Moonshine : Grateful warrior

We've had our first month of Moonshine lessons with Effy and I am only just beginning to understand the rhythms of the New Moon to Full Moon cycle. One of the things I love about this class is that you can dive in as deep as you like, or just make art that is meaningful to you. I'm pretty much a beginner when it comes to all the info offered in this class both from Effy and from the enthusiastic participants, but I am happy to say that I have made my second piece of art inspired by this class. As we move from January into February I feel both strong and grateful. I was also thinking about the Week 5 prompt for Journal 52 : Courage. I need to honour my courage this past month. I loved the upturned face that I created last month (inspired by one of Tam's She Blooms lessons) and wanted to try that again. I thought hard about the symbols I wanted to include on this page and turned again to my art symbols dictionary which I created in 2016 to capture the colours and symbols that I use most often in my art, along with their meanings. I began with her hair - I wanted it, and by extension her, to become part of the beautiful night sky.

One of the signatures of my work is the use of text - I especially love found words. The beauty of using a recycled art book as my journal is that the text in the background can provide perfect words. I hadn't seen these until I was doing my initial blocking of colour ♥

I wanted to include a flower so thought I would use the New Zealand Pohutukawa - a flower of summer, it is both hardy and beautiful, and it is often found on the coast so associated with my beloved sea. I have a stencil to which I added metallic pen

Open heart - enfolding, courage, love

She is passionate and speaks up. She needed warrior paint on her face and I love the koru symbol (the spiral represents new life, growth, strength and peace)

Stars for SHINE and the Moon since it is such a focus for this class

And here she is complete

You can sign up for this and other classes by Effy Wild HERE. Go HERE for info about Journal 52.