My One Little Word for 2018…

My ‘One Little Word’ for 2018 was ENOUGH. You can read about it here. It’s been a good word for me this year, as I start to reflect on the year that’s been.
One of the things I talked about in the original post was ‘Imposter Syndrome’. We held staff training this week and I talked a bit about imposter syndrome, without naming it – relating to something that happened when I was at Christchurch’s new library recently.

This year I choose to go to counselling to sort a few issues that arose after I got past the 2 years of post-weight loss surgery psychology appointments. I’ve talked about it before, so won’t bore you with the details, but in thinking about this post I’ve realised part of what counselling was about was accepting that I *am* enough. Hmm.

So, was ENOUGH the right word to guide me through this year? Absolutely. There’s something quite magic for me in choosing a word, writing about it, creating it on a postcard sized artwork to have in my office, and letting it guide me. Will I be choosing a word for 2019? Yes. But not just yet, I need to dwell on the possibilities a bit longer…

Art soothes the soul

Things are not easy at the moment; Tony has an appointment with the vascular surgeon today, it’s almost time to inter Mum’s ashes etc. 12 plus hours with my art supplies yesterday was very soothing. Here’s just one of the pages I completed in my art journal.

Stencil, spray, stamp

Tony is in Christchurch for  long weekend, having some Granddad time with our gorgeous grandson Rory and his parents, Yasmine and Adam. He also had a day out with his brother Roger. Which means I am looking after the animals and making art. When Tony’s away the tv never goes on, the bed doesn’t get made, the meals are whatever’s quickest – and I tidy up just before he comes home 😉 Faith, Goldie and I spend our days in my home office – me at the computer or art desk, Goldie on the sheepskin and Faith on the mohair rug in the lazyboy. How good is our life? Here’s a little of what I have done over the last couple of days.  The green one is a card, the rest are in my art journal. I also did some scrapbooking but they’re a pain to scan or photograph, especially at night.

Back to my art journal

Yesterday I got the paper finished early, which meant I had time for art again today. Nice! Spray inks, tattered floral die by Ranger, old rub ons.

Combining the elements

I’ve been piling up the gelli prints, writing and drawing in my journals, and playing with photos. So the next step was to combine some of it in Photoshop. This is fairly small, and has about 7 layers. I’m slowly learning to do more in Photoshop but it’s still feels a bit foreign to me. I need to head over the Michelle Ward’s blog and reread her information about making digital brushes masks – she’s an awesome teacher and incredibly generous with  her knowledge.

(He)arting it out

So much on my mind, in my head, on my heart…