Collages from an online workshop

Dear friends, i am doing an online workshop on the hero's journey...hero's journey workshop and these are two of my homework collages which are a reaction to my heros journey. They both show things in my life that are important on my journey and how I see myself as a traveller.
lots of love from susan in australia

Celebrating my curves

Dear friends,
This is my latest doll which celebrates my curvy figure. I have had so many problems with my body image and weight over the years and am still working on it. I am the healthiest I can be at the moment and that means curves. I celebrate my curves.
lots of love from susan in australia

Keep a green bough....

Dear friends,
On the catalyst prompt number 98 at creative therapy someone gave the quote "Keep a green bough in your heart and the singing bird will come" I loved it and did some art to celebrate. I carved an eraser in a leaf pattern and printed the leaf into a tree and added one of my favourite black birds from my garden.
lots of love from susan in australia

lessons in life

Dear friends,
One of the prompts at creative therapy is What are the most important lessons you've learned in life? One of my best lessons was from Oprah Winfrey...when you know better you do better and here is my artist journal page using stamps and little mirrors.
lots of love from susan in australia

Mask

Dear friends,
This is a mask I made a while ago and wanted to share it with you. It is made out of an old atlas page.
lots of love from susan in australia

What does my future hold

Dear friends,
I am doing prompts from a group I have just discovered on the internet....creative therapy
The prompt is What does my future hold and I was just at the beginning of a new artist journal and so I did a cover for it with me on it and what does my future hold written on it. I used gold paper for all the gold I will find in my future and there is tissue paper to remind me to be gentle. I can't wait to see what i will fill this journal with. This is my first prompt from this group. I am so looking forward to more.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book...altered text

Dear friends,
Here are some more pages from my altered book with altered text. It is about enthusiasm which I love.
lots of love from susan in australia

Fabric journal pages

Dear friends,
Here are a few more pages from my first fabric journal. I haven't seen many so just did what i felt like with embellishing.
lots of love from susan in australia

Felt doll

Dear friends,
I made this doll many years ago as part of a felting workshop. I love it and it has lots of happy memories for me. She is a mermaid.
lots of love from susan in australia

Archetypes

Dear friends,
This collage is some of my archetypes including a photo of me to remind me of how I am now.
I am doing this as part of an online course on the hero's journey.
I am a homemaker and love home and doing my arts and crafts. I like to keep the home fires burning.
I also love nature and to be out in God's world and exploring.
I am quite old fashioned and love journal writing, painting and needlecrafts.
I am also fun loving and enjoy the simple things of life.

lots of love from susan in australia

Hero's journey 2

Dear friends,
The second collage I did for my hero's journey as part of the online workshop has a labyrinth in it which reminds me of the simplicity of my journey nowadays and the lovely rituals and routines I have in each day that make it enjoyable. I have put the bread of heaven to remind me that simple things are a great joy to me although I do seek excitement at times mostly I enjoy simplicity. I have also put the sea which I visit each day. I love it's different moods which reminds me of my mood disorder and how I can have continuity in my life despite my mood disorder. I love the sea. I also like the beach I visit because it also has people and I enjoy people in my life and on the journey.
lots of love from susan in australia

Hero's journey

Dear friends,
I am doing a workshop on the Hero's journey and this is my first collage about my hero's journey. The snake is the most important part. Mostly I am scared of snakes but as an animal spirit it has much to teach me.....explorations of the mysteries of life and lifes magic, exploring my goddess energies, immortality. The garden is how I feel about life and how beautiful it can be and so full of beautiful discovery. My life is very simple so the garden is also a simple and relaxing place to do my journey. The honeycomb is also about life's sweetness and all the little compartments and things that go on in life. The hiking shoes are how I walk through life although ballet shoes or red shoes would also be appropriate. I walk through life with many different shoes but one of my favourites is hiking shoes. The world globe is how much there is to explore in the world and the books how I appreciate books in my life and learn so much from them. I love the flowers too and always like seeing them on my walks.
I have another collage which I will write about in the next post.
lots of love from susan in australia

Red shoes

Dear friends, Here is a drawing of some doll shoes I have that i ordered from a doll company because I love red shoes. Reminds me of Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz. I never knew Dorothy's shoes were silver in the book and only became red in the movie.
lots of love from susan in australia

Fabric journal pages

Dear friends,
Here is two pages from my first fabric journal.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book pages

Dear friends, These are a couple of new pages to my altered book.
lots of love from susan in australia

Altered book pages

Wholeness

Dear friends,
This is a delicate page celebrating my trying to be more whole and integrated this year and to smooth my mood swings out more.
lots of love from susan in australia

Agatha has arms

Dear friends,
I decided Agatha needed arms. She still has no legs. I am writing a doll journal for Agatha and she has had polio and wears calipers. Agatha is aware she isn't pretty but many people tell her she has a kind heart.
lots of love from susan in australia

Inspiration

My friend Maureen inspired me to drag out my water colors and have a play. Once again a bit of naive art. i love playing like a child would and keeping it simple. DId a little collage as well.
lots of love from susan in australia

Agatha

Dear friends,
Here is my latest doll Agatha. I baked her head too much so it went from a lovely purple to a dark black! I am also learning how to do faces and don't do them very well. SHe is so ugly. Poor Agatha and no arms or legs. I am learning to like her. I am making her a doll journal to tell me her story.
lots of love from susan in australia

Chaotic artist journal page

Dear friends, This is a rather chaotic journal page and I was in an OK mood when I did it. I find it really jarring.
lots of love from susan in australia

First fabric book

Dear friends,
I want to do a fabric journal and have finally started. I found this old piece of cross stitch that I did years ago and am using this as the cover. I have already started my first pages and will post them when they are finished.
lots of love from susan in australia

Tidying the garden

Dear friends,
Here is my latest sketch when I was tidying the garden. Just the bin and broom and pot and the chimes. It looked so inviting to sketch and makes a nice everydaymatters sketch.
lots of love from susan in australia

Clay heads

Dear friends,
I did a couple of clay heads in pink and yellow and added feathers and then glued to my artist pages. I added a dash of paint and another two pages finished with my usual simplicity.
lots of love from susan in australia

Little clay heads

Map of home

Dear friends,
I was inspired to do a map of my area where I go down the beach and do short walks. Even found a new area of uncharted territory which was fun. It was nice to draw and to see the trees, neighbours and places I celebrate most days. Have you ever done a map of your area?
lots of love from susan in australia

Perfume challenge

Dear friends,
This is a favourite perfume of mine Anais anais. I had to do a drawing for a challenge with the group everydaymatters
I enjoyed doing it.
lots of love from susan in australia

Polka dot challenge

Dear friends,
I did this artist journal page of my visualisation board and meditation table. I did polka dots in the background. Today there was a prompt on http://twitter.com/Sarah_Whitmire to do polka dots so here it is.
lots of love from susan in australia

I love it when

Dear friends,
This is the response to a prompt called "I love it when". I used fabric with fairies on it and wrote about my times with my grandmother and our love of fairies at the bottom of the garden. i then wrote over the two pages all the things I love when...like I love it when it rains like now.
lots of love from susan in australia

Inspire me Thursday...tags

Dear friends,
This is my first response to Inspire me Thursday. They are tags and I just mucked around with felt pens and some dress tags that I gessoed.
lots of love from susan in australia

Something for free drawing challenge

Dear friends,
Doing the weekly challenge at everydaymatters and this week was to do something i got for free. These ear rings were a gift from a dear friend who spoils me a lot. She loves jewelery making and I have a lot of her creations. These are the latest and have crystals inserted ...the blue color and crystals hanging from the blue part.
I love the way nature is free and would have liked to have drawn some nature.
lots of love from susan in australia

Hangman challenge

Dear friends, This is the response to a prompt to include a hangman game on my artist journal page. My friend guessed what the word was really easily and only had two wrong answers. She plays the game well. It was great to do this challenge as it had my friend asking about my journals and art and I shared my artist journal with her.
lots of love from susan in australia

Coffee pot challenge

Dear friends,
Another challenge from the yahoo group everydaymatters This week was a coffee pot. I rarely use this coffee pot as I usually have instant coffee to save my nerves. Strong coffee is dreadful for my nerves. I love frothing milk in this coffee maker to put on top of milky coffee.
See you next week.
lots of love from susan in australia

Photo inspiration..rocks

Dear friends,
I used some photos of some interesting rocks in my neighbourhood to inspire a background. I used grays, beige, greens and black inspired by the rocks and used a massage brush and toothbrush to add the paints.
Have you ever used a photo to inspire your work?
lots of love from susan in australia

Windows to the senses

Dear friends,
This is the response to a prompt to look at how we experience our senses. I did smelling the roses, tasting chocolate, feeling the touch of a butterfly wings, see the words of books and emails and hearing the crash of waves. Doing the prompt put me in touch with my senses. I did it quickly which a lot of my responses to prompts are.
lots of love from susan in australia

Attaching fabric challenge

Dear friends,
This is the response to a challenge to attach some fabric to my artist journal page in a new way. I have never used a brad to attach fabric before so I did that and did some journaling about a Jane Austen fashion exhibition held in Melbourne, Australia.
lots of love from susan in australia

Lock challenge

Dear friends,
This is a drawing challenge from the yahoo group everydaymatters . I had to draw a lock and found these two locks linked together. I haven't a clue where the key is or where they come from. It was quick and simple to draw.
lots of love from susan in australia

Three ways to write a word prompt

Dear friends,
This ATC is the result of a prompt where I had to write a word in three styles of writing. I chose the word nature and this is the result.
lots of love from susan in australia

Up, up and away

Dear friends, This is a response to a challenge to do some art relating to going on a balloon trip. I'm headed for NY and will visit old and new friends there, Central Park and the MET. What fun.
lots of love from susan in australia

Beach sketch

Dear friends,
i have just got a new sketch pad to take on my walks so here is a sketch of the beach and the happy people at the beach here in spring.
lots of love from susan in australia

Retreat workshop online

Dear friends,
Here is the results so far for the online course I am doing on retreats. Do you go on retreats? How do you celebrate a retreat? What do you take with you?
lots of love from susan in australia

Music or quiet

Dear friends,
This was done as a challenge where I had to play some music while I did some art. i am so used to the silence that I turned the music off. I contrasted a photo of a crowded garden exhibition with that of a photo of a peaceful forest and thought of the contrast of music and stillness.
lots of love from susan in australia

Glove doodle

Dear friends,
Another challenge from everydaymatters this time to do a glove. This was another challenge I had to do with doodling and I made the doodle into a glove. I love doodling and I love gloves.
lots of love from susan in australia

October challenge

Dear friends,
Latest challenge from the drawing group everydaymatters The challenge was to do something that reminds you of October. October is my birthday month so birthday celebrations are definitely on my mind in October.
lots of love from susan in australia

Oldest thing in my frig

Dear friends, Had a drawing challenge to do the oldest thing in my frig. Here is a temperature gauge that is still in its wrapping. I wanted to see if my frig was cold enough a few years ago and I have left the gauge in there.
lots of love from susan in australia

Words for Robyn

Dear friends, This is some art as a response to a friends Robyn's blog where she talks about the importance of words and text and writing. This was fun to do.
lots of love from susan in australia

For Robyn

Dear friends, When I visit my friend Robyn's blog I am inspired by her entries to do some art work. Here is a response to her October 2nd post.
lots of love from susan in australia

Garden at Carnegie

Dear friends, This is some art work celebrating my old garden in Carnegie. It was a huge overgrown garden full of fragrant shrubs and trees and plants. There were fruit trees and vegetable beds. It was a paradise for me. I now display some of the photos in this way.
lots of love from susan in australia