Here She Is

Ok, so here is one of my first mixed media projects inspired by

Kelly Rae Roberts' {www.kellyraeroberts.com} book Taking Flight.

Learning techniques to use for the projects I have stored in my brain and sketched in my journals.

Experimenting with how to take photographs of art...this is a large piece I could not scan.

To me, the wings represent a transformed life.

Metamorphosis.

A woman becoming who God created her to be.

Not necessarily an angel.

But a woman.  Becoming her true self.  Intended self.  Completed self.

Incorporating my heart with "Embrace Your Place".

I browse all of these other BEAUTIFUL blogs of talented writers and artists and photographers.

Get a bit intimidated about sharing.

And overwhelmed with the vision of where I want to be versus where I am.

But . . . I love what I'm doing and that is what is important.

And it is so good to want to never SLEEP because I have so much LIFE I want to live.

So much to create.  So much to share.  So much to write.

Part of "embracing my place" is the season of motherhood and being an auntie.

Which means that these four lovely girls around me

want to do what I'm doing.

They are inspired to paint and create.

And that is a beauty in itself.

Watching their process of expression and communication through art.

Which encourages me in my vision of where I want to be.

Because I see Erin's chubby little hands painting with enthusisam with beginning strokes.

Just a step toward what she will someday create.

We all have to take a first step.  And then the next.

And the next.

And the first are not always the best.

But they still are beautiful.

I love these creations by the girls in my life, my daughters & nieces.

And like the girls who sometimes copy what I do,

I use a book to learn the new steps and techniques.

So that I can develop my own style.

Through this process of transition in my life

Over the past few years,

I have scrapbooked, journaled, and photographed.

To record the transition of discovering my true heart.

And the shedding of the false selves that I created to portray

What I though would be pleasing to others.

Finding that our true self is what others want and need from us anyway.

And that a loving God gives us grace and forgiveness and love and helps to tear away

the masks we've created which is often a painful process

but is so freeing in the end.

It's been a desire of my heart to communicate that through various forms of art.

To perhaps lead others in recording their stories.

This is part of discovering and walking that process.

It will be an adventure to see what doors open

And which ones I choose to walk through.

"If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36

My hope is that any work that I do {writing, photography, art, loving my man and kids}

tells the story of the life and freedom I have found . . . free indeed through Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2010, Jodene (Jodi) Shaw.