HIDDEN TREASURE

I've been playing this week.  I just signed up for 21 Secrets over at Dirty Footprints Studio.  21 Secrets is an online journalling playground consisting of 21 art journal classes with some really inspiring teachers and I dived in to my first class last week - Tracie Hansen's 'Journal Quest'.

So, the premise of this class is that a 'quest' is to 'search or seek for hidden treasures and that the adventure of the artful spirit is 'a quest'.  

Tracie invites us to splurge the paint around our journal page and then 'excavate the hidden treasure' within.

I found the process fascinating and quite humbling as I watched these little tribes of people appearing on my journal pages.  Only the day before, I had been talking about the need to have my own tribe of like minded, kindred spirits and here were my own tribes!

I could write a story for each of these people, and maybe I will as part of my journalling process, but for the time being, I am enjoying making the images. I see each of the little people as part of myself and it occurs to me that perhaps I am painting my soul group in different dimensions or realities. How you see them is up to you...

Without giving away too much of the process (you need to sign up for that!!), we are urged to set our intention then HAVE FUN! PLAY! EXPLORE! Does it get any better than that?

Well, yes, it did get better than that!  I realised as I was playing, having fun and exploring that I had made similar images before.  I was half way through my second page and decided I couldn't go on any longer without looking for some old sketchbooks (and I mean old - 30 years old!).

What I found was striking...images I made just about 30 years ago, were very very similar to the ones I had been making using this technique

 

If you've read my story, you will know I abandoned my creative self for the longest time.  so it is reassuring to know that the subconscious thread is now re-surfacing. For me, this was the real buried treasure...the real excavation...

(I posted an album of these 'old' images on my Facebook page.  For some reason my blog won't let me add any more links today, so if you want to visit, just click on the Facebook link at the top of the right hand column.)

I've had so much fun with this class and this process; I'm not finished with it yet.  If you want to sign up for 21 Secrets, you've got until the 1st October and the classes stay open until the 1st January 2013. Hop over to Dirty Footprints Studio and sign up, I guarantee you won't regret it.

How have you been playing in your art journals this week? Have you found any buried treasure? What have you been excavating? 

From my tribal heart to yours

Rachel x

A Mermaid's tale

A new painting is finished - Mermaid and Fishes

The fishes started to come in to the last painting and the Flower Fairy looked like a mermaid at times, but I decided to create their own space with their own colours.  I love it, so expect more mermaids.

The image of the mermaid is enduring and very popular.  I once posted a status on Facebook saying I was going to the seaside to look for mermaids.  I had more 'likes' for that post than almost any other I've done before or since!

I love mermaids and the sea (I want to live by the sea - I have my little cottage out there in the ether just waiting!) but why is the image or symbol of the mermaid so appealing?

She speaks to me and to so many of us because she is an archetype; a symbol of the Divine Feminine. And whether we realise this or not, the image resonates with us on a deep, deep level.  Ancient cultures worshipped the Goddess in the form of a mermaid by wells, rivers, streams and the ocean.  Her power comes from her connection to the earth's waters, the symbol of the Great Mother and the source of all life.  She is a symbol of feminine power, beauty, sexuality and knowledge but also creativity, transformation and fertility.

The mermaid is at home in the watery depths and invites us to explore our own depths; the sea is a symbol for the unconscious, the emotions and the unknown.  If you work with her, she can help you listen to your own inner depths and wisdom to nourish your life.  Tapping into the depths and facing the unknown and (for me) the fear that lives there provides us with vital energy we need in our every day lives.  When the mermaid has to give up her tail in order to walk on the land, she cuts off from her Self, denying her wholeness and her energy.  I think we can often feel cut off from parts of ourselves - it's not easy to face our fears, we might hate parts of our bodies, we live in our heads and are not connected to our whole selves etc etc. We can work to restore our own wholeness through tapping into our inner self through journalling, dream work, meditation and ritual.   These activities put us back together again and make us whole once more.  For me, it is art journalling that is my way to put myself back together; what's yours?

The idea that the mermaid can help us to do this is one I especially like.  The mermaid as muse, and a playful one at that, is my favourite version of her; inner work connects us with our intuition and lets our wild side out to play.  The mermaid invites us to dive into the waters of self expression,  she asks us to plunge deep into our feelings and creativity, she says to ME 'swim freely and play with the fishes'.

So, what are you waiting for?

Jump in! Dive in! Plunge in and start swimming!  Get in your creative flow!

Ask the mermaid to inspire you.  Dip your toes in the sea either for real or figuratively, collect some seashells to put on your work table a la Julie Gibbons, who recently packed up Scottish seashells to ship off to Instagram friends in the States, or go beachcombing and bring home some driftwood. 

I'm off to the beach... I'll see you there...

From my mermaid heart to yours

Rachel xxx

A flower fairy, willow sculptures and other news

I don't know where July went to! I had no idea it's been a whole month since I last posted here.  

So, here's the new painting - if you follow me on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram (Rachellen333) then you will have seen it already in various guises or snippets of detail in progress.  It doesn't have a title, but someone asked me if she is a flower fairy - I guess she is! I love her.

We've been on holiday to the beautiful Northumberland coast to recharge batteries.  The weather was mixed which is usual in the UK, but the gorgeous coastline and sea air more than made up for it. It's one of my favourite places to be and my (not so) secret dream is to have a view like this from my window all the time... 

Last weekend I visited Emma Stothard's exhibition of willow sculptures at Rievaulx Terrace, North Yorkshire; this was a real visual treat.  Rievaulx Terrace is a picturesque 18th century landscape garden which now belongs to the National Trust.  It is the perfect site for Emma's wonderful, life size willow sculptures of deer (below), truffle hunting pigs, foxes, hares and the most beautiful mare constructed of wire.

There are also mares and foals made from willow at nearby Nunnington Hall; these are my personal favouite.  They look so natural in the long grass, beautifully thought out.  I would really recommend going to see either or both of these exhibitions if you live in Yorkshire (or even if you don't!).  If you're a National Trust member, entry is free to see Emma's sculptures.  If not, your entry fee gains you entry to the rest of the grounds too - well worth it!!

Last but not least - other news from July - I was Louise Gale's first Friday Feature for the Creative Colour Challenge  Very proud and pleased to be featured on this, so thank you Louise for the opportunity, and thank you for your inspiration!!  If you flip over to the feature here, you'll see my 'flower fairy' painting in one of her previous guises plus some of my sketch book pages which I have which I have submitted in the Creative Colour Challenge.  The challenge for August is a rainbow of colours - maybe I will submit my flower fairy...

What else does August have in store? More painting, teaching Angelic Reiki to two lovely ladies and taking some time out to recharge.   Hope you find time to do the same...

From my heart to yours

Rachel

Celebrate!

So, this painting is finished - reason enough to celebrate!

But it is more than that.  

This painting took a couple of months to create; it started off really well and then I left it - she was put on the back burner for a while. While I was thinking about writing this post, I wondered to myself why? Why had it taken so long to finish this painting??

I thought about this and started to write a long. long blog post in my head about my life story and my history of depression, but what it really boils down to is this:

I'm choosing JOY.

Why? Because I've have had bouts of depression throughout my adult life which started during my teens.  Some of these had events that sparked them off but some just came out of the blue.  I'm now choosing joy and I am not listening to the black crow that has perched on my shoulder on and off for most of my life.   

I came to a realisation that this painting is a celebration of my own joy emerging; she took a long time to finish because I wasn't ready to accept what she was about.

What was most interesting was thinking about my painting process and where the paintings come from. I know this already - painting is my connection to my soul or to Source.  But looking a bit deeper, even on the blackest, darkest days when the crow is trampling about all over my head and will not be shooed away, when I start to work with colours and paint or journal or mess around with glue and bits of junk mail collage what emerges is not darkness and gloom or melancholy and shadows, it is work like this:

or this

 What is in my soul and my heart is JOY!

Joy of joys - inside this is what I look like!!  My 'goddess and leaves' painting is a celebration of me and what's inside of me... a celebration of my own joy emerging.

It's also what's inside of you dear heart...

However dark the day, however blue you feel, what's REALLY inside is your own joyful self, doing a little dance, singing a little song... (and I KNOW it can really, really feel like this is not possible - but truly it is).

From my oh so joyful heart to yours

Rachel xx

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RED!! Creative Color Challenge for June & Anatomy of a Page

The Creative Color Challenge this month was RED! Not a usual colour for me to create with, but always up for a challenge I started with some junk mail journalling - creating journal pages with hidden message from a stationery catalogue:

This type of journaling (which I love!) also fitted in nicely with the short online course I have been doing with the Art Journaler  It's called 'Anatomy of a Page' and has been fun to follow. The girls over at The Art Journaler (StarGardener and MessyCanvas) shared their own journal pages and the history of the page.  Fascinating and inspiring!! I tried out some different techniques including 'altered book' work, but more of that next time...

So, back to my usual pages which are paint, stencil, journal and collage

Surpisingly, the red colour DID inspire me and it WAS a JOY to create with it.  I was initially scared to use it - it's so strong and its associations of danger, passion, fire and basic survival kicked off some deep felt issues for me - it was very useful to work through some of them when I was working on the journal pages - writing and painting always helps!!

If you feel inspired to join the Creative Color Challenge head over here - there's a different colour palette to work with every month.

And if you want some art journal inspiration or prompts, the Art Jounaler is here...

Happy journalling!!