2020 Moving Into the Present

I am getting back into the swing of things after spending last week taking down Christmas decorations and reorganizing my entire studio, purging some of the past so I can live in the the present and move towards the future.

I listened to a lot of podcasts and one question that stuck in my mind was, “It is a new year, a new decade, are you going to keep doing the same old things, and continuing the same old habits that keep you stuck in the past or are you going to try new things?”  So this visual journal entry is carrying that theme.

It started with leftover acrylic paint from a project I just finished that I started almost a year ago.  Next, I typed myself a letter giving myself a pep talk and reminding myself of things I need to do to get unstuck to let go of the past, move into the present and forward into the future.

In my purge of old novels, I found one of my watercolour bookmarks from many years ago.  I decided to add more details and colour and then to add it to my page.  Michelle Mutschler, my kindred spirit and artist friend, contributed the little canvas painting with the art angel on it, as a pocket.  I love her whimsical art!  Notice the stitching on the perimeter?  At the bottom of the little fairy’s dress is an old playing card that I gave to her!  Now that is a collaborative art project!

On the back of the bookmark I wrote another message to refocus myself on my goals!

I grabbed two random pages from an old novel that I found uninteresting. Interestingly, I found almost all the keywords from the letter to myself on the two pages!  How cool is that?

The little words were cut out using some very old pinking shears I found in my stash of old stuff!  Lucky find!

For the finishing touches, I added some watercolour paint, pen and ink details, a wax crayon border and voila!

Out with some old, on to the present, forward to the future!