Sunday, October 20, 2013

Gifts of Imperfection - Day 1 - Intention

Day One - I am excited to get started on this new adventure called - The gifts of Imperfection - an ecourse offered by Brene Brown on Oprah.  We are being encouraged to set an intention for ourselves.  It is always best to start any project (day, trip, etc) with an intention as it helps us to stay on track.  Brene mentions that it provides her with clarity, meaning and purpose.
I am easily distracted and over the course of the last few years I have realized that I have spent my life in little bits - an hour here, a few days there, without too much focus and framework around what I chose to participate it.  I have spent time emotionally distracted as well - upset because "this" happened and "why me"!!  So I am looking forward to being more focused and conscious!!
They provided a beautiful graphic to be used for our intention but I decided to make my own with a little heart of my own making.   This is a photo my own hands!!  I love that the lentils make a heart!!!  I discovered this while playing with my grandchildren at the park.  We would pick up a handful of little stones and take our turns putting them into a container, dump them out and start again. As I was waiting for my turn, I noticed that the stones made a heart in my hands.  Hearts are my thing!!  I had to stretch my comfort zone to get this shot.  Because DH is not available to set up the timer on the camera I found the manual and the tripod and experimented until I got a shot I was happy with. I colour printed it on my white cardstock, hand lettered my intention with a black fine tip Sharpie, added the frame and then watercoloured a bit of purple all the way round inside the frame.
I am excited to combine inspiration and learning with my art!!

Therese

Gifts of Imperfection - Brene Brown - cover

Last week I registered for Brene Brown's Ecourse,
The Gifts of Imperfection on Oprah and it started today!!  My book club friends are signed up too and we are going to share our experiences as we follow the course.  One of the reasons I joined was that Brene is encouraging participants to create an art journal as they go along, something I have been wanting to do for a while.  Her supply list includes a copy of her book, The Gifts of Imperfection,  a journal/sktech book, water colours & brushes, double sided tape and markers.  Supplies I have!!!!  Generally unwilling to follow the rules (OR maybe my desire for control), I have decided to do my art journaling on half sheets of white cardstock (8.5" x 5.5") which I will bind into a book when they are done.  Here is my title page.  As you can see I immediately had the opportunity to embrace imperfection when, after I am more than half way finished my page, I see that I have misspelled Imperfection!!  I loved what I had already created and had no desire to start again so I just added the missing letters and kept going.  I hand lettered the title with a black fine tip Sharpie, added the frame and then the surrounding spaces.  Watercoloured the whole thing!!  I am very happy with the way it turned out!!
If you are interested in participating you can follow the above link for get more information.  We all deserve to love ourselves and live authentically!!  It is NEVER too late!!

Therese