I do not do New Year’s resolutions, do you?

Welcome to my s~A(R)T~urday linky party – today: Healing Art.

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time”
~ Thomas Merton ~

Now that this is out there, how about you? Do you? And just to clarify, the fact that I do not participate in the yearly resolutions, does not mean that I do not have ideas and wishes, even goals, for my year 2016. Some are personal like getting fit again after my injury, some are work = less of it or less stress and some are related to ImagesByCW, more on that further below.

And the beginning of a new year is as good a time as any to start over something that has been bugging you. Or start taking up something you always wanted to do. It is certainly something that I can relate to. Just before Christmas I was participating for the first time in an ‘online retreat for women’. Sounds strange, right? But bear with me. It started on the day of the (winter) solstice and ended yesterday. As part of this retreat the teachers sent us daily video lessons in yoga and meditation, something I have not really done before, and, of course, art.

From these meditations, we would then create our art work, pictures or writing. For this purpose we all made our own art journal at the very beginning of the retreat. Something I had never done before either. I am fairly new to art journaling in general and in particular, while I am slowly finding my way back to painting and drawing. Yet, all of it is a lot of fun and – very relaxing.

All ‘teachers’ are women, who believe in healing art and the powers of meditation. And while I cannot speak from personal experience (yet) concerning the meditation, but art – oh yes! Just ask David how often it happens that when I am stressed and grumpy, but somehow manage to get my act together and draw or paint for a while, almost magically I would be in a good mood again. It really is most amazing to me.

[Tweet “I believe in the healing power of art.”]

So, naturally, what I started during this retreat meditation, yoga and painting, all of it, will continue to be part of my personal path in 2016.

As far as the blog is concerned you probably noticed a few changes. In December I got a new theme, layout and I think it is working out great and will be here for years to come. Minor tweaks will always occur e.g. I am not certain about the floating navigation bar, I think I may have it fixed on the top. You may have also noticed that after years I have now gotten rid of CommentLuv. No particular reason other than it just did not feel right anymore.

I am now taking my website and blog more serious and therefore, alongside the existing ads, you may sometimes see affiliate links. But don’t worry ImagesByCW will never be a website, where you have to search for actual content among all the ads. While I cannot influence the ads shown to you (much), I assure you that whenever you see affiliate links 1) they will be marked clearly in the post and 2) you can be sure that they are for products that I am using myself and love. I am not a good sales person and will only recommend something I believe in.

And that’s about it with ideas and wishes that I wanted to share with you on this first day of 2016. Here’s to a wonderful year for you and I (and no more injuries, please!).

There is one more thing, I asked my email subscribers if you prefer to get an email with each post published or rather one (or two, should I decide to post more often) email per week as a summary. So far the outcome is an even tie. So, I am posing the question again. Would you please do me a favor and let me know either in the comments or by taking this mini survey? It would help me tremendously. Thank you so much.

And now, here is my artwork for this week. It is, of course, the self made art journal, which some of you may have already seen on Instagram. Enjoy your weekend!

It used to be a regular hard cover art journal. I then wrapped and spray-glued the cover with watercolor paper and let it dry.

art journal

Then I completely moistened the watercolor paper and dropped india ink color on it, distributing the different colors with a small sponge. Then drying again.

art journalart journal

The online retreat’s name was/is Woman Unleashed and with my recent dabbling in lettering I just had to had that in there somehow. So, I wrote and drew it on the cover, first with pencil, then with a micron pen.

art journal

I wanted to give the leash some structure, so I painted it with gesso.

art journal

After that was dry I painted it with Posca gel pens and later with metallic gel pens. The rainbow colored circle was achieved with Tombow markers and some glitter added.

art journal




 *** Here is where I link up today. ***

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Why don’t you join me along my journey and follow me on fbgo and tw if you prefer and see what I come up with next. You can, of course, also subscribe by email – (click) here or you may follow my blog with Bloglovin or my preferred reader Feedly.

I hope that over time we will be building a community dedicated to art and creating. I rather like these words said by Andy Warhol:

 

Don’t think about making art, just get it done.

Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. 

While they are deciding, make even more art.” 

Drop me a comment and you’ll make me smile!

claudia3

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16 thoughts on “I do not do New Year’s resolutions, do you?”

  1. I really like this. Beautiful and so personal. Though I do not consider myself to be “artistic” or “crafty”, I have decorated my journals. They are mine and a reflection of me, but for my eyes only. I am linked with a poem today! Thank you, my friend.

    Reply
    • That’s the thing, I never considered myself crafty either and ‘artistic’ took quite a while, yet I think we all are creative and there are so many ways to live creativity. Yours is writing and it is beautiful. Crafty. And artistic. Your journal has to be whatever you desire it to be. Mine, well this one anyway, is my very personal one, too, at this point. But when it comes to my art journal(s) – not so much. And I’m sure I’ll be sharing some of it at a later point.

      Reply
  2. oh my gosh I LOVE IT!!! I need one too. I am going to steal one of the kids old school journals that have those ugly covers and make my own. I don’t know when just yet; but in 2016. That’s as much as a resolution that I ever make. I’m like you; I keep it simple — just keep growing and learning and Being. All the other stuff falls into place I think. But… yes – I do want to see those retreat videos too before they are gone. 🙂

    Reply
    • That’s a pretty good reso.., ahem, goal. It is really easy and looks as good as you want it to.
      That sounds real good: growing – learning – being. I like it. Just got the email that the videos are online till the end of January, did you get that, too? Somebody posted in the fb group that there is a way to actually download them. I’ll have a look into that, because come Monday… who knows how much time I can make.

      Reply
  3. Love your creativity with the cover, especially how you incorporated the leash… I looked into the retreat and even signed up for it. I haven’t spend too much time on it though. So many other things going on. I do love the new blog design but truthfully, the floating menu bar bothers me a bit. I can’t explain why, it just feels funny. But, it is your blog and you need to do what pleases you… I can deal with it. 😉 Like you, I don’t make resolutions and in a sense I chose a word for the year and one thing I want to work on is to let work at work and not seep into my personal life so much.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Susi. Yeah, at the beginning I liked the menu bar, but now it bothers me, too. The problem is I tried to get rid of it and broke the theme – hahaha – sometimes they are so fiddly, right?! Maybe I’ll try again later though.
      That’s a great goal! I think it is very important to separate work from personal life, most especially if one or the other is starting to stress you out. All the best with your goal.

      Reply
  4. I do like the new look! And I took the mini-survey. I don’t do resolutions but I do some soul searching around my own New Year in October. I just feel that resolutions made for the sake of it are a sort of self-sabotage. Hopefully 2016 will be a better year artistically for me. 2015 found me stymied and somewhat blocked. Love your journal! Happy New Year buddy!!

    Reply
    • Hah – a few more people took the mini survey and for a while it looked like ‘digest email’, but now it is again 50 / 50. I think I’ll offer two options soon, shouldn’t be too hard to implement.
      I absolutely agree about the self-sabotage – why would you? It is like Les (RoryBore) writes in her latest post ‘you make resolutions and at the end of the year look back and are depressed, because…’ – no good.
      I really hope you will get back to your artistic, creative self, Debbi, and also into writing. I missed your style and also your insights into another world 🙂 All the best with your wishes for 2016!

      Reply
  5. I’m in awe of your journal still. And I love the new commenting system! That’s different, right?
    I don’t really do resolutions either. I’ve heard recently of doing small goals or directions. I love that. Like I worry I’m on the phone too much and missing time with my kids. But I need the phone for work a lot. And knowing I can find time to look into their eyes every day and have a quality conversation/cuddle, makes me think smaller goals are so much better.

    Reply
    • Thanks, Tamara. Yes, I got rid of CommentLuv and am now using Disqus. The transition was (as always) a little scary, but it seemed to have worked. I think that now there may not be reply-notifications when I answer your comment, but some people find that annoying anyway, so…
      I like that, smaller goals… A lot of times it is the little things in life that make life so much better anyway. Yes, of course, there are big and important things, too, but – never forget about the little things.

      Reply
  6. What isn’t to love about this! So pretty. I don’t make resolutions, I am all talk. I have ideas and I try with great admission to implement them, but really and truly, I try to just live each day better than the last. I talked about getting a swear jar out to curb the potty mouth a seem to have developed, but that lasted maybe an hour once couch shopping begin. There were a few swear words tossed about in regards to the $$$$ attached to some end tables that I myself probably could have made for far, far less. I would be interested in the woman’s retreat… I say that knowing all too well that I have a major project that I must start. lol.

    Here is to a wonderful 2016 of making beautiful art!

    Reply
    • I think that to ‘live each day better than the last’ is a well worthy goal.
      Hahaha – you’re like my hubby with your end tables. The most important thing to consider is: Would you have the necessary skills, tools, parts and – here’s the big one – time to make one yourself 🙂 He is slowly starting to see that it is more important for him to use his time with things he truly loves rather than, you know, spending tons of time on something that is not as much fun.
      I am not sure if you can still sign up for the woman’s retreat since it ended, but the videos are still online, so you may want to check it out anyhow: http://www.theradiantmama.com/
      Love seeing you, and maybe finally your art… around in 2016!

      Reply
  7. Love the art journal cover. I’m hoping to explore with art journaling this year. 🙂 Oh and I don’t do resolutions either, although I do have goals. 🙂

    Reply
  8. I have done resolutions and I have not done them. Either way, I think we grow as we make small decisions daily. I agree that art is therapy!

    Reply

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