Tag / Joy

by Janet

The Funny Side

Does Anybody Remember Laughter? Robert Plant

I signed up for a fabric designing tutorial recently and the woman who authors the website and videos (Bonnie Christine) offered her readers a free gift – a printable pdf of daily art prompts for the entire year. This morning I decided to mull through it and I thought it would be fun to combine a few of the prompts to create something fun.

In the meantime, I realized that today’s #bloganuary prompt fit in well with my humorous theme: What brings you joy in life?

There are many things that bring me joy, but laughter wins the prize because it’s like a secret weapon. When I was struggling – feeling down and out and completely lost – my friend Gil would always be there, ready to respond to my text messages, and somehow he always managed to make me smile and laugh.

It wasn’t that the laughter removed any hardships that I was experiencing, and it wasn’t like I was trying to pretend that the difficulties weren’t real, it was more about the valuable lesson that I was learning… that hard times and laughter can coexist. And that laughter helps us keep plowing through.

Of course, we also need friends like Gil who take the time to be there for us – and actually make us laugh – so I’d have to say that friendship is right up there as well… tied for first place.

So, the art prompts I chose today were Unicorn, Storefront, and Sale Banner. I thought they made for a funny combo. I’ll tell you one thing though, illustrating a unicorn is no walk in the park. And by the look of things… he better skedaddle quickly before someone snatches his horn!

That’s about all for now. Thanks for reading or checking out my illustration!

-Janet

(love you Gil!)

by Janet

Emotions: Joy

Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.

—Emily Dickinson

I’ve been thinking a lot about the purpose of my blog. What is it exactly? I know, right?

I’ve had many objectives since I started—from journaling about the story of my recovery, to photography, art, poetry, a bit of fiction (still with no endings), and an attempt at a health & lifestyle makeover (that I may resume privately in the future).

These constant and never ending transitions illustrate perfectly what I was referring to in my previous post, Fluidity. I’ll never commit to just one purpose in life… and that is final.

Anyway, I enjoy working with prompts and/or challenges because they inspire me to think and to express myself, whether it be written or visual. I’ve used the alphabet twice and can give you 26 reasons why I won’t be doing that again. So that is out.

One thing I know about myself (and my artistic creations) is that my emphasis is always on learning and experimenting with techniques. I guess you could say that my analytical side takes the wheel. What I find difficult with visuals, on the other hand, is letting go and expressing myself freely. My creative side likes to sit back and let the analytical half do all the work.

So… I thought I would challenge myself and see if I could create feelings or emotions without getting all caught up in the tools that I use and so on. And tonight we have my first attempt: JOY.

In all honesty, I failed the challenge. Originally. I set out to create LOVE, and I think that my art actually shows how I feel when I’m in love (or infatuated), but the dancer is all alone and it reminds me of my misadventures in love… all giddy and unaware of the dangers that lie ahead.

As I thought about it, however, I realized that I still experience the feeling that I used to get whenever I thought that I was falling in love… and that feeling is joy. Only now there are no strings attached, and no love-sick hangovers to get through.

Joy is wonderful… and it makes me feel like dancing.

When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.

Buddha
by Janet

ABSTRACT JOY

Find a place inside where there’s joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL

I thought about JOY all day, ever since I saw the prompt for RDP Saturday. I had visions of a glorious stained glass window—and what I imagined was quite beautiful.

My mom and I finished our shopping today so we experienced great joy, but our feet were tired and not much else was accomplished. I didn’t sit down to work on this until an hour before midnight, as with many nights, and let’s just say it’s been a long evening.

My featured image tonight is nothing like what I imagined, but it has grown on me. I think it’s an emotional piece, because I worked very hard at making lines and symmetry—and then I just let loose and started spinning and changing colors (you would really understand that comment if you saw the original).

I imagined myself like a child, you know… like how they are when they get upset at their coloring project and they start making long hard scribbles all over the page. I think I totally get it now. It’s a release of some sort.

Needless to say, I like it. You can find joy in it if you look for it. I think that’s what I like the most about it. It’s just like life. Joy isn’t always sitting atop your nose, staring you in the face and shouting, “Hey, look at me! I am JOY!”

No… I don’t think joy is like that. Joy is quiet, unassuming, and abstract. And it’s not without it’s downsides, just like my mom and I finding joy in our shopping today, but coming home with tired feet.

And with the current state of the world, JOY is not easy to spot, but it’s there…. Just waiting for you to find it.