The Element of Water

Week four of the Elements of Art Journaling workshop!  I am so far behind, between health and life issues, but glad to have finished my art journal spread.  I've been dealing with a major flare for the past week.  This one included major pain in both arms, making it almost impossible to move or lift them.  I'm so happy that the pain levels are ebbing and allowing me to do so many things that are usually taken for granted!

Being a water baby, I thought that this portion of the workshop would be a breeze but instead found it one of the most challenging.  The writing portion was easy, but processing what came up during the writing - well, not so much!

Still, I had fun experimenting with background techniques for the spread and used my white gelly roll pen for the first time.  I also used some sequin waste for the first time - gifted to me by a wonderful Wild.Precious friend.

The images that kept on coming up for me were rivers, mermaids and sea horses.  I played with drawing a mermaid, but then moved to simply drawing a face.  I hopped on over to Willowing's first lesson from her free Art, Heart and Healing workshop for a refresher.

 

The message "Be Gentle With Yourself" flowed out from the writing exercise.  Perhaps because of the intensity of my health and pain issues lately, I had a lot of self-judgement and frustration pop into my writing and my awareness.  Issues related to living with chronic disease and pain; with the changes and need for adaptation; with the grieving that they bring. 

Working through all of those emotions, I realized that this will be an on-going process.  It's not a one time, fix all kind of thing.  That judgment and frustration will visit me again, yet I have new tools with which to process them.  And, as I always told my kids, practice makes perfect - or as close to it as we can get.  

Oh, and part of the meaning of Seahorse as a totem?  

"When seahorses come to visit it means consider all the possibilities! Don't limit your perceptions based on preconceived notions because things are not always as they seem. Seahorses can also bring a message to not overdo or work yourself to the point of exhaustion. You should be sure that you are meeting all of your own needs before taking on too many other responsibilities."  (found at totemwisdom.com).


How perfect is that??