Art Journal Thursday: He Himself is Our Peace

 

Life has a lot of stuff to it--work, family, relationships, experiences and on and on. It's all those things that make us who we are, right? We all have lovely bits--talent, generosity, compassion, intelligence, etc. We also all have our sucky bits--envy, contempt, irritation, and so on. We can't help it because we are imperfect beings in a fallen world. If I am left to my own, there is no peace. I cannot make right the things that are wrong. I can't do things over. I can only move forward trying to minimize the uncaring things I do and find ways to positively impact those around me.

Multiple layers of acrylic paint applied with a palette knife.

So today's journal page is about layers. It began with scraps of book pages randomly glued to the substrate. Then I began with layers of paint. I began layering several colors of paint and then decided that I didn't like them. So I mixed some black with some gesso and started over.

Gesso and thinned acrylic paint applied to the die cut flowers.

I liked the layers because the it had such a messy quality. But I wanted to add something a bit more joyful to offset the overall darkness of the piece. Using a Tim Holtz Sizzix Bigz die, I cut out several flowers and then adhered them to the page.

Use a Pitt brush pen, size B, to journal and add lines to my flowers.

Sunflower yellow acrylic paint, applied with a palette knife, was created as a background to journal on. I added one of my favorite scriptures. It is a reminder that I cannot obtain the peace I seek alone.