Behind the pages – A year in journals {2010}

“All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

2010 was a year of journal experiments filled with new artistic ways and explorations. 2010 brought:

* everything all in one book {mostly because I was losing things and having trouble w/ the upkeep of multiple journals.}

* different kinds of paper/journals {my favorite was the Exacompta}

* new places to journal {the bookstore becoming my favorite studio-away-from-home and the basement becoming my new place to spread out.}

* classes {I started teaching again – just a couple of workshops + some creative coaching. <3 it, but I’m moving slowly… }

* more pages & less photos {here lately they’re combining more & more.} like this:

I have a songwriting friend who periodically goes back through his journals to “mine for treasures” in the pages. When he shared his process at our latest songwriting circle, I realized that I don’t often go back and look at my pages. So, I’m spending the next few days with my 2010 journals & a camera. In the meantime here are a few page photos that made it to flickr.

Enjoy.

2010 Journals

{top to bottom}

hand.book square {April – June}

Exacompta Sketchbook {Jan-April}

Picadilly unlined {to answer questions in The Artist’s Way}

handmade from Baghy’s Journals – a Mother’s Day present {June-August}

handmade file folder travel journal {July}

Picadilly Large graph {x3 used for morning pages}

Canson Mixed Media {August-Nov}

handmade file folder Christmas journal {Dec 1-31}

By Betsy| 2016-10-19T14:20:38+00:00 January 6th, 2011|Behind the Pages, Journals|3 Comments

About the Author: Betsy

I create containers for words and paint and I fill them. I craft safe, sacred spaces for people to wrestle, create, heal and shout from the mountain tops. And I teach people to do all of these things for themselves.

1 week ago by wildthyme 11 April 2018 3/100 It’s been a long time since I’ve had back to back headaches. I’m emerging from my 3rd migraine in 7 days. I’m exhausted, but today I managed half a day in the studio. This journal page started out a place to not waste the paint left on my palette and is becoming a migraine portrait. I’m calling it The Wisdom of Pain, as nothing slows me down and tunes me in quite like pain.
2 weeks ago by wildthyme Wednesday 4 April 2018 Iris 2/100 . . We each dug up a handful of plants from the convent grounds. We used serving spoons grabbed from her kitchen drawer. She was always willing to break a small rule. . . She no longer speaks to me; our friendship became a casualty of our mutual lack of conflict management skills. There was so much peace that everything died like an over-watered houseplant. . . But the iris remain, coloring April with purple and memories and the ever so slight fragrance of grape koolaid.
2 weeks ago by wildthyme Tuesday 3 April 2018 1/100 “The best way to get started on the path to sharing your work is to think about what you want to learn, and make a commitment to learning in front of others.” Austin Kleon * "What will serve if I do it for 100 days?” Have been thinking long and hard about this project. Am ready to show my work. Not just the perfect end product, but the full monty. I’m committed to learning in front of you. Am poised to share not just the product, but the process that I’m so passionate about. Spent
1 month ago by wildthyme Sunday 18 March 2018 Betrayal Taking a deep dive into betrayal with a piece for a walk through the Via Dolorosa. If you’re in the Gainesville, GA area, go to the facebooks and googles and get the details on Adventures in Missions’ Stations of the Cross experience. As an artist, my hope is that viewers will experience shift when they encounter my work, as I am always moved, and sometimes surprised, by the way that creating a piece of art changes me.
2 months ago by wildthyme Thursday 1 March 2018 . Full moon + an empty space = open hands. I’ll tell you more about my Bless and Release ritual soon. In the meantime, good bye 94 Main you were v sweet. Thank you for holding my practice so beautifully.
2 months ago by wildthyme Friday 23 February 2018 He said, “Cop an attitude and raise your rate.” . Have you ever heard a thing? A phrase. A truth. Words that reverberate in your soul? . This man said words to my husband over three decades ago that made all the difference in the world. . “Sometimes you just have to cop an attitude and raise your rate.” . All the difference in the world. . And now here they reunited after all these years. After a beautiful meal and all the catch up words, they’re in @randygarmon ‘s studio talking shop. . Life takes us
2 months ago by wildthyme 20 February 2018 Are you a rabbit or a tree? What is the pace at which you move? The rabbit doesn’t long to have roots as with knowing he finds shelter. The tree never wishes for feet as she grows rings. What is the pace at which you move? Slow to the speed of listening. Reach in the cycles of growth.
2 months ago by wildthyme Tuesday 13 February 2018 . Flipping through pages, trying to remember the days when I was feral. When I climbed trees and made a case for adventure. When I filled my pockets with leaves and rocks and dug in the dirt for hours. When I was scraped and tangled. When I was too loud and too much. When I argued with my mother over clothes because matching was silly. “I don’t match. I am a rainbow.” I said. . . . “Be wild; that is how to clear the river. The river does not flow in polluted, we manage that.
2 months ago by wildthyme Saturday 10 February 2018 The Dance . I fell ice skating with my children. My sore hip pulls me into empathy with my 87 year old mother. I know that I need to move. It’s tempting to skirt the pain. Movement is a blend of discomfort and forward motion Of listening and putting my head down to git ‘er done. Healing and body love are different than lazy and focus is different than just do it How do I know which is which? My hip knows the truth. I listen
3 months ago by wildthyme “One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul.” Clarissa Pinkola Estes , Disorientation is a real thing, which is why you must know where your North Star is. New Orleans, you did not disappoint. Your food is amazing. Your nooks and crannies are delightful. The sky [real and metaphorical] was alive with message. We chased the moon and found magic and ritual. We made maps and memories because at the end of the day you can react to outside forces or you can
3 months ago by wildthyme Thursday 18 Jan 2018 Conjure up infinity. . These pages. They inform everything. A discarded library book. A used book for $4.99 minus some credit for the paperback classic. A brand new watercolor book. . The container doesn’t matter. As long as I show up. With brushes and an open heart With words and a willingness to line them up just so Realizing that some days they arrange themselves . Conjure up infinity. . I don’t know what that means. yet.
3 months ago by wildthyme Friday 12 Jan 2018 Making plans and making friends with dragons. Resistance is a funny thing. I know there’s a lot of encouragement out there to just punch resistance in the face. I get it. Sometimes I put my head down and get the thing done. And other times like this morning, I invite the dragons in for the morning. I lit a candle and pulled out a beautiful journal with lines. [Y’all know I haven’t used lines in years.] I poured my coffee and let Anger and Resistance have their say. I’m working on new things, so of course
3 months ago by wildthyme 7 Jan 2018 7/365 . The rhythms of the sea speak endlessly to me. The million tiny waves and undulations. The daily tide and her connection to the moon. The long game of changing an entire coastline. . It’s easy to think that life is only the persistent movements that we encounter minute by minute. That we are what we are given on any given day. A storm. A glorious sunny day. A dead gull. A shell. . We can forget to go up to the view from 30,000 feet and look at the coastline. The big shifts. The lack
3 months ago by wildthyme 6 Jan 2018 6/365 . He was a quirky barn rescue who stayed slightly feral, drank water from the sink and ate from a Blue Willow bowl. He’a been gone for a couple of days now, but my morning habits were 15 years in the making, and are still kitty-shaped. At least twenty five things, maybe a hundred were different this morning. I drank my coffee without opening and closing the door or adjusting the water at the sink. I didn’t pretend to be annoyed by the fact that cats train humans or use the ridiculous voice the kids made
3 months ago by wildthyme 5 Jan 2018 5/365 Going through an entire year of photos. Another way to take inventory. Shaking my life down to the bones and finding flowers & trees and their cycles, life sobremesa, birds, the friction between humans and the pull of the sea and the moon. Some days I fear squeezing life too hard because you can’t be tidy and jump through hoops when your hands are full of ache and love. Other days I unapologetically cover my hands in paint and words and swim in tears. This world is a delicious place. What is in your hands when
4 months ago by wildthyme 4 January 2018 4/365 “It’s true. We focus one place and wake up to discover we’ve let parts of our soul atrophy. You've got this. Be present. Listen. Delight. You’ll remember. “ Today’s words to a young one who lost the scent of her desire. I get it. I shattered into a million pieces last year. Pulled apart by caretaking and perfectionism and also by wonder and beauty and an overflow of words and ideas with only limited containers at hand. Life and minutes spilled through my fingertips. Or so it seemed. I was at the beach in November. I
4 months ago by wildthyme 3 Jan 2017 3/365 Was talking to my brother earlier this evening and he said, “You know it wasn’t so much that we wanted to do X as much as we wanted to avoid the pain of Y.” Wow. So simple and such a game changer. It’s easy to make choices with pain avoidance criteria instead of desire. We can even go so far as to ignore our own desires. What do you desire? Write it down. This is your time. . . . . . #wildthymejournals #soulcartography #beinyourlife
4 months ago by wildthyme 2 Jan 2018 2/365 Full moon and fire. “I see the moon, the moon sees me. The moon sees the one I long to see…” I’ve been singing songs to the moon since I was a little girl. I love her phases and when she’s a full, I am reminded that life is filled with cycles and circles. The full moon is my reminder that letting things go makes room for the next. Last night I burned some pages in the backyard fire pit under a very bright Wolf Moon. Endings that bled into beginnings, that had less to do
4 months ago by wildthyme 1 Jan 2018 1/365 2017 pages. "By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” Confucius These pages hold the wisdom, lessons and gratitudes of 2017. Creating a container for self-reflection is the number one tool that I recommend to my coaching clients. It’s my own number one way of staying in spiritual alignment and focused on my goals and dreams. I’ll be spending the next few days reflecting on 2017 pages and creating containers for 2018. I am expectant. Today’s gratitudes:
4 months ago by wildthyme Monday 11 Dec 2017 MOMENTS. Killin’ time like the hipsters we raised. Make moments y’all. Make moments. . . . . #decemberpages #beinyourlife

11 April 2018 3/100 It’s been a long time since I’ve had back to back headaches. I’m emerging… instagram.com/p/BhccLEXDvSC/
1 week ago
When we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work and when we no longer know which way to go, we h… twitter.com/i/web/status/9…
1 month ago
Sunday 18 March 2018 Betrayal Taking a deep dive into betrayal with a piece for a walk through… instagram.com/p/BgeXyJVHivx/
1 month ago

Behind the pages – A year in journals {2010}

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About the Author: Betsy