SIGNS OF OLD AGE ....

My name is Rosie, I'm 57 and a grandmother. There, I've said it. Lord knows how I got here ... time seemed to fly by (whether I was having fun or not) and now all of a sudden that middle aged woman I see in shop windows turns out to be me! How impossible that seems when, in my head, I'm in my early thirties. I've also noticed an increasing hardening of my attitudes (along with my arteries) that I'm not necessarily proud of, and do know that's something I have to work on. But equally there are some areas in which I've learned wisdom (I hope) and maybe these are some of them, or possibly I'm just growing old and lazy? You decide!
This page began with me writing the title, and then I just started to doodle the borders. The next stage was to list some of the things I saw happening in me, and to begin adding colour - once again the trusty Promarkers came to hand! I do love what I can do with these, and how vivid the results are. If you look closely you can see some of the shading I've achieved (although I have a lot to learn on that front) often just by adding a light grey OVER the colour. That's what gave me the grape shade around the black on the pink/purple panel at the top of the page, which was the effect of grey over the pink.
I'm still not entirely comfortable with too much white background, so then I began to add a colour around the writing - if I go over the writing I find it fuzzes a bit even though the waterproof ink doesn't actually run. Doodling away in colour on the borders was such fun - really relaxing and reflective!
And this is how the page finished up - it seems a shame now that its just a list, I might have written it more artistically, but I didn't. That's partly because when I began it I didn't actually know what would be on it! It may be that you recognise some of the symptoms I describe ... in which case welcome to the club! I've just noticed that some of the branches I've drawn look a bit like arteries ... but suspect that was subconscious.
Now I'd better go off and do some work on not being quite such a cranky old lady - or my grand-daughters will find me very boring indeed, and that would never do!!

HAPPINESS ... or the lack of it.

Ever had one of those times when you woke up in the morning and suddenly the world had gone all grey? Yep, it was one of those. I did the usual cheering self up stuff - chocolate, counting my blessings etc, but the outlook remained resolutely cloudy, so I turned to my journal instead.
It's interesting that I actually journalled about my glum feelings in wonderfully bright colours isn't it? Not sure what was going on in my brain there. Anyway, this is pretty much all Promarkers again, except for the background around the writing, which was done with my trusty water soluble crayons.
Anyway, not much to say about this really - I guess it speaks for itself? It hasn't been a good week - haven't been sleeping, life seems pointless etc etc, you know how it is. This too shall pass.

NOW HOW DID THAT HAPPEN ...?

I swear I thought it was only about 10 days since I last posted, but when I came to look it was almost a month! Tut tut, but I'm here now, and I won't bother you with excuses .... Real Life overwhelmed me there for a while.

The background of this page was done with my trusty watersoluble crayons, and the borders are from a collage sheet I made some time ago. The clown image is a long-time favourite stamp from Invoke Arts, and the word "Art" is made by Hampton, and is one of the first stamps I ever bought years ago ....
I have these moments of doubt when I start to wonder if what I do is just colourful daubings of no particular worth or merit ... like you do. Then again, if the art journalling process helps me (and it does) and gives me pleasure (also true) then I guess it doesn't really matter why you do it, or how well, and its value is what it means to you ... not to mention YOU, if what I write about touches a nerve for you too?

Lord I am rambling something chronic today - which is because I'm tired, its been a busy weekend. The final decorative bits (you know I can hardly ever resist) and flowers are once again done with my Promarkers. What did I do before I had them?

Anyways - if you ever doubt that you're a true artist or that your journalling is important, then take it from me the answer is YES it is. It's just that sometimes we lose our way for a time and forget, but the main thing is that later it gets remembered! Like now for instance!

Yours ramblingly.,

GIVE ME A CLUE

This rather desperate appeal arose from a time recently when I just wasn't sure what I should be doing next ... and as you can see ended up making a heartfelt appeal for help from Above! The page itself is a background of Distress Inks with a border of Tim Holtz tissue tape (nice and quick!). Then I added a couple of quick pictures and the title, oh yes and a little touch of pink with my water soluble crayons, and some texture from a bubble wrap stamp ....
Once I started writing I sort of couldn't stop - it was a real cri de coeur (and I'm still not totally sure I've got the answer, but enough to be going on with)! As you can see this ended up being one of my less busy pages - having made my plea for help it sort of felt finished, so for once I didn't doodle endlessly all over it. But, as I said above, I did feel I was answered ... even if not with the complete road atlas I was rather hoping for, but then in my experience God doesn't generally work that way!