The man who loves wisdom brings joy to his father. . . Proverbs 29:3
Evil people are trapped by sin, but the righteous escape, shouting for joy. Proverbs 29:6
There is much ambivalence surrounding today’s word. I feel weary, not joyful. I am not doing well at slowing down and living in the moment, though this journey with my art journal is helping.
As much as I tried to find a different prompt, joy stuck. It helped that I knew the image I was going to use for the title. It also helped that I planned to use only the paint colors gifted to me by my friend, Kim, during Certificate 2 training.
I looked up some former posts on joy to stir my heart or at least help me remember. I set off on an early dog walk, hoping to beat the rain in the forecast and gather some inspiration to create something when I returned.
While walking, Kim came to mind, so I called her, expecting to leave a voicemail. Instead she picked up, informing me that she was preparing to teach a college class. I fought back the feeling that I was interrupting something, because she chose to answer and has good boundaries surrounding her phone.
She wanted to say hi and had her students say hello to me over speaker phone. That made me smile and brought joy. I told them they were lucky to be sitting in her class, and I wished I could be there.
Continuing on, I entered the community garden to see if any butterflies were resting on the flowers. There was a monarch, and I stood and watched her for awhile. I soaked in the stillness.
Returning home, I pulled out the folders that hold my pre-cut images. I found the word Joy along with a picture of a bird. It was perfect.
I began with a layer of green. Then I went to the kitchen to bake chocolate chip cookies while it dried. That is how today’s page was created. Work a little, paint a little, work some more, glue a little, finish.
My favorite metallic gold went on next.
Yes, that paint is from Kim. It’s so perfect.
I arranged the cut out pictures over the dried page and glued them on.
I began adding color to the page. This is a palette with all four colors ~ turquoise, green, brown, and metallic. There are also several rolls of washi tape that I will use another time.
This is the final result. I love that it is a picture of a bird, that it has a saying that touches my heart in a deep place, and that I worked turquoise into the color scheme in an artistic way! That was my biggest doubt about today’s intention to use all of the colors, the turquoise.
This process has brought some joy, but honestly, right now I have a tightness in my chest that I know as tears. I will sit with them for awhile.