for my friend alyice's new art group on flickr (you should join us), the march challenge was to create a vision board. alyice describes how to create a vision board on her blog.i wanted to create a mixed media piece that reminds me to be more zen, in spite of the mess and stress that we all have to muck through most days. i chose colors that i read about in a feng shui book...yellow and earth tones are for health, purple and red are for wealth, green is for knowledge. i think life can be pretty darn good if you are healthy, wealthy and wise!
i started by choosing five chinese symbols that I really like the meanings of—chi, which is energy or life-force, and also truth, sage, compassion and harmony.
i washed the background of a folding 12x12 display board with a pale yellow. then i painted the chinese symbols with metallic watercolors, inked the words, and coated the symbols with a hard clear gloss medium. as i started smudging acrylic paint and ink around the edges, i realized that i was creating valleys for my symbols (from an aerial vantage point) and the paint all around the valleys became a metaphor for everyday life...mountains to climb, pits to fall into, the blur of days that I might move through too quickly without stopping to be mindful of the moments. but the valleys are calm, peaceful, open and meandering. after a full day of hiking in the mountains, i need to remember to take time to head down to the valley to relax and reflect.
after painting, i spritzed the valleys with a coppery mist to soften the contrast and give it some glimmer. after that dried, i started dabbing on a heavy gloss gel medium on top of the acrylic with my fingertips to create more texture. in two corners, i added some texture medium that has white flakes in it.
my vision board is sitting on my desk at home, i enjoy looking at it—thanks alyice!!
