Glorious Mess

The prompt on Colour Me Positive 2017 this week is: Recognize the beauty in yourself. Not an easy one but I eventually found a quotation from Elizabeth Gilbert that I could work with. It reads: "Embrace the glorious mess that you are".  It seemed rather appropriate for me as there is no denying that I work best when surrounded by mess. It sparks my creativity. As the spread was meant to be all about me I added a self portrait that came from an earlier art journal page. I had it printed by Social Print Studio.

The background was largely stencilled using both sequin waste in two different sizes for the circles as well as the large stencil from the May 2016 Stencilgirl Club. I collaged on the self portrait,  images from both a magazine and a vintage Technical Drawing book, and then added the words and letters cut from a variety of sources.

I brightened up the background with some sparkling paint by Martha Steward. You can just about see it on the pages. It was combined with fluorescent pink paint.

 I've long wanted to use the image with the horse and for some reason it felt right on these pages. I found a matching postage stamp that I was given some time ago.