Day - A Book of Hours*

"Every day love corners me somewhere
and surrounds me with peace
without having to look very far or very hard
to do anything special."

*Quote from - Thomas Merton - A book of Hours edited by Kathleen Deignan

Photo - SS from Book of Hours pages from personal journaling

Practice, practice

Well, I don't know if the other artists taking the January Art Journal challenge over at Misty Mawn's site are having as much fun as I am, but you'll only have to look at these "selfs" for another day or two. They are definitely a challenge and I can't believe I have the nerve to post them - but they're sketches - so just write in and say "practice makes perfect" or just smile and go over to Riley's site:) he always has something worthwhile to say!

I think if you compare yesterday's sketch to this one, you'll see I've lost a LOT of weight, my eyes are clearer, I have a new DO and my teeth definitely look much better......see what you can do for yourself in self-portraiture?

January Art Journaling

January Art Journaling - what a great challenge found over at Misty Mawn's creative site.

I've had a couple of days to catch up with the challenge as -

#1. I'm renovating/finishing "A Book of Hours" (above, a little, soft sided, paper booklet). This little memorabilia piece was started during the art sessions of a fabulous retreat I attended the first week in Advent. The booklet I came home with was basically on white paper with a few pasted pieces of construction paper. To honor the weekend and some of the splendid readings I encountered during that weekend, written by author Thomas Merton, I felt there should be much more color and life in the pages - thus the reconstruct:)

#2. I've been filling another little journal with some of my "favorite" things, so as an incentive to complete those journal pages, I'm loving the idea of Misty's challenge. I'm sure it's "the more the merrier" if you'd like to give it a go!

The pink and green pages, are my latest entries into completing my "late 2008/early 2009" journal pages. (The pages are strips cut and reassembled into a collage - two photos - one of tulips and one a waterfall - the photos were given to me as gift cards on special occasions by a dear photographer friend - her signature is included on my pages as a remembrance for me.)