June Theme
Travel Journaling
June 20 – Week 25
Art Challenge: Hometown Inspiration
Journal Prompt: There’s no place like Home
“You had the power all along, my dear.”
Who doesn’t think of the Wizard of Oz when you hear the phrase, ‘there’s no place like home?’ Picture closing your eyes and clicking those ruby slippers together three times while little munchkins sing sweetly in the background.
No matter how hard I tried to create a journal page with something inspirational about my town or my neighborhood, I just couldn’t get this scene from the movie out of my head. If there is one thing I’ve learned about my art, I can’t move forward until I get ideas onto paper and they usually morph into a creative idea of some kind.
So here I start, sketching Dorothy’s lovely slippers . . . you can probably see a lot of erasing as I struggled for proportion but I eventually gave all that up and just let it go.
I stuck to simple, basic primary (and secondary) colors for this page. I really knew this page was ‘meant to be’ when I pulled out my green and the name of the color was ’emerald.’ Get it? Emerald? Emerald City? And then after it was all painted, I had to glitz up those slippers and reached for some red Stickles and would you believe . . . ‘Ruby Slippers’ was the name of the color? Meant to be.
I added some Neocolor crayons to the acrylic paint to add some value and make the piece a little more finished. I am always surprised at how just a few shades and some mark-making can change an entire painting!
So this is what ‘home’ means to me. I lived a lot of places in my life, several different countries, many states, and lots of addresses. But to me, home is not a physical place–home is in my heart.
“Home is a place we all must find, child. It’s not just a place where you eat or sleep. Home is knowing. Knowing your mind, knowing your heart, knowing your courage. If we know ourselves, we’re always home, anywhere.” – Glinda the Good
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I love your page this week, Lo. I thought seriously about doing this too. I am glad I chose not to because you did it perfectly! "You had the power all along, my dear." That is something we need to remember every day! It is not something we did not know but something we often forget. Love the quote, love the theme and most of all love those ruby slippers. And you.
Love your interpretation of this week’s challenge! And those sparkles are fabulous!!!
Your interpretation is PERFECT – my first thought was Judy’s soft voice saying "We’re not in Oz, anymore." to Toto. Its amazing what certain things bring to mind, It is kind of sad that the world has gotten so much bigger with way too many choices. Are you old enough to remember when "everyone" watched the same shows on TV? We had a closer tie to our neighbors and to strangers when conversations turned to TV. We had shared experiences and feelings. It was more closed minded since we had fewer views to see, but with the cons come pros. Today we can enjoy whatever entertainment we want to but we may be closing our minds even further by going only to what we enjoy. Maybe the world is getting smaller. I didn’t realize your shiny red slippers would bring this all bubbling out so I better go look at some thing I don’t like. I’ll try accordion music and show Sadie how to polka if she will wear her shiny red shoes. She already thinks I’m crazy but follows along just to laugh.
Your words are always so lovely and make my heart happy! And of course your art is amazing! I love those glitzy slippers! Hoping your travels have landed you somewhere you are happy to call home. Love ya!
I like your interpretation and painting, Lorraine! Haven’t seen that quote in awhile and really like it and needed it today. Thanks for showing your process too.
Dear Lorraine –
I love your interpretation of the challenge! I also have a technical question. Whenever I use glitter stickies, it never seems to dry, and it just sticks to other pages. Do you seal it somehow? And do you use anything like a heat device to dry it? Thank you! I appreciate your help! And I especially love that you used a quote from Glinda. The Wizard of Oz was very familiar to us as my daughter watched it 5 times in one weekend when she was about 6. My husband was always making jokes from the lines in the movie. One day my younger daughter came home from college (that’s how long it stayed with us…) and said, "My friends and I watched the Wizard of Oz last night and I finally got all those jokes you and Dad were always making." I had to laugh. We lost my husband to cancer November 12, 2010. I was at an art retreat last week, and the last night, one of the staff dressed as a munchkin came in and surprised us all with a very, very good rendition of "we welcome you to munchkin Land…." and it was just too funny. And I have to share it was also so very close to home for me; my husband was a great mimic. Sometimes these kinds of events – her dressing up as a munchkin and now this challenge – I can’t help by think my husband is nearby somewhere sending me signs. Well, too much information… Thank you for this representation!
This is perfect! So inspired and TRUE!!
You are so funny. Everything just fell into place. It worked out perfectly. I love it and thanks for sharing your talent!
As always, beautiful sentiments, beautiful art!