings forth so many new ideas to develop and experiment with - that sometimes it can make me restless. I want to try this, I want to try that, of and if I do this...
All these ideas that trail off from one to another, it just keeps on going and can cause some turmoil inside of me.

I try to deal with this (fun) turmoil by scribbling ideas on pieces of paper and making lists of things that I want to do. Thinking that by writing them down, it will ease my mind and calm me down. But I am so open for new and inspiring ideas, so quickly diverted, that it really needs quite some effort to streamline my thoughts.

This page was made to remind me that it is about time that I learn to focus. That I need to set my priorities, focus and a few good things and start working from there.
It would help me to give more attention to the things that really matter - life wise and art wise.

But I think that I need to practise it first. Little baby steps, tiny steps...

Forgive Lead to the Choice of my Word for 2011

This word was not on top of my list; Forgive. But after making the spread with Heart, I guess I wanted to go further in this direction. Forgive. It is a pretty big word and holds a lot of meaning.

When I thought about it, what crossed my mind first was the question if I would be able to forgive myself for all the mistakes that I made in the past.
Especially since I ended up in a situation in my life where I really did not want to be. And I understood that I had been ignoring a lot of signs, moments and opportunities. Someone told me that I was very judgmental towards myself.

She was right. And so the subtitle for this spread came up: don't beat yourself up. Forgive yourself. You have tried with all the right intentions.

When I was working with these kind words, I felt that the word for 2011 would be Soul. Taking care of my inner feelings, taking care of my spirit, listening to my heart, allowing time to heal old wounds. Being kind to myself and forgiving myself. Soul would be the word that held all these kind of actions, feelings and intentions.

So Soul is my One Little Word for 2011.

I also felt that making spreads about these uplifting words felt good to me. So I did not stop here, I would use these inspiring words to make my art journal a kind of guide book for 2011.
No personal commandments, but soft and kind guides to remind me what I needed to do for myself in these changing times.

The spreads I made became more simpler than I ever worked. Just an inspiring image, a word, a small sentence, some journaling from the heart and a little border.

Heart

The word Reposition was just not working for me. I wanted to explore the word Heart. I am not a cool thinking person when it comes to decision making, but I did use my reason a lot in making choices. Always asking what is the best choice. Second or third is the question: what would you want? And when faced with such a question, I have a hard time making a choice. Figuring out what I really want is not that easy for me.

Would I be able to make decisions based on feelings, on what feels good in my heart? Is 2011 the year for me to try this?

Reposition

This word surfaced in my thoughts when I was making the spread with all the words I was considering. Reposition: to put in a new position; shift.
The word was nice. But just that: nice. Not something you would like to use as a guide for the next 12 months. I just wanted to start the next spread: Heart. That said a lot about Reposition, didn't it?

One Soothing Word: Heal

When I finished the spread about Soul, I was in a much kinder and softer mood. The next word I took from my list was the word "Heal".
The year 2011 could be a time to heal the wounds of 2010. There was something comforting and soft about this word that I liked.
I decided that I would work out some other words in this book before making my choice.

How about "Spirit and Soul"?

Back in December, when I was looking for that One Little Word for 2011, I decided to make a spread about the words that spoke to me the most.
This was the second spread I made: Spirit and Soul - be kind. The previous spread about Choice did not feel good. I thought it would be a good word for the new year, but somehow it felt like a 'command' instead of a soft guiding word. This one was so much softer: Soul.

Still doubting, I started working on the next spread and the next word.