Rising Water and Keeping My Eyes On the Prize

Today, I've got my spread for the DOCUMENTED LIFE art challenge of Acrylic Paint and the prompt of Cry Me A River.  Here's what I made:

"Let the waters rise and hide the tears I've cried for that bad man."

The words on the page are from this song (except I changed it from 'woman' to 'bad man') by Justin Townes Earl, "Let The Waters Rise" :

I just love him...he can do no wrong in my eyes!

I used acrylics on the sweeping/ombre  brush stoke bits and the tags, but watercolor for the eye and the leaky tears.

I am kinda excited about the eye because, while it's pretty simple, I think I got it to look a little more 3D than I usually do...so YAY!  I love it when I notice that my hard work has started to pay off!

Along those lines...the 'hard work paying off' lines, I mean...I want to invite you over to check out my new blog endeavor, NOSTALGIC CAKE.  Before you freak out and start to panic, I'm still going to keep up with this blog (at least as well as I have been lately...which is not very unfortunately..I've been caught up in a little side project that I'm not quite ready to share just yet).

So, why start a new blog then?

 As you may know, I've had a big life change recently.  When that happened, basically all my stuff minus art supplies, clothes, and a few childhood memorabilia-type things stayed at the house while I...evacuated it.  It's worked out fine thus far, because I'm staying with my mom for the time being and she lets me use her stuff...horay!  But in a relatively short amount of time (6-10 months...ish), I'm going to have to find my own place to live.

You may have heard me mentioning *read complaining* about the fact that I am really having a hard time with this transition period I'm in.  I've been feeling uncomfortably unsettled and disordered...and I realized that I should be able to do something about it...and then I realized...of course I can do something about it.

A while back on this blog, I mentioned how I had bought three pieces of furniture (and my mom was going to refurbish them for me, so they were at her house and I actually have a desk and two dressers in addition to my clothes and art stuff).  I really love these pieces!  I mentioned that, one day, I'd like to have a home where no matter where I looked, my eyes would land on something that brought me that same kind of joy.  I want my house to declare who I am as a person...and I've realized that, even though I may not have the actual house yet, I can slowly start gathering the objects to fill it...and not just to fill it, but to make it into the place I dream about.

And so Nostalgic Cake was born...a place where I could keep tabs on my slowly growing inventory of joyfulness, and, of course, share it with the amazing friends who have been rooting for me all along!

Fight

For JOURNAL 52 this week, the prompt was "Wise Words" and here's what I came up with:

"You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it." - Margaret Thatcher

Oh, so true Ms. Thatcher...in so many different areas of life...

It sometimes seems like all the battles I fight are constantly repeating in a never ending cycle.

I wonder if other people feel that way too, or is it something I do to myself?  

I guess the point is to keep fighting, right?  And one day, I'll be out of the trenches.

I'm looking forward to that.

Gratuitous closeup.  Relative happiness with the shading of the eyes...not so much with the highlights of them...

I went a little different for this face, as facial perfection is one of my constant battles.  I went back and watched some of the videos for Jane Davenport's "Express Yourself" workshop, especially the lesson about eyes.  I think this girl's eyes are very much "Jane" eyes...or at least the closest I could get her to have.  I was thinking about going back in and fixing the shading around those "Jane" eyes, until I realized that it kind of looked like the girl has two black eyes from all the battles she's constantly fighting...then I decided I like those shiners she's got and decided to let them alone.  She's earned her battle scars!