Art journaling – around migraines

I have written before about my migraines. I had another stinker over the last couple of days that left me feeling disoriented and with my eyes feeling very odd. I listened to a Shelley Klammer art journaling webinar called ‘Diving Deep’ I haven’t even finished listening to Shelleys course and I was inspired.

I used the soft eye techniques flipping through magazines and collecting images and text. I wanted to work with something around eyes and glasses because of the disorientation. I am always touching my glasses – to make sure that I am seeing as accurately as I can.

The words just jumped out at me.

I added a bit more text in the distorted clocks because time seems to stand still, when I am in the full episode.

I wanted to represent the feelings of too much going on in my head. I added pen scribble and white paint to add more texture and oddness to the composition.

I made the collage in a book that I had worked in before. The page on the left had a hole in it – I was very pleased that serendipity played a part – when I closed the page one of the eyes was exactly in the aperture. The framed eye has a lot more impact that when seen within the composition.

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Digital daily inspiration

I am loving working in a digital way. I thought it wasn’t as intuitive and expressive as working with paper – but I found I working on darker/ shade collages seemed to bring out a different side of me – these seem to connect with other people if one goes by comments and likes

Trapdoor

‘Truth’ surprised me – it felt like I was drawn to the woman’s eyes – something about being seen and needing to be accountable

Above we had to write our own fairy tale – I liked the idea of a girl walking through and enchanted forest with a group of charmed animals to keep her safe

‘Conflict ‘ was a bit weird – the rabbit and the chicken were part of the same ‘cutout’ offered by Freemix – I liked the repetition of the face and the evil look on face of the chicken

Zebra – the interlaced stripes and over lays felt like fields of bones

This was ‘darkness’ I liked layering the buildings and adding the figures – the female has a different head in Freemix – I like that you can chop bits off images and add them in layers to other bits really easily. I am a away for a bit and can’t access my own photos – this seems to make quite a difference to the final outcome in-terms of making collages with some originality. The above images are a mixture from Shelley Klammer and the second week of ICAD 2018

Truth-teller, Soul Restoration, digital collage

I am doing a course called Soul Restoration with Melody Ross. It is having a reboot at the moment and I am following along with the posts and videos on FB.

https://my.bravegirlsclub.com/

I enjoyed doing the art journalling physically last time but spurred on by doing intuitive collages with Shelley Klammer I am making digital images this time.

During the SR course you have to look at the lies that you tell your self. I have been ill with irritable bowel and tummy migraines for years and felt out of control around food so I made these journal pages using the free mix app

I love the loo rolls at the bottom of this image 😂😂😘

This time around I feel engaged with the ideas and the art process.

Yesterday I prepared food to take with me ( I can’t eat processed food and too many additives can upset the balance) sometimes this seems like too much effort. I need to print the images out and take them with me.

Whilst out I didn’t buy anything sweet or have a hot chocolate and I felt like I had the courage of my convictions. This may not seem huge, but I have have to take small steps !!!!

Watching a video on FB about what my truthteller is like ( someone or something that you can carry with you to help you ) sounds a bit fluffy but I feel like I could do this at the moment and it’s was important to me. I remembered a family constellation session that I attended run by Polly Pring last year during an art retreat in Glastonbury. ( Polly Pring on FB) I was a bit sceptical at the time, but Polly asked us to conjour up an image of all your family tree behind you giving you support.

I wondered if I could make an image digitally to represent this using found images on line

http://illusion.scene360.com/art/47926/enchanted-sky/

I liked the sky on this so I cropped the lady and rotated the clouds to give the impression of an ever increasing cloud of relatives steaming out behind me.

I wanted to add the feeling of the constellation session too , so I found this

http://familyconstellationwork.com/NewDevelopments.htm

I wanted a single figure for the truth- teller cloud to be feeding into.

https://www.123rf.com/photo_77128574_vague-figure-the-reflected-silhouette-on-textured-glass-studio-sketch-.html

I also found these figures by Vladimir Kush on a family constellation search

https://peacockseyes.com/2013/04/16/bardo-life-death-everything-in-between/

And I wanted a tree

http://miraclesworldwide.com/event/family-constellations-on-relationships/2018-06-21/

I started layering the images in the ImageBlender App

I cropped and resized the dancing figures several times to feel like they were in the clouds and added the constellation faces around the clouds

Then I added the tree and the single figure – it was tricky getting the right amount of light around the figure so that she looked like part of the tree

This was the image when I had finished layering in Image Blender. I wanted it to be more orange. So I edited it in my image editor on my photo app.

Then I cropped the image and added some text using Freemix

More intuitive collages – Freemix App

I am really enjoying working with the Freemix App but I wish there was a search button on the cutout images because it makes my eyes go funny searching through the database – I shouldn’t complain really because it is free!!!! I am also a bimbo because the images are sorted into different types – I just had it on ‘random’ search 😂😂😂😂

More of my collages using Shelley Klammer’ s prompts – I am getting a bit more sophisticated………

The App allows you to choose backgrounds or import pictures

And then add cutouts which you can layer at will – there are lots of filters and tools – my fingers are a bit fat get the most out of everything on my phone. (I am not getting paid to do any advertising ) but it is a great find

30 day digital intuitive collage with Shelley Klammer

I follow Shelley on social media and loved doing her paper collage challenge a couple of years ago. I liked the idea of working digitally. I don’t have photoshop or an equivalent software so I use Apps on my phone. I usually use Image Blender. Shelley suggested Freemix so I downloaded it.

Initially it wouldn’t work so I made the first few using Image Blender. I like it as an App it doesn’t crash and you can build up layers using the ‘flatten’ option when you save. It’s a bit clunky on my IPhone6 using the masking tool because my fingers feel huge on the screen, but you can zoom in and make the tool very fine.

I have been using my photographs and found images to make these and added my mandala drawings to add my ‘stamp’ on them – I like the individuality I can achieve working this way, but I wanted to learn how to use Freemix.

Freemix is also very easy to use. You work in layers and there is a vast database of images to use. I haven’t found out how to search it yet. So you have to trawl through looking for images. I have found this cuts down on the intuitive element a bit but I am feeling happier working with it after a couple of goes and I worked out how to add my own images too

Again working with it on my phone feels a little clunky, I need to see if working on my iPad would be more effective. Some of the ladies on the challenge are producing lovely collages with more depth and sensitivity. Though I think the middle one above it getting there. I discovered how to make the images more transparent – that helps

Here’s one I rejected

‘Feeding my demons’

I am trying to do an art journal therapy course on line with Shelley Klammer – you sign up and get 100 days of prompts via email. Life keeps getting in the way – I am well over the 100 days but still working only working in the 50’s 
I started again this week with day 51 – which encourages you to do an exercise called ‘Feeding your demons’ this has its roots in a Buddhist practice called Chod

Demon 1 

‘The process of feeding our demons is a method for bringing our shadow into consciousness and accessing the treasures it holds rather than repressing it.’

http://www.feedingyourdemons.co.uk/feeding/Feeding_your_demons.html

I have been putting off doing any art therapy – I have been going through a bad migraine and irritable bowel patch that has left me tired and unable to eat properly ( again) 

The prompt encourages you to make a shadow or demon journal. I did the exercise and found it liberating, so I did it again – this time it wasn’t as successful and felt that there was still more demons that needed working with 

I like writing stories and making up descriptions of the demons , I have an acute sense of smell and revelled in the making up of the beasties as real entities 

 For example demon 2 

this one is attached to my the back of my neck and its claws and feelers sink into my skin and then it is invisible – it lives off the adrenalin in my blood and cranks up the tension when the limbic flight or fight arises – it feeds of my anxiety too – it’s stomach has a the capacity to bloat up two or three times its size ( I am enjoying this far too much ) then it drops off – but it crawls back on to my neck when I am asleep. He is about 3″ long and he stinks – like rancid milk that has been spilt on a carpet and left to go off………

I felt the need to continue with the exercise 

This time when promoted to imagine my demon I saw a series of large distorted shadows that seemed to be controlled and created by a tiny figure – the exercise requires a meditative state and I was lying quite comfortably on the sofa under a warm duvet – when I realised that the small figure was me 

It seems so obvious that I am my own worst enemy but in my relaxed slightly unconscious state it was a shock. In the exercise you confront your demon, imagine it , ask it a series of questions and then feed it – there is an explanation of the whole process in the above link 

As this is an  art journal therapy exercise I worked on the images in my journal – I didn’t feel like there was enough confronting of self going on so I switched to my iPhone and used some layering and filters in Image blender. 

Added colour with gelatoes 

Layering and filters in Imageblender 

Selfie 

Layers in image blender and then finished in Snapseed – I felt this was nearly there but there wasn’t enough observing self going on lol 

90 days of Collages for self discovery with Shelley Klammer

Back in February I started doing the above collage exercise with Shelley Klammer – there are no prompts- but if you tag Shelley and sign up for her newsletter she will send you related stuff , which I have enjoyed reading. I wanted to explore art as therapy in a more controlled way and doing this with her 100 days of arttherapy Journalling has been an interesting exercise. 
This was the first time that I had signed up to do anything with such a long commitment. I always have stacks of magazines and materials so it was an easy task to do. You scan through magazines with ‘soft eyes’ and pick out images that interest you – to be assembled as collages- pick a title and then post on Instagram. 

I really liked the discipline of working with a focus everyday. However life always gets in the way – Shelley encourages you to work as continuously  as possible within the 90 days- so when I knew I was busy- at the weekends -I did a few in advance or took small kits with me. 

I have worked in a few different ways during the 90 days. I have included my doodles- images from Happinez magazine http://www.happinez.com/

‘Shrine’ 

Produced very simple ripped designs – images from Flow magazine http://www.flowmagazine.com/

‘Bubbles’ 

Sometimes I have spent ages cutting out images and producing complicated layered stuff images from Happinez magazine as before 

‘Love is us….’ 

I have really enjoyed working in this way and it has added more skills to my arsenal. I am not sure I would commit to working over such a long period of time again , though I am pleased with my journal when I flip through it and I do feel a sense of achievement. 

The course is called ‘collage for self discovery’ I am not sure I have any concrete feeling of self exploration that I can put my finger on – I have enjoyed looking at everyone else’s collages and being influenced by different styles – particularly the simplicity of Uma – ( IG name  textilleria) who uses very simple ripped pages to good effect. The 100 days of prompts has been much more thought provoking and demanding and I am only half way through -even though I started them both at a similar time. 

Here are some more of my examples over the 90 days – images from magazines mentioned before unless otherwise stated 

‘Kites that give it to the wind’ 

‘Colour therapy’ 

‘Fragile’ – images from Psychologie magazine  

‘Split’ images from ‘Psychologies’ https://www.psychologies.co.uk/

‘Joy’ images from Psychology today and women’s magazines 

‘Life in a fish bowl’ 

100 days of art therapy Journalling

  I enjoyed my 30 days of journalling with Lisa Sonora so much that I didn’t want to stop. I had signed up to 10 days free journalling prompts with Shelley Klammet so I decided to sign up for her 100 days course. 

I am finding it very powerful – there is usually a written prompt and an art prompt everyday – I am feeling a bit vulnerable and peeled back after 10 days. 

This is a paid for course so I don’t think it is appropriate to discuss each prompt in detail. However , I can show my journalling responses 

  I have been having a tricky situation at work recently and I have felt very emotional in response to it . In some ways my reactions have felt  to over the top. I have been surprised how angry a couple of friends have been when I discussed it with them. 

I painting a wall in my living room red and the colour seems to be seeping into my journal.

Yesterday’s prompt was to use pastels in a gestural way and to meditate and sit quietly with the materials and be intuitive. 

I meditate a lot an whenever we have a prompt to be still and quiet – I find my self going some where deep and still. I didn’t want to use oil pastels in my journal because they are so messy. So I drew with my Neo water colour crayons. I was a bit diaspointed with the result 

  
Imeadiately afterwards I decided I wanted to tackle my work problem and put it to bed. 

   
 
I was very amused at the violence and power that resulted from this exercise – I comparison with the crayons. When I meditate I seem to put aside my emotions and go to a safe calm place.

 The juxtaposition of the insipid curly lines with the violence of my collages amused me no end. 

I had been dreaming of ripping up one of my neatly drawn flower mandalas for a couple days – it felt very satisfying and I am pleased to have the explosion down on paper. I think I am going to put a much heavier cross over the woman’s mouth on ‘feeling disempowered’ 

 
Yup that does it for me ….. 

 Nope …..  it needed some more violent red gestural stuff  lol!