A Virgin a Day-- Magnificat and 12 stars

 

The Holy Virgin is taking over my art journal. In a way, this is so funny. I was not even intending on participating in "A Virgin a Day" more than that one time. I am not even Catholic! lol. But when I sat down at my art journal yesterday, this is what happened.

I think it is because I have been so captivated by all the inspiring tributes I'm finding on blogs participating in A Virgin a Day. As a result, the Magnificat has been kicking around in my head for the last 24 hours, and when presented with a blank white page in my journal, that is what demanded to be written. And that's what art journaling is all about, right? Go with the flow, go with the flow. In a way, it can be like a spiritual practice of it's own. So I scribbled down the ESV rendition of the Magnificat with a red gel pen, which forms the text you see behind the painting, writing the words "blessed" ("all generations will call me blessed") and "forever" ("to Abraham and to his offspring forever") large. Then I did some doodling with a led pencil, just for a change, and painted/colored the rest with neocolor pastels over that. (It's a little bit greener in real life than it is in the picture. My photographer is at his day job this morning so I had to take the picture myself.)

There are twelve penciled stars in the upper left hand corner. I was thinking of the twelve stars from the stunning passage in Revelation:

"And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his head seven diadems. His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished 1,260 days." 

Revelation 12:1-6

Bella Toscana, (fifth art journal page)

Recently I have reached the point of realizing that if I knew even some rudimentary fundamentals of watercolor technique and design principles, I could likely create more variety and interest in my art journal pages. I feel like I have ideas that are prevented from being born into being by my lack of skill.

The library in such cases is always my first place to start. So, Saturday afternoon, I hauled my pregnant self to the local library and up it's curving staircase to the second floor stacks where the non-fiction section and art books lay waiting for me.

I selected four books on watercolor, replete with gorgeous illustrations, step by step examples, and helpful beginner-speak (most of them).

• David Bellamy's Complete Guide to Watercolor Painting
• Brush with Watercolor: Painting Watercolor Landscapes the Easy Way (vol. 1 and 2), Terry Harrison

• No Experience Required: Watercolor, Carol Cooper
• I also picked up a novel by Carol Goodman, The Drowning Tree, which looks to be excellent but I suppose that is neither here nor there so far as this post is concerned. 

I spent a few hours poring over the watercolor books after the kids went to sleep Sat. evening and during their naps Sunday afternoon. By Sunday evening, I was itching to actually try painting a landscape myself. I have saved in a little drawer of keepsakes a 2007 National Geographic calendar of gorgeous photographs of Italy. H picked it up as a "just because" present for me, back before we were even dating. I knew he liked me, though. ;-)

Anyway, I flipped through it and quickly located one of my favorites of the pictures: "Country Foad, Tuscany. Bingo. Out came the art journal, Caran d'anche Neocolor ll watersoluble pastels, pencil, a cup of water, and brush set. Yes, I was excited. I marked off a square for my landscape and left a strip of blank space on the page, which I would later brush over with a light wash of ocre and inscribe with the Our Father, written in Italian. I think it is so beautiful that way, a million times lovelier than in English. And in my imagination (never having been there in person) the beauty of the Tuscan countryside is a natural background for the peace, serenity, and timelessness of the prayer.  I liked the idea of placing them together for my art journal page.

Here it is, my first landscape. If you click on the image it gets bigger. I think it looks a bit overworked in some places, a few of the trees lean a little crookedly, and I'm obviously new at this shade and lighting stuff, but it was fun and it actually looks like the original photograph. . . you can tell what it is! :-) Ah, bella Tuscany. Unfortunately I got a few words of the Padre Nostro backwards, but that's all right! Imperfection is okay around here! :)

Spring and Fall, 2nd art journal page

"Spring and Fall: To a Young Child" 

Márgarét, are you gríeving

Over Goldengrove unleaving?

Leáves, líke the things of man, you

With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?

Ah!  ás the heart grows older

It will come to such sights colder

By and by, nor spare a sigh

Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;

And yet you wíll weep and know why.

Now no matter, child, the name:

Sórrow's spríngs áre the same.

Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed

What heart heard of, ghost guessed:

It ís the blight man was born for,

It is Margaret you mourn for.

--Gerard Manley Hopkins

This is another Victorian favorite of mine. I am sensing a theme here, hmm. . .  I first read this poem as a highschool junior or senior. I think it actually happened to be fall at the time, although maybe my memory has artfully distorted the original event to better honor the poem. . . it could have been summer or winter for all I know. At any rate, I can clearly relive the mulling over it I did then and that never to be forgotten moment when the meaning burst on me, with a shock of recognition and a shiver of appreciation that made me know Gerard Manley Hopkins was a genius. I have been an ardent admirer ever since. He is my favorite poet. 

In this poem, a little girl is wistfully contemplating an autumn scene and lamenting the dying away of the leaves. The poet observes this tenderly, and then notes that it is the intimation of our own mortality that gives the chill and the melancholy to the dying away of the seasons and the decay of nature. 

It's an awesome poem. It is sad, but I do not believe it is depressing, because it's message is simply true. We know this even if we do not choose to think of it very often, but I am existentialist enough to feel that it is the very awareness of our own finitude and mortality that gives life part of it's meaning. So, I genuinely enjoy this poem. I often muse on it when looking out a window at falling leaves, it's a kind of  private autumn ritual. 

It naturally suggested itself as a starting point for my next art journal page. I was a little bit overwhelmed by the um, excessiveness of my Jane Eyre page, so decided on this one to be a bit more spare. I first copied out the whole poem with a black glitter gel pen directly onto the white page. Then I thought it would be fun to make this a kind of practice paper for pastel techinques. I decided to try and color some leaves with the pastels. I just brought in a handful of colorful ones and attempted to copy them. I kept layering colors and blending with water here and there. Doing this felt very relaxing and meditative. I did not have perfection as my goal (lucky thing, lol) or really anything as my goal other than the act itself and losing myself in it. My approach to this art journaling thing, in case it isn't obvious, is more like art therapy in that the purpose is more about creative therapy and unwinding than about art. (And I suppose part of my purpose in blogging about this, well, aside from my own narcissism, is the idea of encouraging other would be beginners at anything to just jump in. It's fun and nothing is going to hurt you.) However, I did at least attempt to make these look something like the original leaves and I do intend to keep my eyes out for advice and tutorials as I go with all of this-- might as well try to gain some skills while I'm at it. :) After I finished with my leaves, I added a little color to the bottom and top left corners of the page and  pasted in some leaf shaped book paper cut outs to fill things in. I doodled some swirls. . . I think in hindsight the page may have been better off without these. 

There are obviously a few oopsies on this page. I somehow manged to smudge one of the swirls, and my two year old attacked with a gel pen near the top of the page before I could stop her. This was even though I had given her paper of her own and allowed her to use my supplies. All I asked was that she leave my page alone. . . sigh. Here is a close up of her handiwork:

And here are some more pictures of my page. I tried to take better photos this time, hope it makes a difference.   

 

Why me? Why a blog? Why an art journal?

There is something uniquely exciting about writing that first post on a brand new blog. At least for me there is. Like many in my generation, I've started and maintained a handful of blogs in my time before now. I've had a couple private diary style blogs, a keeping-up-with-my-friends-and-chatting-about books blog, a blog on spirituality and personal growth (did not get very far with that one, hmm. . .), but that thrilling brand new start feeling of opening a first post returns in all it's inspiring potentiality and original freshness. . . ah. Like opening a new box of crayons when you are a little kid.

This is my first time blogging about art or anything crafty. I am also a complete newb to the world of visual journaling and art journaling. I am not even an "arty" person. I've never taken an art class, had an art lesson, or ever troubled myself to learn the basic rudiments of sketching and painting, something I theoretically believe everyone should do. That is okay. My life is not over yet. Why blog about it then? I simply thought it would be fun to have a place to chronicle the journey, and if anyone wants to read along so much the better. I anticipate I will be writing about a variety of other things as well, once I get into the flow of blogging again. It may end up that the art journaling adventure expresses itself as one of several interweaving thematic strands.

A little more about me-- I am a 20-something mom to three children under three. That is to say, I have a two year old and a seven month old and am pregnant with a third. Yes, I wonder about my sanity at times too, but on good days we have a blast and I wouldn't trade my little growing brood for anything. :-) In some ways it feels like this is an odd season of life to begin a new hobby as well as a new writing project (this blog), but at the same time, I feel this is a season of life in which I could more than ever benefit from carving out a little time and space to nurture my self and creativity. I think if I can make time for this a couple times a week I will be doing myself and my family a favor in the long run.

In a way, it is my current pregnancy that led me to consider beginning an art journal at all. You see, I had hyperemesis for the first months. It's an awful condition that I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and I really don't want to write about it. I'm trying to put those days out of my mind, but if anyone is curious, you can google and read some of the horror stories that have been posted online. I had a moderate case, was on home health and round the clock medication via subcutaneous pump just to keep me out of the hospital. I don't know what I would have done without the help from my family, church family, friends, and very supportive H. For weeks I spent the better part of many days nearly bedridden, and it was good day if I didn't actively want to die. During my better moments, one of the things I ended up doing to pass the time and distract me a little was to look at blogs on art journaling and watch art journal tutorials on youtube. At first I was just curious, as a life long journaler, to learn what was this thing called art journaling? Soon I became fascinated and the hours were passing more quickly. I remember thinking, wow, if I felt better I would like to try something like this! And that thought led to, hey, I will feel better someday! Maybe I should start thinking up some ideas and shopping online for supplies!

Supply shopping was fun, I will say that. I kept filling up my cart on Amazon, being horrified at the total and how quickly things added up, emptying the cart, and starting over again. I ended up streamlining quite a bit in comparison to my initial heady impulse to extravagance before placing my final order, which in the end consisted of:

Caran d'Ache Neocolor 11 Water Soluable Pastels (set of 15)
Strathmore Watercolor Visual Journal
Old Masters Brush Set-- Set of 8
(I had, and still have, absolutely no idea of what to shop for when it comes to brushes. I chose these because I needed something, didn't want to spend too much, and was scared of ending up with garbage if I spent too little. I hope these were a good choice, does anybody know?)
Mod Podge
and
Sargent Glitter Gel Pens

That's it. I thought it would be enough for a basic start and if this catches on for me I can acquire more things later. I also asked my mom to bring me a stack of old magazines so I "could make collages". This puzzled her a bit until I made her read an article on art journaling and look at some pictures of the amazing things people have done with a bit of creativity, some clippings, and glue. She was duly charmed and now I have quite a happy assortment of National Geographics, Country Livings, and Better Homes and Gardens to scavenge through.

And you know what? Eventually, I did start to feel better! I was one of the lucky ones who became functional again at 13 weeks, and a little before then I placed my order. The wonderful box of supplies arrived a couple days ago, and today I completed my first art journal page. It definitely has beginner stamped all over it (a pun! lol!), but it felt relaxing to scribble and experiment (not to mention fun just to be doing anything!) and I enjoyed trying out all my new stuff. I will post about creating this page tomorrow, complete with pics (oh boy. . . ).

:-)