The focus for the second week of The Elements of Art Journaling is the element of earth and our bodies. Being ill, the biggest concept I found in my mind for this was "My body is a betrayer!" followed by phrases such as bones, death, caverns, pain and mud. Every inch of my body seemed to be hurting, so I definitely wasn't in a good place when thinking of my body and its multitude of relationships to the Earth element.
I decided to do a two part journal page. One page to express my initial feelings, which I then covered over to make way for more positive perspectives. This was a technique that I learned last year while taking a workshop on Willowing's site called "Art, Heart & Healing".
The image that kept coming to mind as I worked on the original page was a painting done by Frida Kahlo which showed a multitude of nails being driven into her body. It just seemed a perfect representation of what I was experiencing! After scanning that first page, I journaled about the negativity, the pain, the frustrations of being ill and of dealing with chronic illness and disabilities too.
It took quite a bit of introspection, getting myself centered and grounded, before I could start work on the second half of my project. I love that I felt so supported and encouraged to do that work - simply by watching the videos and following the suggestions given in the workshop materials and by popping into the group on better days to get my 'fix' of positivity, glitter and warm fuzzies! I only had the energy to briefly lurk, but that didn't diminish any of the things that I've so come to love about Wild.Precious.
