Grow

Grow  -  Art Journal Page

©2015 Tracey Hewitt

I'm wracking my brain trying to remember a quote about trees - knowing when to rest and lay dormant, and when to burst into magnificent flower and all that poetic stuff. Essentially, it's about how we need times of fallow to rest and regroup and build strength readying ourselves for the moment when we flower magnificently. Or something along those lines.

This art journal page is partly about such a notion. It was an odd page for a long time; when I'm splashing around paint and ink and generally making a mess, I hate to waste pigment - so there's always a page or two in the journal with smears and splotches where I've wiped off a stencil, or used up a brush, cleaned off a stamp, or tested a new art supply. These pages often have a few interesting areas in them, but can get overly busy to do much more with. I've been admiring this technique of over painting large areas of a page, leaving bits of those busy pages showing through, and decided this would be a good page to try this on.

Not much thought went into this - a quick outline with a China Marker, and on with a layer of black gesso. That looked OK, but it needed a little bit of something else. So, the ever trusty White Sharpie Poster Paint Marker to the rescue! Outlining this growing little plant was a good start... but it still wanted something more...

I started to write around the edges, and began with the first word that came into my head. Grow. the rest goes like this:

Grow she said...
Grow and stretch and expand and discover the amazing things you can do with this wondrous  life you've been given.
Open up, take deep breaths and inhale possibility.
Let go of the thoughts and beliefs that hold you back.
You were sent here to shine
So be free
Be bold
Be brave and find your wings and fly.
Grow.
So the world can have the very best of you.
Everyone's waiting.

Then off I went to chase the horse out of the garden (they love to eat my palm trees - go figure!), forgetting all about the words that found their way onto the page.

Fast forward a few days. Reading this again, I love these words. They are my prayer for you - for all of us. The last line - "Everyone's Waiting" - were stuck on the end because there was a small space that needed filling Now, that lines feels the most powerful.

Let's not keep everyone waiting any longer. Let's grow, shall we?