Journey to the Heart/Mixed Media Monthly Challenge

Don’t try to present your art by making other people read or hear or see or touch it; make them feel it. Wear your art like your heart on your sleeve and keep it alive by making people feel a little better. Feel a little lighter. Create art in order for yourself to become yourself
and let your very existence be your song, your poem, your story.
Let your very identity be your book.Let the way people say your name sound like the sweetest melody. - Charlotte Eriksson

This is our last week of "Journey to the Heart"....I can't believe 7 weeks has gone by so fast! The very best part of any Challenge for me is the amazing PEOPLE I meet...the art you all create and SHARE in our FB group is so inspiring!

Thank you for sharing your art and your hearts with me, girls!

Today's Challenge was so FUN for me!! Each year I create a New Year canvas...something I can hang in my studio (or bedroom, or kitchen...wherever you will see it the most) that inspires me to stay on the path...stick with my Big Dreams. Sometimes I incorporate my Word in the piece, sometimes I don't. It's a bit like a Dream Board but more generalized...here is my New Year canvas from 2015...

This cute chunky 6x6 canvas hung in my studio all year reminding me to love MY art...to go for it...to FLY!

As I thought about my canvas for this year I was inspired by an amazing group of ladies over at the Mixed-Media Monthly Challenge Blog. I first heard about them from a FB group celebrating the art of my favorite art journaler Dina Wakley. I would peek around their blog, admiring all of the gorgeous work I saw. A big part of me wanted to enter their challenges...but a big part of me was too scared. You know that Fear/Doubt Monster we all have telling us we are not good enough? Yeah, well I listened to him then...but I have promised myself in 2016 I am kicking him to the curb!

So here I am today...sharing our Challenge for Week 7 of "Journey to the Heart" that I am also going to share with the Mixed-Media Challenge Blog....GO me:)

Their theme for January is "Time Flies".

As I thought about this theme this saying popped in my head... "Time Flies So Why Don't We?" I mean each one of us is given the EXACT same 24 hours a day!

As I began putting my 8x11 canvas together I KNEW I had to use an image of Audrey Hepburn...she is just put together and cute! I added a butterfly wing to remind me to FLY...

Then added a wooden cut-out BELIEVE I painted with gold acrylic paint then rubbed black ink for depth. Birds are very symbolic to me and turn up in lots of my work...

I had this cute little guy forever! Once he was perching perfectly on my canvas I knew he needed something to further get my point across..."She sprouted wings" was exactly the ideal fit!

Audrey still looked bare to me so I thought about adding a crown yet didn't think a crown fit what I was trying to say...

Before I set out to add elements to my work I had spread out various different treasures on my work desk including a wooden birdcage...

As soon as I placed it on her head I KNEW it was meant for this piece!! I covered it in Mod Podge and poured dark golden sparkles all over it.

I am SO PLEASED with the results!! It is 100% ME and gives me a visual to look at daily to GO AFTER MY BIG DREAMS!!!

So girls...I want you to take all that you have worked on these past 7 weeks...your lists, your journal pages...your goals/Big Dreams and create a canvas. It can be a 6x6, 8x11, 11x14...whatever you have. No canvas? No worries....create in your journals. You can always take the page our and frame it to hang or place on a cork board.

If you would like to see how other artists interpreted this challenge or participate in it yourselves here is the link...

Go here