FindingFaith: At home by the ocean

Greetings from Florida! I'm going to keep it short and simple and just share a few pics from my trip so far. More to come next week! May I just say, I really am most at home by the ocean. It's so healing! Here's Fort Myers beach with a rainbow, sunset and moon all in the same day!

 I also got to visit Matlacha, a cute little artsy town, love the colorful buildings! And what would tropical paradise be without a tropical cocktail?!

Until next time!




Creatively yours,

Faith

FindingFaith: Gratitude

Hi friends! 

Lots of healing work going on for me this week. I've been reflecting on where I've come from, where I'm going and a balance of being grateful for where I am in this moment. One process that I use to really dig deep in a beautiful and fun way is to art journal. I'm part of an online group that I have talked about before www.bravegirlsclub.com that has online classes to help with this process. Sometimes when I'm feeling stuck I draw inspiration from these classes and just use some of their printouts to discover my own unique projects. I found this great Fairyopolis book at the thrift store and have been wanting to do some type of altered book project, and finally found a use for it. I've been taking photos from each year of my life and doing a cut and paste with all the inspiring things I would have wanted myself to know during those times. Here are some pics so far.

 I used another altered book/art journal I have for this "She did it anyway" exercise from Brave Girls Club. I had been thinking about all of my crazy, wild dreams about what I want to achieve in life and kept hearing those negative nagging thoughts about why I can't have, do or be those things. It was so liberating to get all that garbage out and proclaim that I can DO IT ANYWAY! So liberating!

After all of this I was really led to contemplate the idea of gratitude...for the good in every past experience, for my beautiful and amazing dreams for the future, and most of all for all the things that I am blessed with right now. The later being what I really want to focus on, because ultimately there is no past or future, just a constant streaming of now. I realized that goals and hopes and dreams are all fine, but if I can't appreciate what I have now, I won't appreciate more or different. Gratitude eliminates so many things that destroy us. Envy, greed, hopelessness, and the list goes on. I will leave you all with this thought...




Creatively yours,

Faith

Finding Faith: A Womb with a View

Hi friends!

 I will keep this week's post short and sweet and share with you one of my latest finds. The yoga swing! I like to hang mine from a tree in my backyard. I have a lush and green landscape (my little oasis in the desert) with lots of chirping birds and a little waterfall. There are many exercises that can be done on the yoga swing, but what I really love to do is just hang upside down, stretch, and relax.

A Womb with a View

Find your happy place! I definitely have! Until next week.

Creatively yours,
Faith

FindingFaith: Creating sketch books, collage journals, and painting like a child!

Hello friends! Happy Thursday!

This week I thought I would just share a little bit about what I've been up to in my art studio lately. It's all been about just having fun. I've been sketching, finger painting and collaging. It's very therapeutic and has really allowed me to tap into my own artistic intuition. No rules, no expectations, and no attachments to the outcome.

My sketch books and magazine collage journals.

Some collage cards I made


One very helpful resource for me has been expressiveartsworkshops.com  I've been part of a 90 day collage challenge (featured above as vegasartchic) and a 100 day art journaling online class.

Another fun and totally unexpected art process has been what I call my Princess Pretty Face Girls...

It all started on a thrifting excursion with Shana. She happened to find a bunch of dolls she liked, and suddenly I felt like I wanted to draw some doll images. This is totally not within the norm for me as an artist, but apparently my inner child wanted to come out and play! Finally I added my girls to other things I had been experimenting with and this was the result. Circles, flowers, finger paint, paint drips and some repainted thrift store finds all became backgrounds. Top right image is the first drawing I did. Bottom right inspired by an old photo of me with my favorite puppy Sugar, and both left images inspired by images of Shana.

So what is next? I have NO idea, but I'm enjoying my little art therapy time. It's all just a part of the "Finding Faith" process. Until next time!

Creatively yours,

Faith