Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.
He who looks outside, dreams. He who looks inside, awakens. Carl Jung

Friday, August 19, 2011

ABC’s of Me ~ A

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We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.  Luciano de Crescenzo

I did several art journal pages to begin with letter “A” but angel is what called to me.  A dear friend recently sent a goody bag full of treasure. Any gift or thought is always uplifting; however, in these particular moments where I have felt such a drought, this unexpected gift was a soul shower.   And what a surprise that there were four books that I was clearly meant to read at this phase in my life ~ Marianne Williamson and Julia Cameron (always my favorites) and a new favorite, Anne Lamott.  I journaled my way through each of these books, each one building on the other (certainly too many pages to share here!) which finally culminated in my ABC’s of Me angel page.

What books have touched you in a meaningful way?  More importantly, what people have touched you in a meaningful way?

Sunday, August 7, 2011

The ABC’s of Me Self Discovery Project

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I made this journal for a friend who found meaning through children’s books.  At the same time, I was reading Marianne Williamson’s The Age of Miracles and somewhere in the process realized I wanted to get back to basics.  The phrase “the ABC’s of me” resonated and using the alphabet for list-making and acrostic poems is a common technique both in journal writing and creative writing (although for most of us I think those lines blur…often journal writing is creative writing and vice versa).  Perhaps with the back to school season upon us, as I shop for backpacks and notebooks and colored pencils etc., “the ABC’s of me” seems timely; especially as this will be the first year in a long time that I am not taking any classes (yay, all done). 

My plan is to explore in my journal each letter and all that bubbles up in terms of re-discovering self at this new age I find myself in.  I’ll post about the “letter of the week” and sprinkle in some creativity prompts along the way.  I hope you’ll join me.  There’s a linky on the sidebar that will remain during our process.  No rules ~ feel free to join in, observe, link on the side, link on your blog…or not…I would love for you to, but I know how many fun blog events I bailed out of because I couldn’t keep up or make the time for all the parameters (ex ~link here, visit the first two blogs and comment, visit the blog that signed in five spaces before and after, comment three times, link in your post and jump twice in a circle while rubbing your head…).  The link is live and I will post “A” sometime this week.

A few prompts now to express yourself your way (journal, blog, mixed media, poetry etc.)through the alphabet ~

pull out a dictionary and see what words call to you from the letter you are working on

open a book to a random page and do the same

 write the entire alphabet down the side of the page and write an acrostic poem

start your “letter” journal entry with “(letter you are on) is for…”

think of at least five adjectives with that alphabet letter that describe you

tear out different magazine images that represent the letter you are working with and collage

think of one adjective that describes you and create a writing entry or art journal page around it

instead of adjectives, think of what begins with that letter that you value (i.e., A ~ Autonomy, B ~ Balance, C ~ Cupcakes)

use the words that you are finding or are bubbling up for you to string together in a short story or poem

Have fun…and if you are participating quietly, I would love to know how the process is going for you.  If you’ve linked to the side I will come visit.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

Art Journal Every Day

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I’ve been keeping up, although not always linking up, with Julie Balzer's Art Journal Every Day.  I finally decided to try watercolor.  Clearly I need to play more but as always my focus is on the process, not product and I enjoyed that watercolor and paintbrush forced me to slow down.    

Julie Balzer had one series of posts where she divided the page into 30 and did 30 faces in 30 days.  I have not ventured into faces and I didn’t divide into 30, but I did think it would be fun to have a spread of “mini-journal notes” on hand when I don’t have time to write long entries.  So I will be adding to these pages over time.   Perhaps you’ll create some mini journal notes with me…?