Don't Forget To Tie Your Heartstrings

I am sleepy so this is going to be a short blog post! I filled another page in my art journal today. This one was inspired by the Simon Says Stamp and Show Heart Challenge as well as the Frilly and Funkie Chipboard and Metal Challenge.

I pasted torn pieces of bookpaper into my art journal and colored over them with a water soluble pastel, then painted with water, you know the drill. I machine stitched the heart together with more book paper and left the threads long, then I tied these to little heart embellishments I cut out of chipboard and aluminum foil. I journaled over the whole page with a silver gel pen, which only shows up a little, so it was something in the nature of "secret" journaling. It smudged a little, too. Then I wrote with a sharpie: "Remember: Don't forget to tie your heart strings."

For me, this page is about taking the time to nurture emotional connections with others, rather than simply skimming the surface of life by settling for superficial relationships. It's also about tying my heart to things that matter and that have meaning-- whether literature, art, music, a place, cultivating a sense of place. I had in mind the concept of an emotionally anchored heart.

(Edit: Eek, just came and looked at my post and photos again this morning. These pictures are really terrible. In real life, the colors pop much more, you can clearly see all the sewing machine stitching and dangling threads, and there is visible texture and layering in the background. The quality of my photos seems to be very hit or miss; I must figure out how to get a better handle on this soon.)