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Writer's pictureJoy Stephanie

In with the New!...

Updated: Jan 18, 2023




So.. we had a baby!.... a grand baby! Just before Christmas - the best Christmas present ever! As you can imagine it was a busy season.. the tree never got put up, because we had no room at the inn...as our boys from London were sleeping on the sofa bed, in the living room in our tiny house. But it was the best Christmas ever......there is no doubt my grand baby is THE MOST beautiful Christmas Present!.. I simply call her "Sweet Pea".. although her real name is Hazel Joy.


In between the busyness of a new baby in the family and festivities - I decided to carve out for myself about 1- 1.5 hours of creative time. I had my podcast at the ready, and my paints to finish a painting I had started a few years ago -that I wanted to give to one of my sons. This time out was the most lovely, grounding, peaceful experience! It was short lived before Grandma duty called! But that was totally ok - as I had got my fix of quiet time. And it was SO productive.


Art and creativity are not isolated things. I believe as you journey with your creativity, you find little life lessons popping up that would never have happened if you had not chosen to take a little detour of creativity.


The podcast I listened to was by a favourite creative I enjoy hearing from; Autistic artist and poet Morgan Harper Nichols creates daily episodes on how looking at life through a creative lens (even if you feel you are not creative) can help you find language for your experiences and live a more connected life. Each episode ends with a daily question that you can carry with you.


Podcast; DO YOU ACTUALLY NEED TO "MAKE YOUR MARK?" its 20 minutes long. It's a really interesting thought provoking one. In her lovely calm voice, she shares about a photo she took of a plant 5 years ago in a coffee shop, which seemed insignificant at the time. 5 years later - the photo was a catalyst to her new artwork. She makes the point that so many people were involved in bringing that photo to fruition, right down to the person who planted the plant in the particular soil, watered it, chose the vase, took it to the shop, sold it. The next person decided where in the shop it would go on the shelf or window? ..etc etc... Its a great little talk about each individual mark being made...and the significance... and more!


This year will include some big "Bunny trails" for me..


So, in between getting plenty of special snuggles in with beautiful Hazel, these are my projects:


Along with my Children's Counting Book I hope to complete. I am doing a personal study of the book of Psalms in the Bible. I will be creative-journalling along the way to see what images come to life on the page.


Combined with this I am doing an Online course about Iconography - which I know very little about, but I have a good friend who is an icon painter, who influenced me to look a little deeper and understand the philosophy behind it. The course is already very interesting.

From that study, I plan to be influenced in some way, as I will be illustrating my husband's latest music album, which is also based on the Book of Psalms.

I have a beautiful copy of the Book of Kells which will influence my paintings of the Psalms. (photo courtesy of: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Book_of_Kells )



As I am following these artistic "bread crumbs".. My husband and I were delighted to receive this beautiful icon for Christmas from a new friend (who knew nothing of my creative journey!) ...



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