art underground

I love that my parents' house has a basement.  Whenever I'm at that point of a visit here when I've just had enough of the craziness and need to retreat to a place of introverted bliss, I sneak down the basement to be alone.  This vacay is no exception.  And as usual, my daughter and I often share the space and use it to create our own temporary art studio.  Yes, it's a big jumbly mess down there, and smells like dampness and mold and fresh stinky firewood...but it's also our creative oasis.

During our time this weekend, I used this space to let loose my crazies in my art journal.  What I love about my art journal, is that it's not for show, unless I want it to be, so I can be as free and private as I want.  For all I have to do once it's done drying, is turn the page, or close the book, and the secrets are all mine.  It's like a private journal, only in pictures.  As they say, a picture paints a thousand words.  And sometimes my feelings have no words, and I usually approach my art journaling time with no words and no clear goals or intentions whatsoever.

This first drawing sums up what I've come here for: a little "ohm" time, away from it all:

Next is this simple collage that talks back to those stupid smart people in my life, those left-brained, practical people who try to tell me how i should live my life and to be who they want me to be instead of the crazy lunatic i am.  I can't change who I am.  I can change my perspective for the better, but I can't change the fact that i was born a free-spirited, overly-sensitive, wildly creative, ridiculously insanely humored, extremely melancholy soul who seems to have been adopted from a watermelon patch, as i usually never fit in with most people on this planet.

And finally, some simple words of wisdom to myself, to tune out all the noise of the junk around me, those voices screaming at me, distracting me, and instead to tune in to that still, small voice inside me.  To learn to be still and quiet and listen to what my wise heart is really saying.

And that is all for now.  Hoping to take these ideas and more back to my home studio tomorrow, and to begin creating new inspired works to share soon.  Goodnight!