PARADISE -- Collage -- Composition Art Journal

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Other than a visit to a Florida Key I have never experienced the beauty and feeling of an island paradise. I had a friend who visited one of the islands in Hawaii. She said it is truly a paradise, and you do not want to come home.  The above photo came from a travel magazine. The green and red torn paper abstract foliage and flowers on the right bottom is covering up advertising. The wording slants- it was straight when I was writing it!  Amazing how that happens. The above poem came as I was gluing this picture in my art journal.

Doing the Hard Things -- Composition Art Journal -- Collage on Acrylic Paint Background

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Some things are easier to do than others. When God shows me I need to change my stinky personality, I can work on it. When I need to say "I"m sorry" I can usually do it without too much fuss. But when I'm told I need to love my enemy- the one who figuratively just spit in my face- now that's doing one of the hard things. That takes a LOT of prayer, and crying, and complaining- "But God, didn't you see how horrible they were to me. How they just walked all over me. How they made fun of me. But God...."  However, God has the answer for all of this, because He's already had to do it. He has to put up with the whole world- many who treat Him badly- they cuss Him, ignore Him, say the most horrible things about Him- yet he still provides the sun and the rain (the food/life of people). He loves His enemies, and if I want to be His/one of His children, I have to be like Him. I  have to forgive. Easy to say, I know, but something that has to be constantly worked on and remembered- if I want to be His child. (The pictures above have no particular significance. I used them because they were there and colorful and represent the world.)

WORDS -- Composition Art Journal -- Collage

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This is my first all collage journal page, and it is always interesting how a page in an art journal comes to be.  Sometimes I get the basic layout ahead of time, but not for this one. This one came to be when I became intriqued  by an advertisement in a magazine. The advertisement was just a page of beautiful calligraphy of white words on a background of a lovely shade of lavender. For several days I kept going back to that page. Then in my mind I could see that page torn into little pieces and pasted on a page in my journal with the title "Words". I also found an advertisement that had a matching shade of lavender to use as the background. After I glued it all to the page, the words (poem)  came. Then the design of the placement of it all including the butterfly popped in my head. That is how this one came to be. Some would say this is the creative nature working, some would say its the Spirit of God leading. Since I have absolutely no talent at writing poems or designing things- I am leaning toward the leading of the Spirit.

We Are Like Butterflies -- Acrylic & Collage -- Composition Art Journal

 

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This one was fun to do. I got to play with color and paint. I also was able to play with collage a little  (the butterflies). This journal entry really talks to me. I have been in both the caterpillar and butterfly's place. 

POSSIBILITIES -- Composition Art Journal -- Acrylic Paint

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Sometimes it takes a little bit more than usual for God to get my attention. I guess there were some things in my past I need to forget and let go of, because the left side of this popped into my mind on the way to church one Sunday with all the colors, design, and scripture at once. The right side a few days later after I had completed the left side. I think the point God was trying to get across to me was that I can not advance into what the future holds for me, unless I let go of the past. Hanging on to old failures, hurts, ways, thoughts keeps us in the darkness of misery. Forgetting them (which usually takes the help of God) frees us to more into the possibilities and hope and light of the future.

On Eagle's Wings -- Acrylic and Collage - Composition Art Journal

 

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Sometimes we have ideas/pictures that pop into our mind when we read something inspiring. That is what happened here. I became interested by this picture created in my mind by a particular psalm that spoke about the eagle and us. When I wrote  on the page, it appeared level at the time, but unknown to me the page had slid down slightly and when I finished the writing was crooked.  This was scanned in as two separate pages and then stitched together by the free program Pos Panorama Pro. This was fun to create. I was able to do both painting/collage and to express visually and journally something that was in my heart.