Living Your Word of the Year Letters U & V

In the Living Your Word of the Year group we have spent this past year working through the alphabet using the letters to pick words that support our word of the year. Four more letters left and we close the year and the decade. 

For U, I chose the word unfailing. To live a sacred life, I believe, means we need to have a strong connection with God's unfailing love. On this page I enjoyed clipping painted papers for a little collage.

For the letter V, I chose the word voice. For quite some time I have felt a strong connection with the call found in Proverbs 31:8-9, to be a voice for those whose voices tend to get drowned out by society - the poor, single moms, children -  the list could go on and on.

Wherever you live, I hope you are enjoying the change in season. I spent some time walking at the park yesterday. The sun was not out but everything glowed from the yellow and gold leaves on the trees. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. Despite the weather turning cold, there is just so much beauty to see as the leaves change color.

I am pulling together the word list for  Advent Words 2019. I will publish more details about the Advent Words project in the weeks ahead. 

May you take time to slow down and enjoy the beauty around you this week!

Creativity of the Creator ~ July Everyday Journal Group Theme

Creativity of the Creator ~ July Everyday Journal Group Theme

Creativity of the Creator

I love our theme in the Everyday Journal group for July! I love walking in nature with camera in hand and catching the beauty of what God has created. Nature themes land on the pages of my art journals quite often, probably more than any other theme outside of faith itself. 

We cannot be in nature and not experience the creativity of our Creator is. We look at sunsets and snow capped mountains. We hear the constant rhythm of waves crashing on the beach or thunder rolling across the sky. We experience the vast variety of birds and flowers ad trees. Everything in the world around us points us back to God, the Creator of all things. Our proper response, our immediate response, is awe and wonder and praise and glory to the One whose creativity is so vast and amazing.

As we ponder God's creativity in nature we are reminded that we also are His creation.

"In the beginning, God created..." Genesis 1:1

The Bible begins with this statement in Genesis 1:1. God takes nothing and makes something. He took what was formless and dark (Genesis 1:2) and made light and land and oceans and stars and vegetation and animals and on and on. (Read Genesis 1:3-25) And then God made His masterpiece.

"Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness..." Genesis 1:26

"So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him;  male and female he created them. " Genesis 1:27

Again God took nothing, dust, and He breathed His life into it and created beings in His own image. (Genesis 2:7) Because we are created in the very image of God, we also are creative beings.
Author Janice Elsheimer, in her book The Creative Call, says,

"With God's Spirit working in us, we can speak the words he gives us (in whatever artist language we use to express ourselves) and become cocreators with Him. That is what being a Christian artist means: Our art is not necessarily Christian in content, but it is centered in the truth that the Holy Spirit reveals."

This month as we explore the theme of nature and the creativity of God, let it also remind us of who we are ~ created beings made in the image of God to be creative also. May this month serve as a time of praise and worship for who God is and all that He has created.

"Great are the works of the LORD: they are pondered by all who delight in them."   Psalm 111:2

Join Our Inspirational Facebook Group

Bernice Hopper, Valerie Sjodin and I are using one journal to record events, experiences and relationships and  to explore our word’s meaning in visual and fun ways. We are each blogging about our experiences and our art. If you would like to connect with others about creatively organizing your word, your ideas, thoughts, prayers, events, or your projects all in one journal, you are invited to join our Facebook group: Everyday Journals – Living Your Word of the Year.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/203309083575277/

Hashtags on Instagram: #everydayjournals2018, #livingyourword2018

Check out the other blogs:

Bernice: http://www.newlycreative.com/

Valerie: https://valeriesjodin.com/blog/

A Few of My Favorite Things ~ Plus a Tutorial!

It is no surprise to anyone who follows my blog or views my art journaling and photographs - I love birds. I enjoy watching them, studying them, photographing them, and include them often in my art. 

Another passion I have is for Bible study and theology. Last week at the library book sale I found a new book by one of my favorite pastor/author/theologian/ Bible commentators, John Stott. I usually buy any book I find by him when I go to book sales, but this one was special. It's called "The Birds Our Teachers: Biblical lessons from a lifelong bird watcher". A book that combines two of my favorite things by one of my favorite authors! And I had no idea that John Stott was also a bird watcher - bonus!

A few weeks ago I found out that 2018 has been named the year of the bird by Audubon and National Geographic to mark the 100th anniversary of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It's a good excuse for me to continue to use birds in my art. Jeanne Oliver is doing a year long project called Series 52 which she says is a way to create a body of work that is just for you. One of my favorite art mediums is collage. Last year for the 100 day project I did scrap collage projects on Rolodex cards. It was a fun challenge to make them on such a small background, but what I loved most about the project was that I did collage more frequently. So I thought doing one intentional piece of collage per week would help me stay connected to this art medium and would be a nice way to work on a different size than my Everyday Journal, although some weeks it may be in that journal. And since it is the Year of the Bird, they will be my focus for my weekly collage.

My collage for week one was made to go into my commonplace notebook.

My collage for week two was inspired by the illustrator Richard Faust, who often includes small geometric collages on his work. This one was done in my Everyday Journal, which is a Traveler's Notebook.

In 2015 I was a member of the foundation team for a group called His Kingdom Come. We did a number of classes that year that were exclusive for group members. Now that this group is no longer in existence I thought I would share the art journal I made for the course we did called God's Aviary. It was a course that studied birds in the Bible and combined that with art journaling.

This was one of my all-time favorite art journal projects! I added the tutorial and the video flip-through of my journal to the pages at the top of this site. Or you can click this link to go directly to that page. Enjoy!

Let Us Make Class

Because I love nature and combining that love with art and photography I decided to participate in a class on the Jeanne Oliver Creative Network called Let Us Make. The instructor, Sheila Atchley, is using the account of creation's first six days in the book of Genesis as the outline for the class. I'm enjoying listening to her read the Scripture and then talk about God's creativity.

I have decided to try some of her art techniques which are new to me, while at the same time simply using the Scripture and discussion as my inspiration for creating. One technique was to use acrylic inks and rubbing alcohol to create the separation of water and sky in Genesis 1:9-10. I was not happy with my results. On the first one done in an altered book journal, I apparently picked up the wrong roll of masking tape because it tore the watercolor paper as I took it off. The second attempt I did on a loose piece of watercolor paper, but still not thrilled with it. I'll have to keep playing around with the acrylic inks until I find a way to use them that fits my style.  So, instead,  I reverted to my favorite tools and technique to make my page- painted papers and collage.

acrylic inks

Once I did that, I decided to make a section in my commonplace journal dedicated to the art pages that result from this class.

My as yet untitled comonplace journal

I may try mixing in some of my photos from nature walks. Happy weekend to you!

Delight in His Creation

Recently, in an art video in a class by Sheila Atchley, I was reminded to take delight in God's creation as He does. To delight in something is not to worship it, but rather to take pleasure in it, to find joy in it. Nature shows us the beauty and creativity of God. My favorite way to delight in God's creation is through nature walks with my camera in hand.

"Worship the Creator; delight in His creation." ~Sheila Atchley

Today I am simply going to share some of the photographs I have captured of God's creation over the past few months.

Loons at my sister's lake.