Joy Journal Project: Quiet

The theme for the second assignment of the Joy Journal Project was a spread about "Quiet." 

 For some reason, The 23rd Psalm has been resonating in my head, so I thought I would incorporate it into my journal as the main text. The background collage paper is also a page about Jesus calming the tempest. I thought that was appropriate, so I highlighted some of the words that popped out at me from that story.

I wanted to incorporate a painted lady in my spread, and finally settled on having her resting in the green pastures by a quiet tree (no birds, no rustling leaves). 

I started this spread at home, and then jammed my journal into my portable art kit. Alas, the pages stuck together and tore the paint off in some places. Instead of lamenting this and calling it all "ruined," I decided to embrace the imperfections as all part of the process.  I even took some sand paper and added some distressed sections, as well as smoothed out the torn parts. Whatever, right?

This art journaling thing is quite a learning process. I sometimes start with a certain vision, and get frustrated when I can't realize it the way I would like to do. But I'm realizing that my art journals are really just a place to play and learn and grow. The final product is not what's important. If I like it -- great! If not -- what does it matter?


I thought I wanted to do more with this page, but at this point, I'm not sure what I would do. So, for now it is "done." Perhaps I'll come back to it some day. But for now I'm ready to move on.