Be the Flower

Today is the first time I've worked in my Art Journal since the beginning of last week. I've been SO sick. I don't DO sick very well, sleeping during the day goes against my grain -- and while I didn't sleep during the day -- I did spend a lot of time lounging under the covers on the couch.  And Nyquil. Yes, the woman that doesn't take medicine drank down a whole bottle during the course of the week. It was bad. Last night was my first night without it. That wasn't pretty either. But I did fall asleep on the couch at 8 and while I'm not 100% today -- I would say I'm at 79.5% ;-) and getting better.

I've been thinking about my journal. Daily. Longing to create in it. Because I had SO MUCH time to think about it, I thought about my process a LOT. What I use. How I use it. And I decided that I use to many "things" as design crutches. i CAN paint. i CAN draw. i CAN be the flower ;-)

You are probably wondering what that means, be the flower.  

Well let me tell you. My friend Nat told me a story when we were in Los Angeles and rather than bore you with the entire story -- the moral was we as artists should be the flower and not the gardener. We should cultivate our own beauty. 

I've been thinking about this a LOT. 

So today I challenged myself to create art in my art journal that used only acrylic paint, a paint brush (yes -- just one 1/2" flat wash brush), a 2" x 2" block of book paper, india ink and my dip pen - oh and a glue stick to adhere the book paper.

I'm pretty happy with my page today. Now, the challenge is to REMEMBER to be the flower. Thank you for stopping by, hope you had a great week. See you soon ;-)