Just Be

So many beautiful quotes out there from strong, wonderful women…

I love taking a favorite quote and illustrating it in my art journal…seeing words take shape using paint, pen & printed image…

Thoughts of how to be a good, strong woman.  Thoughts that add to the teachings given already by mother, grandmothers, aunts and friends…

“Find out who you are, and do it on purpose”…isn’t that wonderful?  It’s so easy to admire others and want to be like them—but how much more important to just be our very best selves.  Taking the good we see in others and incorporating it into our own unique being…. 

And a favorite quote from the always quotable Jane Austen…so true, isn’t it?

Actions really do speak louder than words, don’t they?  But, in my journals, it’s the words and images that must do the speaking…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Art Journal,Jane Austen,Margaret Thatcher,Dolly Parton,women

Windows

I love time spent with my ancestors…choosing favorite pictures, writing a bit about their lives…a little “visit” with them in my mind…

{when I first saw this photo, I was stunned…the little girl, Ida, looks just like me when I was her age.}

Two more pages added this week to my Character Album…rather like small windows into their lives. On this page,two of my favorite women—my 4th great-grandmother and my 2nd great-grandmother—her granddaughter. 

Taken on an extended visit to her grandmother, I’m sure Louisa held this image very close to her heart when Ida was far, far away…

Louisa was a skilled tailor and dressmaker.  A very old needle and needle package from her time was just right to illustrate this…

Some Victorian-age black buttons that I’ve been holding on to…seemed like a good time to finally use them.

{not every picture has to be straight, does it?!}

Another one of my favorite women.  My husband’s grandmother, Vie…

A Wisconsin farmer’s wife, ardent suffragette, and member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union—occasionally elected president in her area…quite a busy woman!

A bit of very old crocheted lace was just the thing for her border, along with a partial string of an old pearl necklace…I liked the clasp just hanging there like that…

{I love these keyholes from the Tim Holtz collection—beautiful!}

As with my other pages, a word or two chosen to describe the women placed on their photos…

Looking forward to time spent with more of these wonderful women who went before me in the pages ahead…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: Character Album,Louisa Barnes Pratt,Ida Francis Hunt,Melvina Howard Campbell

Blues

Ever have a blue, blue day for really no reason whatsoever?  I did one day last week—and apparently this is what it looked like:

 

I went up to my crafty room, sat down, grabbed some paint and this is what happened…it felt really good…I almost turned another color before I was done, it felt so good!

I already knew this, but it reminded me again—what a good thing creativity is for the soul…..

Another page—pages—made that I’ve had on my mind for a while…

I saw this in my head long before I painted it….I’ve loved this quote from Galileo for, oh…I don’t know HOW long!  And I found the perfect image to gaze at the stars in wonder for me…

All the swirling blues, purples & black made me so happy—color upon color upon color—until it felt just right.   Then topping it off with a silvery paint pen was oh, so much fun!

Maybe blue isn’t really so very “blue” after all.

Get painty today…

Julie

LiveJournal Tags: art journal,blue,stars,Galileo