Today, is a practice day. Practice, practice, practice! It’s a good thing, I promise.
I worked with a prompt that I got from a show my husband and I were watching. Now, we don’t have cable (because frankly it’s a waste of money and time). But late at night, while the little one is asleep, we do indulge here and there via netflix. So lately, we’ve started watching a series called “Lie to Me”. I absolutely love it. I really do. But I digress.
Today’s prompt is, “Who made you who you are?”
So here, I wrote out the prompt, and doodled around it, and colored in the letters and border that I made for it.
After that, I went through my stack of magazines, and cut out words that I felt answered the question that is the said prompt. Then, I took it a step further, and made a border around it with my pigment markers, and then filled it the white gaps with my copic markers. I’m really beginning to love those markers.
I’ll explain a few of the prompts to you.
So….who made me who I am? Lots of things really. I was going to write out the words, and fill the page with hand written words (maybe next week). But I refrained from doing so, because I don’t want to focus on negativity anymore. It’s not that I don’t acknowledge what I went through growing up, or that I don’t want to face it. I do. I admit it, and I’m not ashamed or bashful to say that yes: I am an adult survivor of physical, verbal, and emotional abuse. But I guess….I am wanting to move on. So, I chose to cut out letters that focused more on the “big picture”. That’s not all there is to me, after all.
Art made me who I am. And being a daughter of an immigrant (my mother), I felt that being born and raised here in the US has helped shape who I am, in a lot of ways, really.
I love Sparrows. I really do. They are such neglected birds. So small. And, there’s an old hymn that I just love, that’s about sparrows. I love it so much. I really enjoy those old hymns, even though I am not a religious woman.
Yoga. I am so grateful to my yoga practice. Although I’ll admit that I do not get the chance to do it every single day, I will say that my yoga practice is what has helped me evolve.
Living in one of the biggest boroughs of New York City has really helped change the way I see things. When you live here, you are forced to notice the sadness of the world. It is of course, up to you how you choose to recieve this information that you are forced to deal with, on a daily basis. You can choose, as some I know, to blame the victim; blame the poor for being poor, blame the sadness for exsisting, and then exalt those that contribute to the sadness and poverty of the world; OR, you can put that aside, and do something to help them, to bring healing to their lives. Or at least, not contribute to more of the sadness. I choose to create a handmade revolution. I choose, to create change, by teaching others, “don’t buy it, make it!”. And If you REALLY can’t make it, buy it handmade, from a person. But enough, I’m getting off my soap box.
Anyhow, I also wrote a poem. I encourage you to take today’s prompt, and emulate this exersize! Get your prompt, and whip out your scissors and glue stick, and get to work on your journal page. THEN, if you’ve got a literary journal, write in your journal, using the words you pasted on your art journal page.
Here’s the poem I wrote:
Who made me who I am?
I
used to be used to
the
graveyard instincts
I
used to be used to this
Who made me who I am?
I
searched and searched for
pure
healing
like a mad child, seeking a mother
who made me who I am?
it was
the boys that I dated that called themselves men
it was
the music
it was
the grave where he lies
it was
her reaction
to me
to my then nomadic tendencies
it was
spirit
it was
exploration
it was
ambition
it was
the
fantasy of
living in New York City, I
was just a little girl and
told myself
while walking the streets of manhattan
just gimme time, just
gimmie time
I told my 10 year old self
who made me who I am?
It was
it is
the art in me
the
witch in me, the truth within,
that made me who I am
it was the evolution
of my
inner self
the
me
in the making
it was
truth
who made me who I am?
I
am self made.
Inside, the pages are from a vintage children’s music book. It’s an educational book that was used in schools and such. I figured, I can just gesso the pages (or rather, use the poor man’s gesso, which is just white paint. Or, if you’re REALLY broke, use that left over white house paint).
I didn’t color all the lines in because I rather like it that way.
So this page, incorporates something we’ll talk about next week, which is backgrounds. I used PAN Pastels for the background, and sprayed some workable fixative, so I can write and draw over it.
(That’s me and my hubs when we were dating)