A Winter's Day - New Identity Art Journal Entry

Taking a break from the inner heroes portion of my Identity Art Journal, I have completed this page layout today.

These pages are painted with several layers of acrylic paint. I actually did these pages before deciding to stick with collage only for this journal. I had the image of the woman from a clothing catalog already in place. I added the quotes, journaling and definitions today.

"A major obstacle to creativity is wanting to be in the peak season of growth and generation at all times... but if we see the soul's journey as cyclical, like the seasons... then we can accept the reality that periods of despair or fallowness are like winter - a resting time that offers us a period of creative hibernation, purification, and regeneration that prepares us for the births of Spring." - Linda Leonard (as quoted in The Artist's Rule by Christine Valters Paintner)

January - a new year, a time for new beginnings. Knowing it was time to move on from the experimental two months of being in a retail co-op where I always needed to be able to come up with something new, I chose to withdraw in order to narrow my focus (this has included not taking any new natural science illustration courses for a few months as well)and concentrate on what it is I most want to do.  Most of the month was a creative void and sea of indecisiveness with a touch of melancholy and doubt. Like the quote above, a time of despair and fallowness. But reading The Artist's Rule again reminded me that this is okay. It is a part of life and the creative cycles to have times of rest and of purification. January ended with the idea of creating this journal and February so far has been a time of single focus - a narrow vision - of being drawn inward and discovering the quiet beauty that winter - both outward and inward - has to offer.

Such a snowy February! Over 34 inches of snow during a two week period. Plus all the overcrowded rooms in this house as a result of renovating the kitchen has left me with very few options. It is forcing me to concentrate on what is right before me - I can't flee!

Learning to be present to every moment - even, and probably especially, the ones I wouldn't choose for myself - is a challenge that requires daily discipline and a continuous committment to it.

 I trust that deep inside, my roots are being nourished, just as the trees and plants are from all the snow, and that I will see the results of this quiet, resting, fallow hibernation before too long.

Dormant - as if asleep; quiet; still. Latent, implicit, undisclosed, potential, undeveloped, unrealized, veiled, hidden, unapparent

"Yet we are called to dwell in the dark, fertile soil of the earth, in that space where seeds incubate and begin their cycle of growth. Here we can cultivate a different way of seeing the possiblities not yet named and dreams being born. In nurturing creativity we must learn how to rest in periods of unknowing, finding peace in the knowledge that movement is happening far below the surface of what we can see." - Christine Valters Paintner in The Artist's Rule

Vigil - watching, waiting, listening

Green, My Favorite Color

This morning on the Health and Well Being report on CBS 880 Radio, it was stated that spending time outdoors is good for your spirit and that exercising outside, such as walking, is better for your mental health than using a treadmill. The report also said that the color green is the "in" color this year. That makes me happy because green has been my favorite color since I was a young teenager. Thinking about this I was reminded of a poem I wrote at that age. Here it is:

Beauty Is

Beauty is the plants in my room.

With their glorious shades of green,

they bring color to my otherwise

dull windowsills.

Susan Franz (c) 1977

I was also reminded of a collaborative journal I created with a friend who lives in Portland, Oregon in 2004. I wrote this poem in it along with a section on my love for the color green.  I would like to share that.

"Sunlight through the leaves of the hops plants and through the canopy of oak leaves reveals several shades of green at once.

How can this image best be captured? Photograph? Painting? Words? All of these I try."

"Green has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. When I was sixteen I wrote this poem:  (see poem above)

Green has a calming effect and I am a calm, quiet, peaceful person most of the time. I do like to play music loudly on occasion, just as I like a splash of orange and yellow in my gardens."

 Garden photos








 "As much as I love flowers of all kinds, I'd take the greens in all their varied shades and hues. I love my vegetable garden precisely for this reason. The deep rich green of rhubarb leaves growing alongside the wispy yellow green of asparagus and the bluish green blades of garlic. Lovage, tomatoes, chives, green beans, dill, strawberries and snap peas fill the garden beds with months of non stop color.

While every season brings its flowers of pure delight, it is the color of leaves that sustains me, just as the chlorophyll sustains them. The grasses, privet, Rosa rugosa, honeysuckle, bittersweet, rhododendron, violets, hostas, daylilies, birches and so much           more provide layer upon layer of light and shadow, texture and color."

"The long, dull brown and grey winter months are soon forgotten as the first tender leaves of spring emerge to be followed by the full chorus of beautiful greens.

Please do not misunderstand me. I absolutely adore flowers and have much praise for them, but just as an arrangement of flowers in a vase needs a filler of green to make them stand out, the landscape needs green as its back drop. If green were taken out of the picture, it would lack harmony.

So this is the foundation of my garden and the beginning of my journal..."