Oh, the grungy goodness with some super simple supplies and scraping paint back with my palette knife.
I really let loose and just went for it. This came together quickly and I was creating at such a fast pace… but I couldn’t help it… it just all came flowing out.
You see, December is the time as a business owner, I go over the previous year, reflect on what we did right and what we need to change. I reflect on my word for the year and start planning my word and purpose for the new year.
I get concrete plans in place.
But as I started…. I found myself angry…. and then it was almost comical (not really, but weird) as I thought about everything that happened in 2021 it was too much. Too much to hold in…. sooo I almost ran to my journal…. and this is what poured out.
My word for 2021 was “Grounded” even just typing it makes me laugh out loud…. I’ve been a lot of things this year but grounded wasn’t one of them…. more like chaotic!
I share more about it in the video. I hope you can be inspired to let all your things out…. it feels soooo good!
Supplies used:
- Handmade journal
- Utrecht gesso
- Liquitex matte gel and fluid matte medium
- Liquitex black and white spray paint
- Lukas cryl acrylic yellow ochre
- Winsor & Newton raw umber
- Golden high flow in titanium white
- Dr. Ph. Martin black star india ink
- Generals charcoal pencil, Stabilo all pencil, White charcoal pencil
- Palette knife, black and white soft pastel
Stencils used: THESE WILL BE ON SALE THIS WEEK
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This is wonderful, the grungy goodness that drew me to your blog many years ago. Love it so much.
Completely agree! This is a style I really like and one that I always recognize and identify with Shawn as well, love it.
Thank You for sharing this beautiful (for me) Art Journal page. I do love it.
Oh, Shawn, when you mentioned your word for this year “Grounded” and then laughed, I thought you’d see what immediately hit me about it.
“Grounded” can mean that we are connected to Earth Mother, grounded in reality, embodied, in order to make our dreams and plans take place in the material world.
But “Grounded” has another meaning, like when mommy grounds you, you know? Grounded as in punished, limited in our range, imprisoned, stuck to externally placed boundaries that go against our desires and plans.
Sometimes I laugh about the trickster of fate playing with our words when we decide on a theme or keyword for a manifestation. As they say “be careful what you wish for” because we need to look at the possible meanings of those keywords that we are sending to the universe, and clarify which connotation of the world we are inviting. JAJAJA!
This is one such time. Because you could see the many awful things that happened to you as you being “grounded” in that other not-so-nice way!!!
This said, I have a feeling that you graduated this year through challenges that tested your capacity, commitment and frequency… and you passed with flying (and grungy) colors, beautiful Shawn!
Thanks for this grungy page. At the beginning I thought: “Hum, Shawn overdid the grungy here.”
I love grungy, but not as much as you, so when I’m watching you create, I can feel where I’d go with less grunge and more bright colors, cause that’s me.
But there was a powerful chaos, a potent expression of the havoc these times wreck in our life that came through on that mega-grunge in your art piece. It came through as the essential task of art in expressing our truth, of taking the ugly, bad and painful and processing it with the alchemy of the soul to shift reality and open new paths.
So yes, “SHIFTING” for me in that page was both, all the constant shifting of you/us trying to survive in the midst of chaos and constant change… AND shifting our perception to transmute problems into possibilities and obstacles into bridges.
Love and gratitude for inspiring, encouraging and uplifting us through these hard times with your empowered vulnerability,
Maria Mar