GPP Street Team Crusade # 34 - Come Over To The Dark Side

So I haven't participated in the GPP Street Team Crusades for a while. I don't have any particular reason except that the months seem to have flown by since the last time I participated. I looked back and found that the last monthly challenge put out there by the wonderful and talented Michelle Ward that I participate in was in May - GPP Street Team Crusade #31 - Make it Your Own. I have to say I really missed it. It has been one of the things in the Blogland community that has connected me to so many wonderful people !

Well now Michelle and all the other Crusader are up to # 34 - "Come Over To The Dark Side" , and I am happy to rejoin all the fun, the camaraderie and the great chance to play all inspired and revved up by Michelle's wonderful prompts !

Now I am no stranger to black. Not only is a big bulk of my wardrobe black, but most every piece of my art work these days have some element of black in it - be it the rich black lines that come from my dip pen and my India Ink or the yummy black gesso that I have found from Golden that often makes an appearance. I love how black makes all the bright colors I love to use pop right off the page.

Well, Michelle's challenge for us this month was to start a piece in our journals from a black background and run with it. Here's how my adventure unfolded this morning :

Here's my black gessoed page. I did that a while back. I love prepping pages in my journal ahead of time with paint splashed backgrounds or with this yummy black gesso.

I was feeling a little wonky this morning. You know, crooked ? I know we all get like that sometimes. I am still learning that I don't have to stay like that all day even when I wake up like that. This morning, I decided to turn to a new and wonderful tool in my arsenal of "getting over the blahs" tricks.

I went to meditate.

While I was sitting and breathing, a mantra popped into my head. Something to hold on to, to breath with and to help me shake the crappies at least for a while.

The mantra was " In this moment, it is all okay."

Along with the mantra came an image. I knew I wanted to do a piece for the crusade this morning, and as I was repeating my mantra in my head, I saw what I wanted to do on my black background. The image of the lotus flowers came to me. I have never really used them in my art work before but their story blows me away. They grow in mud, you see. Icky, stinky mud. And from that mud, this vibrant, powerful, and beautiful flower emerges.

Hey, if the lotus can do that coming out of the mud, I should be able to get rid of those crappies and find a way to bloom today, right ?

So here is the page developing. It is a dark and rainy day here in NH, so I had to use my flash for the photos, so please excuse the strange color shifts and exposures in my shots.

I added some gold watered down Lumiere Metallic paints around the petals.

I added some black line work with my dip pen, some writing ("In this moment it is all okay." over and over) and some detail in gold gel pen and the word "mantra" with a stencil and a sponge in white paint.

So are the crappies all gone ? Not completely but that is okay. Everyone is entitled to a crappy day now and then, right ? I definitely enjoyed the moments when I was playing and focused on creating my vision from my head on the journal page. It didn't look exactly like it did in my imagination but I am happy with how it turned out. And I do love the black - it reminds me of what I see behind my eyelids as I breathe in and breathe out during meditation. And I do love how the colors pop off of it.

Here is another recent piece that fulfills this month's "Dark Side" challenge but rather than begin with a black background, I painted black gesso over a bright page that I had used blues and oranges on with hand carved stamps. Then the lettering is added with a stencil and white paint on top.

I love how my hands glow on this one and that is achieved because of that "darkness".

So I am off to visit the Crusaders now and cheer them on for their undoubtedly great work in taking up the "Dark Side" challenge. You should go and check them out too. Ain't nothing wrong with visiting the Dark Side once in a while! ;)

Happy Weekend, beautiful Ones !