Some of “what’s behind” is full of warm memories and grounding stuff that I want to take with me to my journey’s end. As I celebrate my 53rd birthday, I embrace the life I have ahead as well as “what’s behind,” and I feel completely and totally blessed. You will continue to see me obsessively paint the past, but don’t think that I am stuck there. I choose to be there, and I like it. Life is meant to be lived and remembered. Today, I choose to do both on my journey. Join me.
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Creative Process, Joy, and Peace
How do we find happiness? The proper frame of mind is often touted as the key. This can leave people feeling like a moral failure. The bills cannot get paid, the heat is turned off, or a loved one has just passed on. The idea of happiness can seem ludicrous to those in hard places on their journey. How do you find joy despite life’s challenges and struggles? Here are some thoughts for those of us who are trying to find peace amidst the storms.
Looking Forward with Hope
Consider your journey and the internal work it has done for you. What work do you still need to do so that you can be ready for “What’s Next” and say goodbye to “What Was”? What steps do you need to take so that you can look forward with hope? Find a way to say “Goodbye” so that you can let go when it’s time. “Paradise Lost” brings me strange peace. It has been my way of being ready. It’s your journey. Find your way. Then, share what you learn on the journey.
Journey Down a New Road
Your journey can take an interesting turn. You can make something. It doesn’t have to look real and it doesn’t have to make sense to anyone else. Find your own way of sharing your story. I use birds, trees, swirls, apples, and objects to communicate through my work. What can you use to communicate your journey on canvas? Maybe this blog won’t compel you to share your journey here, but I hope it compels you to explore your options for sharing your own journey. May you find the freedom that I find when I create.
Hope is Here!
I see that every stroke I’ve made and every word I’ve written has been an attempt to sort things out for myself- to find my meaning. I see that my creative process has always been central for me. I understand that my spirituality has always mattered even though how I express it has changed form. The biggest theme, however, is hope. I’ve never given up on it even when my words and works were darkest. I have always been convinced that hope is here.
Grace Journey
I have walked in an emptiness, confusion, and disorientation for a long, long time: struggling to be at peace with all of this but returning to the same tumultuous place. I have finally crossed over from struggle to new peace. I can feel the line I have crossed over. I can feel the difference. I can feel the shift inside of me. I am so much less afraid of what’s different and so much less afraid of what’s different about me. I look back on this liminal space—this in-between space where I have tossed, turned and hovered for so long. With this retrospect, I now see its value. All those years of incubating have given me fresh eyes. They see something new and truer about you and me, and that is all together very different.
Traveling Together on the Journey
What’s so wrong about going back in time and visiting a place that you’re happy to be in? If my paintings let me do that, I’ve just taken a little journey and I’ll be back to the present soon enough! How does your creative practice help you on your journey? Does it let you go places you couldn’t otherwise go? Consider that in spite of the fact that we don’t even know each other, we will be traveling together on this journey. We do this through the simple act of choosing to go where our canvas takes us. Onward!
Journey Towards Understanding the Universal Christ
There is no end to what we can share about this Universal Christ. This is just one conversation in just one little corner of the world. This Christ is vast and He/She can be represented in countless ways. How do you see this Christ?
Always In My Story
On every single page of my story you will find God’s hand. He has always been there. You can expect to find Him inside every single one of my paintings. He is always in my story.
60 Years: A Reason to Share My Story
The collage elements inside this artwork belong to me. I did not use someone else’s content to share on this canvas. I needed it to be this way. I needed every word and image to speak of my story.
Transformed by My Story
My past, my passions, my spirituality and my present are all rolled into one piece of art. When I share, I pass that baton and my story reaches out to others. If someone is inspired to share too, it’s like ripples from a stone tossed in a pond: out, out, and out yet again.
Using a Journal for Reflection: Looking Back and Moving Forward
I write to keep things. These blogs provide a way that I can look back and make sense of things. When I am done writing, I have a sense of peace and optimism about moving forward. Today, I ponder my Peacock Collage. Peacock feathers pop up in my work fairly often. They remind me of my mom and my sister from my eyes as a child. This is my way to reflect and then to move forward with new understanding.
Grief and Your Journey
We can’t change the reality that we experience more and more loss as we age. That means we have to create a space to process our grief. There are things we can do to create this space. I paint to help me with this. But, there are many options for processing grief. Today’s blog will help you find one.
Finding Peace on Your Journey
With peacock feathers, glitter, yarn, tissue and torn papers, I am a child again: creating using whatever I can find before me. This is a place where I can find peace. For me, I’d go as far as saying it’s prayer.
Everything Changes: Take Time for Remembering
What do you remember? Share your memories here or find a voice for them elsewhere. Make a collage, create a scrapbook page, write in a journal or blog here with me. Tell us what you remember before everything started to change here at Journey on Canvas Blog. Everything changes: take time for remembering.
Afraid to Share?
We live in times where we receive a lot of animosity for what we believe. We find ourselves belonging in one group and being rejected by another. Or, we might find people are trying to convert us to their point of view. Every night, before I go to bed, I pray. In the morning, God uses me as best he can. I’m not perfect and I know it. Still, I go out and do my best to share what I believe is true. I do my best to do this without animosity for others. In fact, there is truth in what they share too. Together, we can refine what we believe to find a more polished truth. It’s not just what I share today that makes a difference. It’s what we share together that allows us to go to bed tonight and pray to gain more wisdom. In the morning, we can wake up and try again.
Do Something Brand New: Share Your Story!
We are all on a journey. One day things are on an upswing. The next day we spiral down because of bad news or simply a bad day. Our natural inclination is to share when we’re up and recoil when we’re down. We don’t realize that when things in our lives begin to fall apart that we can do something brand new: share at the bottom of it all.
Going Back: Sharing Your Memories
I like to go back. I like to remember. When I come back to today, I share what I remember. But, the best part is when people join in and make “remembering” a conversation. What do you remember? How can you connect your memories to your journey today?
Half is talent. Half is thick skin.
I know I don’t draw really well. I know there are many artists who blow my work out of the water. Should that stop me? What stops you? Today, consider sharing the roadblocks in your life that stop you from listening to that voice inside you: the voice that nudges you despite all the criticism and negativity that tries to stop you.
Sharing Your Journey Your Way
We have to share our journey our way. That’s honest and there’s no real way around it. You can try to be someone else to please them, but that’s all about their experience. Share what you have seen and where you have been. Share where you are. Share you.