the newest tarot card art journal spreads

I've been slow with making these, but I'm happy that I've been able to dabble in paint and collage without judgement from my inner critic.  baby steps in getting back to physical and mental health.

the next cards drawn were the 5 of pentacles;

meaning financial loss, poverty, lack mindset, isolation, worry.

read more about 5 of pentacles here

and the queen of swords;

here are her elements before figuring out composition and such

symbolizes independent, unbiased judgement, clear boundaries, direct communication.

read more about Queen of Swords here

the high priestess was next.  I had some difficulties when I scrubbed part of the ink off the collage piece for her face while affixing it to the page.  I had to trust that I could enjoy my time correcting the colors and making her face mine (and not 'perfect')

symbolizes intuition, sacred knowledge, divine feminine, the subconscious mind.

read more about the high priestess here

until later,

Jenny

tarot art journal spreads

I was able to get back to the art table on November 4th, after a little break from things.  I always worry when I take breaks cause I wonder if I'll ever have the energy to get back into art of any form.  I also have to hold myself from criticism with these journal pages.  other artists may spend hours futzing with every little detail in their art journals, but I want to do quick pages just to let off steam and get something down on the page that represents the tarot card that I chose that day.

my first card of the month of November was the Tower.  it's not a sweet card to draw, for sure, and I found some good images to represent the chaos of it.

I laid out all the collage pieces and took a photo (above), but when I went to glue the elements down things got shifted and I couldn't shift them back.  I liked the composition above much better.

the way it turned out seemed to have a bit of disconnect with the woman and the tower.  the eye didn't move freely with the image as a whole and got stuck where her hand is.  movement is much better in the unglued version!  I had an inward chuckle that this spread was giving me trouble, and fixed it a bit with fire images.

it is what it is

I also like that the woman in the fetal position in the image has a soft ball of yarn.  to me that tells me that what is happening is for the better in the long run; that I will come to the end of this phase stronger from it.  read about the Tower card here.





I worked today with the Page of Cups.  for some reason I felt the energy of my son, Winter-Orion, for this card.  Winter is in the spirit dimension now, but he was very creative and intuitive and this is the energy for the card.  I thought about using a photo of him for this, but realized it might get in the way of knowing the card better instead of always relating it to Winter.  again, I chose the images that spoke to me and just created without too much thought.

and the end result has become another favorite;

read about the Page of Cups here

it was a good creative outcome today, and glad to have my boy join me in it!

until later,
Jenny

tarot art journalling in October

I've been making progress with my tarot art journalling.  the first three days were easy.  I was motivated and I think I may have found a combination of supplements that have me feeling much 'better' in my battle with Lyme disease.  I had the motivation and the energy in the first 3 days of art journalling to do 3 spreads, and those two elements (energy and motivation) are the things that will keep me moving and off the couch.  I still have pain, and I'm still dead tired (which is funny since I have energy... it's different, though), but with motivation and energy, I can move mountains!

these spreads are meant to be quick, imperfect learning tools to get me off the couch, into art again and immersing myself in tarot.  these are not to become agitated about or stressed about in any way, because they are just for my eyes- and you- not something to sell.  I'm hoping to do a few each week until finished with the deck of 78 cards.

I showed you my first spread, The Sun, which I chose to be the main card for this journal;

signifies positivity, fun, warmth, success, and vitality

read more about Sun here

my second spread was the 4 of Cups, and I really love this one;

signifies meditation, contemplation, apathy, and reevaluation

read more here

spread 3 is the Queen of Rods;

signifies courage, confidence, independence, social butterfly, and determination

read more here

next I worked on 3 of Swords.  it has a lot of texture in it;

signifies heartbreak, emotional pain, sorrow, grief, hurt

read more about 3 of swords here

next card I drew was The Empress;

signifies femininity, beauty, nature, nurturing, abundance

read more about the Empress here

I took a few days off, being busy and then tired, and then, suddenly, it was November 1st.  I'll do a post a month with my progress in this tarot journal.  

until later,

Jenny

easy art journalling with "365 tarot spells"

I bought this book for my birthday and it came yesterday;

365 tarot spells

creating the magic in each day

by Sasha graham

this book excites me!  I need a nudge to get my head cleared of all the negativity that has been enveloping me lately and I think working with the book can help me relieve some of it through just getting to know my tarot deck in a more intimate way.  not only does this have spells to work with to help in everyday life (ease of travel spell, sound sleep spell...), but it has what is called "connection rituals", where you hold a meditation and find yourself entering the card to see from it's eyes, so to speak.

what I've decided to do first with this book is to create an art journal page for each card in the deck.  there are 78 cards, so this will be a long-term project and I'm not going to hold myself to create each day but take it slow.  I have the perfect journal for this, that was once a tried-and-failed attempt at a hand written Book of Shadows.

it's a pretty, purple, leather-bound with many signatures

I chose the first spread to be for THE SUN, but for each of my other spreads I'll be shuffling the deck to see what energies I'll be working with that day.

letting the image rest while I journal about the card

finishing up the art with some gold for added energies

I found a good reference site called biddytarot.com to learn about tarot, and used it for journalling about the Sun card.  it may be my go-to for each card, I'm not sure yet.  click here to learn what they say about the Sun.

I was rather impressed that I intuitively picked the Sun card to be the first card in the journal.  reading up on it, it has everything I need right now; with going into such a big project, with not knowing where my health is going, with going into a known depressive time of year.  this card lets me know that I have what it takes to get through all my struggles and to shine my radiance into the world like only I can.  in another book I have, "your guide to the tarot" (in this tarot kit),  Janet Berres calls the Sun card "the best card of the deck!

my goal is to just explore things in this journal.  not going for works of art, but to enjoy myself, to experiment with what materials I have and to show what each card means to me in a quick, easy way.  the front portion of this beautiful leather-bound book will be for artwork, and later signatures of the book will hold journalling of tarot spreads and spells I've done.

updated with some added dots for more motion

this should be a great project for the upcoming hibernation months!

until later,

Jenny

an update

hi guys!

I've had some pretty miserable moments lately, and some better ones as well.  the other day I did an oracle card reading for myself and was happy with the results that stated that the illness I'm dealing with was a way to get back to my spirituality and to change the way I saw myself.  doing more self care and standing up for myself these days.  I felt empowered by the reading, and in that feeling I vowed to challenge myself to do a little bit of 'art-stuff' each day in October.  (and then the very next day I was full of rage against the world... you get used to the emotional and physical roller coaster ride that is Lyme disease after a while)

 a not-so-good moment

a better moment

I recently took new photos of the mini Spirit Animal paintings I have available for sale and put them up in my art facebook page.  I'll have to put them here as well.  I think they show the paintings better now, and I've gotten a sale from it.  here are a few:

 "Be Yourself"

 "Sunshine"

SOLD

 "Heart of the Fox"

 "Sure Footed"

 "The Treasure"

"The Wary One"

the album in my facebook art page is HERE, and I'll also try to get them up in my for sale page shortly.

I'm still watching my classes in Let's Face It, and learning while watching even if I'm not up to doing any class work.  although, I've downloaded all the classes to date, I have a bunch of weeks worth of videos and lesson plans cluttering my desktop that need to go into their own folders.  what would be an easy thing to do while downloading has now become a chore.

yesterday I had an appointment with my lyme doctor.  I let her know how frustrated I am; the crazy but controlled anger; the 'out of my body' moments where everything is pretty much... oh well.  I tell you, this is a ride.   we decided on adding another treatment to the regime.  I'm to give myself a little shot twice a week for a month and then see how I'm doing.  this is a peptide treatment, which is supposed to support the immune system.  I'm also on something for the unrelenting nausea.  all in all, though she's pretty happy with how well I'm doing.  my pain level is down, which is huge.  I have had some 'good' days, which is huge.  I was able to help move a table when sweetie and son #4 helped my mother move houses, which is huge.  my doc tells me that being up to a full dose at this point of my treatment is huge.  so, I'm doing good work, it's just overwhelming if you do research on it and are living it.  I do hope this peptide treatment will get me 'over the hump' and let me feel that I'm doing better.  I'm strong and I will fight this to the end!  remission here I come!

I woke up today with an email from society6 that I was paid for a purchase made in august, so that was a lovely surprise!  I went to my page there to check out what was bought, and was amazed that there were 8 more in 'pending' mode!  I was doing an internal Snoopy dance, thats for sure!  hooray for collectors buying from the little businesses for the holidays or for themselves!  I checked my redbubble page, too, just to make sure nothing got by, and I updated my database to show earnings from both shops that I have neglected to update.

and then I decided I had a bit of energy to piddle in the studio for a bit;

just a little art journal page in its beginning stages, but it made me happy to get my fingers messy again!

and I'm done.  wiped out again, but I may have the spoons later on to finish watching this weeks class.  and I'll continue pushing myself to do a little something art-y each day this month.

until later,

Jenny

art challenge suckiness, but i have things to share

well, that sucked.  my so called art challenge.  i did about 9 projects this month, and then fell out of the nonexistent habit.  i did MUCH better with my 30 day yoga challenge and 100 day sun salutation challenge which is still going strong.  (days 59/100 for the sun salutation challenge, and 27/30 for my yoga challenge, following this yoga instructor).

here are the rest of the cards i did manage for my art challenge

meh

pure hatred towards this, so i left it.

this one was a style learned by ivy newport

i've also been working on some of my LifeBook projects, but not as many as i had hoped.

these are in progress, from a class 

taught by rae missigman

i've also found a wonderful artist who does real time, and live, videos on how to paint fun canvasses.  she is a hoot!  her name is cinnamon cooney, the art sherpa.  check her out!  i fell in love with one of her paintings that included a pony and sketched one out;

today i have been working on a canvas that is inspired by the teaching of shiloh sophia.  she had a free easter class you might still be able to take advantage of (free until may 2016), and she was this weeks' LifeBook teacher as well.  i incorporated a few of her other stylings as well.  it's not finished yet, but here are some progress photos.  i'm trying to stay loose and not worry about realism or proportions, just getting my ideas and my feelings down on canvas, letting the paint flow.  there are so many layers to this piece!

you can't see it, 

but her eyebrows are dragonfly wings

so this is where it sits as of now.  taking a break from her, and i will see what she asks me for tomorrow.  i'm loving her so far, but i know details are lacking, and i'm not thrilled with her hair yet.

until later, 

jenny

my magical yearbook

i mentioned in my last post that i'd been working on a big journal about my goals for the year.  taken from prompts at journalwild.com, this has been a great start to figure out what i really want to do with my year.  i'm almost finished with the journaling part of it, and then i will start to be more consistent with the actual work of the book.

i used an old discarded childrens' book i bought from the library and gessoed the pages enough that my details would be the focal point but you can still make out sweet drawings and some text.

dreaming of my ideal year

i needed to think of several goals i wish to accomplish this year and then figure out how to work small tasks related to the goal into daily life.

getting to some heavy stuff, the mean things i say to myself and which ones i want to try to get rid of this year.  slow steps

it's so pretty underneath, though

in another prompt i needed to come up with 52 things i love about me.  that took a little while and a lot of thought.

my favorite pages so far are the ones about spirit!

 pretty textures!

for one spread i knew i wanted a big tarot reading for the year.  twelve cards, one for each month, plus a card for the beginning of the year and one for the end.  i printed a mini version of each card chosen from my deck, Colette Baron-Reids wisdom of the oracle card deck.

 the spread with each months card in place.  

i chose a different deck for the beginning and end cards 

makes for a very fat book!

this was a great project for me to get my bearings on what i wished to have happen this year and figure out what little steps i can take every day to succeed!  

and, in other news...

this little man will be coming home to live with us in a few days!!!  he does have a name, but i am not sharing until he is safe and warm in my home.  his shelter name is dijon.

i had been extremely depressed lately and mark decided i needed something to distract me from my thoughts.  

since my loki kitty died suddenly in his sleep on my oldest sons birthday over a year ago, a hard enough day for me made more difficult, i have been wanting another kitty in my house.  we were down to zero kitties from 2, and i am not used to no kitties in my home.  i'd been wanting a ginger kitten.  my dad had one at the farm when i was little and he was a sweet guy, even putting up with a wedding between he and another tolerant kitty we had.  i have a sweet spot for gingers.  

so, mark said yes to a kitty in a text from work, but he wanted a cat from a shelter, not a kitten.  he wanted to help out the shelter, and not have to deal with the neutering and such ourselves.   i knew the cat i wanted.  i had seen a big brute of a cat in a photo at our grocery store for a long, long time.  i messaged the animal control about him and they told me he was feral, that he doesn't allow people to touch him.  i knew that if it wasn't for our crazy pup, lucy, who chased our kitty previously, that i wouldn't have a problem with the cat being antisocial.  but two crazy animals in one house is too much for even me.  i was heartbroken for the poor guy, though.

the next day the animal control Facebook page posted the photo you see above, asking if anyone knew the owners.  i fell hard for that sweet face!  he looked friendly and young.  a couple days after that, on a saturday, we went to the shelter to visit and see if his owners had shown up.  they hadn't, and the weather was bitter cold!  so glad he was in a safe, warm place.  i let them know if the owners didn't show that i was very interested in him.  i got to cuddle with him and he is so social and sweet!  they took my name, as the director was not there, and told me that she would give me a call.  when she called later that day, she had remembered me from my time working with a wildlife rehabber in the area and other times when we donated to the shelter.  we talked and she needed to know i was serious, as they needed room for other cats coming in left and right.  they would bring him to another shelter to make space for others in our area.  this guy also needed to be neutered, and would take money from their funds.  mark assured me we would find the money they asked for, for them to just break even, and she told me they wait 7 days for an owner to contact them.

today has been seven days!  i contacted them this morning, and they let me know that my little orange kitty will be going to the vet tomorrow, thursday, and we can pick him up on saturday!

i will update later with more photos of him in his new home and with his name.  i'm very excited, if you can't tell!

until later,

jenny