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Last Friday I did something I haven’t had much time in my schedule for this year.  I had the day off and so I stole away with my art journal and a few supplies, and spent time pouring out what had been floating around in my heart and soul.

These moments spent here were filled with slow breaths.  Of finding my aliveness.

On Sunday I will be over at The Secret Rebel Club talking more about the spiritual practice of art.

welcome to art therapy:.  a weekly feature on PrudyChick.com where i share art and share briefly the story behind the piece.  art includes art journal pieces, poetry, short stories, paintings.

February is going the way my December went.  Grand expectations, and filling my days with more than I should have.  Before I’d decided to spend the month focusing my art journaling on doing a color study, I’d decided to be a part of a month long fiction writing challenge.  OYE!!!!!  Prompts every day….times TWO.  Double oye!  Needless to say I’m exhausted after a full day’s work and by the time I get up stairs after making & eating dinner only one of these two things is going to get worked on.

I’m behind on both.

But I’m also enjoying both.  I’ll share some of the writing I’ve done on another day, but today I wanted to share with you a few of the color study pieces I’ve done.

I’m having fun with this.  Searching magazines for the color(s) of the day.  Exploring different ways that colors plays out.

Some of my pages have been collages, like the one above, with little paint.  Others have a little more paint, and in the case of the one below physical elements such as flowers.

I’m learning (googling) about mixing colors to obtain other colors.

Most of all I’m having a little fun.  Exploring a side of art I never had.

welcome to art therapy:.  a weekly feature on PrudyChick.com where i share art and share briefly the story behind the piece.  art includes art journal pieces, poetry, short stories, paintings.

Sometimes the #secretmessages hit you, a sudden smack against your cheek, heart, soul.  Sometimes they’re more subtle, the way wind whispers across a lake.  While making my way back to work after a lunch run to Target, when I was hit with three things.  One was a bumper sticker on a car, and his license plate & plate holder.  The other a simple sticker on the back of a road sign.  On my way home there were two clouds that caught my attention.

Sometimes we can be searching for the #secretmessages in life because we need them.  Sometimes we aren’t even looking and there they are.

Don’t forget about the February art journal prompts.  I’d love to have you join in.

welcome to art therapy:.  a weekly feature on PrudyChick.com where i share art and share briefly the story behind the piece.  art includes art journal pieces, poetry, short stories, paintings.

My intention was to art journal every day this year.  We’re now 17 days into the year and I can say, I haven’t lived up to this intention.  Sickness, laziness, busyness.  All of it has crept in to the place where intention likes to reside.

I did create this page this week from a prompt sent by a friend.  The prompt was “water”.  The torn page of the sail boat was from another friend and I’d been stalking the right page for it to be a part of.

welcome to art therapy:.  a weekly feature on PrudyChick.com where i share art and share briefly the story behind the piece.  art includes art journal pieces, poetry, short stories, paintings.

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I have very vivid dreams.  Full color.  I didn’t start having nightmares until I was an adult, and fortunately those come very, very rarely because I will force myself to stay awake after having one.

And then I have what I call “Epic Dreams”.  These are the dreams that haunt me in a good way.  That stick with me for years.  They are rich with meaning, and in someways are even prophetic.  One such dream is the basis for the book I’m working on.  Another involved me (in the 1800’s) rescuing girls who were being trafficked.  Another that involved me flying (this dream happened months before I knew my word would be FLY this year).

And this most recent one that had me pondering its meaning at 4 am, that involved my house, my husband, & I getting sucked up in a tornado.

This page was born of this dream.  The quote at the bottom was where my thoughts landed and I laid there thinking about it all.  And I’m doing my best to hold onto the reminder that I will be okay.

welcome to art therapy:.  a weekly feature on PrudyChick.com where i share art and share briefly the story behind the piece.  art includes art journal pieces, poetry, short stories, paintings.

I’ve grown accustom over the last year and a half to listening for #secretmessages in music, movies, books, random quotes, road signs, etc.  Since I watched my life fall apart and I’ve made the slow progress of rebuilding my wings and faith and trust, I lose myself in these messages.  They have become more than just lyrics sung, stories told, or good advice.  For some they are back of the chair I clutch and scream, “YES! YES! YES! YES! YES!”  They have become the grace on the dark days and they have become my anthems.  All while wondering if the person who wrote them had prophetic knowledge of my life.  Because sometimes….seriously!!!

I’ve realized over the past several months that I can either be defined by the events in my past or I can stand up, put my gloves on, and tell the tragedies, the struggles, the moments that threatened to kill me, “Let’s take this outside.”  Occasionally I get knocked back down and occasionally it takes me a while to get back up off the mat before the 10 count is finished, but I’ve learned to come up swinging.