Tuesday Tips and Techniques: Give Yourself a Hand!

The general reaction I get when I speak the words "self portrait" to budding creatives is one of panic.  There are many ways to create a self portrait, and one of my favorite ways is to use the outlines of your hands.  When I use my hands as a self portrait, I like to outline both the left and right hands - one on each facing page.  I like to use this method to explore contrasts and opposites such as, past/present, best qualities/worst qualities, etc.

I recently taught this method to my Creative Art Journaling class, and I completed a few pages myself.  The first "opposites" spread I did was "Physical Me" and "Spiritual Me".  Here's the left page, "Physical Me".  I used colors that portray my color emotions as discovered in my monochromatic color spreads.  As the page developed, I was a little surprised to realize just how much of my physical life has revolved around loosing weight.  The spiral surrounding my hand says it all.

"Spiritual Me" is full of color and energy.  My golden fingertips and area on the palm represent the power of the Creator within me and my quest to come in contact with that power.  I used lots of squiggly lines to get the feeling of movement and electricity and the color purple surrounds my hand as the color that best represents spirituality to me.  I also used adhesive backed, metallic papers to add more energy and to make the page feel more special.

The second set of pages I completed were "Happy Me" and "Sad Me".  "Happy Me" was a blast to complete.  There are so many things that make me happy and joyful.  The colors reflect my happiness, and of course, art is at the center of my being.

"Sad Me" was a difficult page to create.  I thought about feeling sad and what it looks like to me.  I thought about how feeling sad literally feels as if it's draining the life out of me, and that prompted me to place my hand  facing downward.  

I thought about the things that make me sad, like bigotry, prejudice, negativity, egotism and DRAMA.  I contemplated the fact that these are things that are thought based, and it led me to contemplate the things that I sometimes think about that make me sad.

I thought about the things that happened in the past and continue to resurface from time to time. . . 

And I thought about how deeply we try to bury old wounds.  Buried beneath layers, they seem to lay in wait like toxic chemicals.

I think we all have little areas of "toxic thoughts" that try to leak out from their confined areas and wrap us in sadness.  I think the great part of realizing this is that the acknowledgment that they exist give them less power.  That's my theory anyway, and that's how this mini book with fold-out pages came to live in the palm of my hand.


I hope this post inspires you to do a self portrait.  Self assessment is a great tool in personal growth, and using your hands as a catalyst isn't near as frightening a prospect as looking in a mirror!  "Celebrate YOU, love YOU, and Create a wonderful day!"

PHOTO OF THE DAY

July 4th Fireworks, Mentor, Ohio

Synchronicity and Inspiration

Yesterday afternoon Keith and I braved the smoldering heat and headed out for ice cream. I have to say it was everything I had my taste buds ready for; gooey hot fudge heaped upon warmed, homemade brownies smothered in sweet, vanilla ice cream and topped with mountains of fluffy whipped cream.  Yummy!  We returned home as soon as we scarfed down our delightful treats, and between the heat and the sugar overload, it wasn't long before I was blissfully snoring to the afternoon sitcoms Keith was watching. 

I slowly awakened to Doug Heffernan and his father-in-law, Arthur, verbally abusing each other on "King of Queens" and the thought, "Tear newspaper in strips. 3 strips. Paint one yellow, one orange, one red.  Surround each strip with it's complimentary color."  Immediately I search my mind for further information; Why do I need to do this?  What do with the strips once they're done? What? Really? OK. I'm suddenly more awake and Keith is saying "good morning" to me and inquiring about ordering pizza.  I try to put the newspaper strips out of my mind but they linger in the background whispering at me.

Keith orders the pizza and I flip through the bulb catalog that the mailman has left for my enjoyment.  The tulip on the cover looks like something out of a fairytale and each page is more delightful than the previous.  OK.  I'm convinced.  Send me one of each, please, and I'll find somewhere to plant them later.

Eventually, I pull my head out of the catalog and remember that I want to check out some more blogs on the last Blog Hop that I joined.  (If you haven't noticed the links yet, look at the bar beneath the header and click on "Blog Hops".  You're in for a great adventure!)  I've been visiting the blogs randomly by clicking on the thumbnails that appeal to me.  The first thumbnail I clicked on was #110 Paula (Little Scraps o Magic). I scrolled through her blog and came across a picture of a journal page where she's incorporated tags and I'm intrigued to read that she completed the spread as part of a monthly journal challenge from a website called  GPP Street Team.  I clicked on that link and guess what I saw?  This month's challenge is: "Strip Ease" - "tear your paper into strips and put it on your page"!  I can't believe what I'm seeing! (Well, yes I can, but synchronicity never ceases to amaze me!) That clinched the deal for me.  I knew that I would be tearing newspaper strips and painting them yellow, orange and red for my journal page today!

So, early this afternoon, I pulled out my journal and newspaper and prepared my strips "as instructed".  I then prepped my journal pages with blocks of complementary colors, but beyond that, I had no idea what direction the spread would take.  As I gazed at my drying spread, I began to see a face emerge so I quickly sketched it in.  I thought about what the vast expanse of green represented to me and I immediately thought of a brain and "information".  I began writing the word "information" over and over again and let my mind wander where it wanted. ( I often use repetition of words, phrases and shapes in my journals as a form of meditation.) The next word that came to me was "intuition", and I knew intuitively that I only need print it once and it "demanded" presence.  "Inspiration" came next, followed by "spirituality" and "synchronicity".

After I completed the hair and shadowing of the face and letters, I contemplated my spread and thought about the message.  I noted the overload of "information" on the right side, and noted that what lies in front of me is "intuition", "inspiration", "spirituality" and "synchronicity".  Those four words have much more meaning to me than all the "information" packed into my brain.  Maybe this spread is a reminder to me that everything I need is "contained within".  Anyway, I'll continue to ponder this spread and meanwhile, I hope you tune your awareness into the synchronicity in your life.  "Happy Creating!"