Thursday, July 31, 2025

Finding Peace

After the post about my skydiving daughter I finally wanted to take you back to Europe. But then I decided this afternoon to re-organize our two grab-and-go boxes. This has been on my list for a while and since we're in wildfire season I felt it necessary to tend to this task now. Over the past two years we have put everything that we deemed important and that we didn't want to lose into these boxes without any order. Today was the day to finally get some order in there and also throw out things that didn't belong in there anymore. I discarded dozens of copies of birth and marriage certificates that weren't notarised as well as looked through piles of photos and organized them again, throwing away those that I'm no longer interested in or that turned up twice or even three times. Now the two boxes are neatly organized again with one being the "must take" and the other the "want take". 

But what I didn't get done was writing that blogpost. So today there's only a short post about something that I wanted to show you a while back.

Sometime in the spring I showed you this art journal spread. This was the moment when I got stuck and had no real idea how to go on. I put it to the side and let it sit, knowing that at a certain point I would come back with an idea.

Instead I continued practicing drawing faces. In one video - I can't remember by whom - I saw someone starting drawing a face with the features of the face and not the shape. I was intrigued and tried that, never explicitly adding the shape of the face.

Well, I really need to work on eyes, she looks creepy. But the important thing is that this gave me the inspiration how to proceed with my art journal page.

I started out with drawing the facial features using an aquarellable graphite pencil. Afterwards I added the outline of the face and neck. Then I stencilled the grasses and wildflowers as well as rather sloppy birds. Finally, I added the words "Ruhe finden" which translates to finding peace.

In the end I like the right side page better than the left one. It could stand on its own I think.

These are my faces for this week's Friday Face Off. Thank you, Nicole, for letting us join in the fun!


10 comments:

DVArtist said...

OMGosh I love those eyes. So big and expressive. I have important items in a fire box too, I guess it will survive water too. LOL Your journal pages are just gorgeous. I love the colors. Thank you for sharing with FFO and have a very nice weekend.

Iris Flavia said...

Es ist nun 2 Jahre (?) her, dass der Polizist klingelte, " anziehen, das Haus brennt.".
Ich habe mir geschworen, alle wichtigen Dokumente griffbereit zu haben.
Nix ist passiert.
Das Leben ist irgendwie "wichtiger"...
Hrgh. Ich hatte ein echt tolles Tutorial bzgl. Augen. "Hatte"... Wenn ichs wieder finde, schick ichs rum! Das war so genial einfach!
So einfach wie Dokumente zusammensuchen (...?)

roentare said...

I love how “Ruhe Finden” emerged so organically from that moment of pause and quiet reflection.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

It’s a little sobering to think that preparation for disaster is a requisite in today’s climate-shocked world. But, that’s reality in 2025. It’s a good thing to have organized it, Carola. Forest fires start earlier and burn hotter every year, and spread with greater rapidity too. There is often little time to evacuate. Perhaps the eyes of your lady are wide open with the shock of it all! Many hugs - David

Tom said...

...Carola, I wish you peace and an Awesome August. Keep the music playing.

Rostrose said...

Liebe Carola,
allein schon der Gedanke, so eine Kiste zusammenzustellen – mit den wichtigsten Dingen, die man bei einem Waldbrand (oder etwas Vergleichbarem) mitnehmen sollte – verursacht mir Schweißausbrüche. Ich weiß, man soll sein Herz nicht zu sehr an „Dinge“ hängen und dass Erinnerungen im Kopf wohnen. Und auch wir werden, wenn wir unseren Plan durchziehen, in etwa fünf bis sieben Jahren in eine Seniorenresidenz übersiedeln – dabei werden wir ebenfalls vieles aussortieren müssen. Dennoch überfordert mich der Gedanke im Moment. Aber ich denke: Wenn es notwendig ist – und ihr habt ja bereits erlebt, wie notwendig es werden kann – dann wächst man da irgendwie hinein…

Deine Journal-Seite gefällt mir in beiden Versionen. Sie können gut für sich alleine stehen, aber auch wunderbar miteinander harmonieren. Schön, dass dich die Inspiration gefunden hat, wie es weitergehen könnte! Und Ruhe finden ist immer ein gutes Motto.

Ich sende dir herzliche Grüße aus Österreich und wünsche dir einen tollen August 🌻
Traude
🌿 https://rostrose.blogspot.com/2025/07/musikalischer-juli-blogparade-urban.html

Gene Black said...

I certainly need to set up a "grab and go" box that is fireproof and easily accessible in an emergency.

My name is Erika. said...

The grab and go box is a great idea. I think everyone should have one or two, including me, even if I don't live in wildfire country. (Well in an area that doesn't get a lot of big ones-but you never know though). That's a lovely journal page Carola. I like the flowers and the music paper background, and of course the lovely features you added, including the face. Have a super start to the new month. hugs-Erika

carol l mckenna said...

Beautiful journal page and the face is so well done ~ hugs,
an artist reflects

Jeanie said...

What a fun and very creative exercise and it looks very nice on that page, too. And well done on the sorting of the boxes. I hate to say it but 'tis the season.