MOMENTS

 The butterfly counts not months, 

 but moments, and yet has time enough. 

 -Rabindranath Tagore  

 An Old Friend 

I heard from a dear, old friend the other day. I haven't seen her in a couple of years, and that was after the death of her sweet mother. Before that, it was years and years. You know, one year turns into the next year, and then years turn into decades, and before you know it, you're the age your grandmother was when you remember looking at her and thinking how you couldn't imagine ever being as old as her.

 Moments 

My friend's note, and the fact that the first day of the estival solstice (a fancy term for summer) has arrived, got me thinking about when I was a kid and how my whole life was stretched out in front of me. I was only aware of what I was doing today and tomorrow, and how much fun I had had yesterday - moments not months. Playing "HORSE" on the backyard's basketball court, riding my bike all over town and especially to the Jaycees pool with the high dive, and playing baseball in the corner lot down the street. One very vivid moment I remember was when I was in the outfield and this older boy came up to bat. "Oh, no", I thought, "This is not going to end well." But I backed up, out of the field and into the street, and waited. And sure enough, he swung that bat, CRACK, and that ball came out to exactly where I was standing... And all I could think to do was raise my black glove - AND I CAUGHT THAT BALL!!!!!!!!!!!! A moment I still remember decades and decades later! What a moment!

 How to: 

Using matte medium (Liquitex), I began by adhering some scraps of paper onto the journal pages.

Next, I painted over them with a light coat of gesso (Liquitex).

I had some extra turquoise on my table and mixed that with gesso and painted the pages.

Using bright aqua green (Liquitex)and the stencil Mini Star and Flower TCW705s (The Crafter's Workshop), I stenciled the pages.

(Sorry, I skipped photographing a couple of steps.) I stenciled Illegible(StencilGirl) using olive green (Master's Touch)on the top right and bottom left corners. After drying, I stamped a script stamp using black Archival ink. I added 3 fussycutted butterflies, the "flight" label (Tim Holtz) and stamped the quote using the same black ink. On the left and right edges, I adhered a thin strip cut from a paint swatch and on the bottom, I painted the leftover olive green paint from the stencils.

Think like a butterfly now that the estival solstice has begun. Make some moments!! I hope you’ve enjoyed this post and will join me every Tuesday and Friday for more blog posts at arteverydaystudio.blogspot.com.

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