Soulful Expression

Bonnie's prompt for Photo Art Friday this week was to create a seven word sentence that describes your creative journey. It was hard to think something up! After a lot of attempts, my sentence is only six words...and I don't think it's even a grammatically correct sentence. Oops. :)

"Soulful expression with words and colors." This expresses pretty well what I love to do more than anything...write poetry, and work with colors and textures. And when I do all these things, they're at their best when they're soulful and from the heart. If I let my brain thoughts get caught up in it, it usually falls flat or feels forced.

Using PSE as a tool to merge my art and my photos is one of my most favorite things to do. I like that I can add beautiful textures and layers to give my work more depth and color than it already had. For my image above, I started with a very loose and primitive drawing on a page from a telephone book. I drew her face in about 30 seconds with a charcoal pencil...the idea was to not worry about being perfect and just get the basic shapes of a face on the paper quickly, without thinking about it. Then I used my Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons to scribble in some color here and there (and then blended them with a paintbrush dipped in watered-down white gesso). I ended up with an alien girl (lol) - alien girls are cool! This is a fun exercise and if you're afraid to make bad art, this helps you get past it. Just let loose, don't worry about things looking realistic, and have fun! (I learned this technique from Katie Kendrick who is my all-time favorite mixed media artist...her book is amazing and I highly recommend it).

I scanned my girl into PSE and brought in a photo I took at Prince William Forest. Creating a new layer and using a reverse mask, I made that the background and also used the "dry brush" artistic effect in PSE to give it a more painterly look. For the writing on her face, I used a layer from an old poetry book I found online (public domain) from the 1800s. For her purple dress, I added an old wallpaper pattern to make it more interesting. I also used Bonnie's "Cinnamon" texture at Soft Light/20%, and ran the image through Radlab. Thanks so much for visiting - please click on the button at the bottom of this post to visit Bonnie's site and see more photo art!

HEART HYMNS

My heart is a
Hidden wishing well
Filled with coins
An abundance of gold
Tossed by my own fingers
Laying at the bottom
Some sunken deep
Far from sun's light
Others sparkling
Just under the surface
With a shimmering life
Pieces of my spirit
That draw my eye
And for those I lean over
Far, to catch a glimpse
Gripping the well walls
Hard, so as not to fall in

I visit the well often
Walking the wooded path
In the dew of the morning
Or sometimes at midnight
Calling to the water, to
Pray with my offerings
To dip my hands
In their depths and
Lap up their lessons
Staring intently
At their reflections
And I am grateful
For the treetops, those
Giants from seeds
Who bow down to witness
And I am thankful
For the bluebirds who
Sing over my silence and
Trill their sweet hymns
To the air.

© Sherri Brannon

"I sometimes think that people’s hearts are like deep wells. Nobody knows what’s at the bottom. All you can do is imagine by what comes floating to the surface every once in a while." ~Haruki Murakami

Original drawing: