Focus on NO

I embraced the new theme for August on The Documented Life Project 2016 with almost indecent pleasure. After saying yes for the entire month of July we are now with the theme: And then again No - the power of saying NO. The art challenge for this week was to use collage.

It has taken me many years to realize that by saying yes to things that at heart you don't want to do, you are in effect saying no to yourself. It is however for most people (specially women I'm sad to say) much easier to say yes and it can lead to many frustrations, not just with yourself but also with others. It has taken me many years to be able to simply say no, when no is what my heart tells me, without explanation or the ubiquitous: I'm sorry but.............

Saying no is in effect like saying yes. Yes to all those things your heart and soul do want to do and to the new experiences that you want go and meet on life's path. You make time for them when you say no to other things.  It has been a hard won victory and there are still times when I have said yes, before I realize that it should have been a no, but I have a tool to deal with that. I simply say: "Will have to think about that for a bit".  I have also learned to be very proud of myself when I open my mouth and hear myself say: "No". Full stop!

 So I'm looking forward to celebrating NO during August. My first contribution (in the 8 x 8" Dylusions art journal) started with a gessoed page that was overstamped using Writers Block art foamie designed by Julie Fei-Fan Balzer.  The next step was to use paint and L060 Swirly Floral Stencil from Stencilgirl Products as well as S314 Entangling Threads. I added collage in the shape of vintage text and maps, some gelli printed deli papers and the black circles, previously stencilling onto deli paper too, using the L301 Circles Circles stencil.

I also collaged on bits from Tim Holtz's tissue wrap. Then came the face using S283 Mystique stencil. The numbers were added using S396 Make it Count stencil and I also used them to add NO several times to the pages using the letters on the stencil.

I added several quotations by writing them on. Two are from Steve Jobs who probably had to say no lots of times in order to get a yes to work on what he truly wanted to do. I loved the first one specially as my word for this year is: FOCUS. It says: "Focussing is about saying NO",  and another quote by him tells us:"It's only by saying NO that you can concentrate on the things that are really important".  The other quotation I wrote at middle left is by Jonathan Rockwood Huie: "Say NO to the demands of the world. Say YES to the longings of your own heart". 

The final addition to the spread were the large and small circles in white which come from the smallest stencil of the October 2014 Stencilgirl Club. Some outlining was done and then I called the pages done. They are very busy but have captured what I wanted to say.