self-compassion

acceptance

courage

Inspired by a conversation with my oldest daughter and her sharing with me some links to TED talks by Brene Brown.  Background text is from a paperback dictionary from a thrift store, sealed with gesso, with lettering in pencil, fine-tip Sharpie, and colored pencils.

it's ok...you're allowed to fly

This journal page is created with pencil, an extra fine tip Sharpie, and Crayon colored pencils.  I applied gesso to the brown paper first, which creates a fine texture on the paper that the colored pencils can grab.  The result is much brighter color than if I had used the very smooth original paper alone.

painting emotions

A few weeks ago I was sitting in a coffee shop with two artist friends, Garrett and Dan. We were talking about painting emotions and we were asking ourselves how you express intangible things--like joy or mystery or fear--with paint. How do color and texture, light and dark combine to communicate intangible things? Since that conversation, I've been contemplating different emotions and what they would look like if I painted them. My intense experiences with depression eight years ago came to mind very quickly and then, the thought of what hope can feel like in contrast. Today I sat down to paint them both.