HAPPY 2015!: A Listening Prompt

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! WELCOME TO 2015! 

I wanted to share with you my art journal spread for the New Year. I had been thinking about what to do with it for several days. I considered cutting out whole numbers from a green background, but that simply didn't suit me. I also considered painting numbers but that didn't feel right either. So I let it sit for a couple of days. Then the idea of creating numbers from torn paper in collage style came to mind. Ah, eureka! 

So I went into my stash of collage materials (mostly pulled from magazines) and found a recently pulled full page of a green-faced watch. Hmmm. I've been loving the color green lately, drawn to it for a myriad of reasons, so green certainly seemed the way to go. Plus, a watch represents time, and with a New Year as the theme, well, it just kind of went hand in hand, right? 

So I tore away, putting bits of green and silver color together and formed 2015 across the spread. Plus various bit of paper in the rest of the space. 

Once I had that down, I added some green paint that I randomly dabbled on directly from the tube, then scraped with an old credit card. 

In another sitting, I added more paint with a small circle sponge, highlighting with black and then more green. Then I added some green oil pastel to highlight various spots. 

As the final layer, I stamped HAPPY NEW YEAR with upper case alpha stamps, adding two layers of New Year so you get a double view randomly placed. 

I stamped it with Jan 1 15 this morning to show it completed and then signed my Dawn Herring signature in the top left area with a green pen. 

That was my actual artistic process with this spread. 

Art journaling, to me, is a multi-dimensional approach to using my creativity, giving me opportunity to listen to my intuition by going with what feels right, and just having fun with color, texture, mixed media, and expressing myself in Who I Am. 

I highly recommend art journaling as a creative process for folks with this New Year or at least some kind of creative expression that helps you Honor Who You Are very directly and even indirectly. Sometimes those subtle impressions speak volumes. 

Oh, and of course, I journaled my way through the process as well, talking about what I felt about my decisions and how happy I was once I figured out what I wanted to do with it to start. 

Sometimes the starting is the hardest. 
But it pays off when you listen carefully. 
And the more you practice listening, the better you'll get at hearing the inner wisdom we essentially need for every day of the year. 

I'll leave you with a journal prompt:
How can I best listen to my Intuition in this New Year, and what creative way can I express myself to Honor Who I Am?


(If you're already keeping an art journal, use this prompt for your next spread.)

Enjoy your first day of 2015 and beyond...Honoring Your Personality, Your Preferences and Your Purpose in Life.  

Copyright 2015 by Dawn Herring