My heart is ready...

...and what am I gonna do?

Hello again to all visitors, old and new - it's wonderful that you've found time to stop by today.  The title and follow up at the beginning of today's post are the lyrics of a song which struck deep to my heart, and which wouldn't leave me alone, and ended up spilling onto some pages in my newly begun art journal.

I was taught the song (which is by Cindy Kallet) at a singing workshop led by the fantastic Andrea Small, a Natural Voice practitioner, a few weeks ago... and created these pages a few days later, when it was still going round and round in my heart and my voice, but haven't had the chance to share them with you yet.  So here we go...

The centrepiece stamp is from one of the new Classic Collection sets recently re-released by Stampers Anonymous at Tim Holtz's instigation (it's set #5 if you're tempted).  Her face is hauntingly gorgeous, and I find that the expression shifts in meaning according to one's mood or how you surround her.

Having stamped her on one side of the spread, I wanted her facing in the other direction for a different aspect on the opposite page, so stamped her on tissue paper and adhered it (fairly wetly, to get my favourite crinkled texture involved) back to front to get the reverse image.





For the right hand page I cut a mask to shield the face, and then followed my (ready) heart in stamping, painting, inking and blending.


There's gesso, acrylics, embossing, and stamped-in gesso, mainly using architectural elements from another of the Classic Collection sets, set #7.  Given that the whole page was fired and inspired by a song, the Kaisercraft music stamp also puts in a strong showing...

 

The masking means that you can create the background with great intensity of colour and stamping, and the face will always float at the front of the layers.

I added the flush of excitement to her cheeks and lips by some sort of internal compulsion, almost against my will... but once it was there, I knew it was right!






On the left hand page, I'd already put some stamping in place before sticking down the tissue paper face, so the Aged Mahogany sculptural flourishes "bleed" into her features.

I'm generally wary of Aged Mahogany - it's such a full on colour that it can get out of hand (overall, I don't seem to work with Brights very often)... but for the passionate connection I felt to the spirit of this song, that was the ink pad that found its way into my hands, along with Archival Coffee and Sepia, and Vintage Photo, Tea Dye and Walnut Stain DIs.

Following the presence of the darker, more contemplative image of the face on this left-hand page, the colours are more focused toward the browns than the hot reds and pinks, but that passionate colouring is still bubbling under the surface.




There's the soft glow of embossing too, which you can see I think in the photo here...


I absolutely love the texture available from the architectural flourish in Set #7... I stamped it repeatedly to get that texture spreading across the pages.

And the lyrics are simply questioning their way across the pages... each image facing up to the question and ready - I hope - to search for the answers...
















Thank you so much for joining me here at Words and Pictures today.  Sorry for all the photos but, as with the song, something about these pages sings to me, and I wanted to try to share that with you.  

I'm entering this for the following:
The Craft Barn are having an Art Journal challenge at the moment
The Stampman is looking for Hot Colours
Try It On Tuesday are offering us an Anything Goes challenge
And Simon Says Stamp would simply like us to Put a Stamp On It

My heart is ready and what am I gonna do? 
My heart is ready and what am I gonna do?
My heart is ready and what am I gonna do 
Oh God! My heart is ready and what am I gonna do? 

My feet are ready and what am I gonna do?
My feet are ready and what am I gonna do?
My feet are ready and what am I gonna do?
Oh God!  My feet are ready and what am I gonna do?

My hands are ready and what am I gonna do?
My hands are ready and what am I gonna do?
My hands are ready and what am I gonna do?
Oh God!  My hands are ready and what am I gonna do?

My voice is ready and what am I gonna do?
My voice is ready and what am I gonna do?
My voice is ready and what am I gonna do?
Oh God!  My voice is ready and what am I gonna do? 

My heart is ready and what am I gonna do?
My heart is ready and what am I gonna do?
My heart is ready and what am I gonna do?
Oh God!  My heart is ready and what am I gonna do?
Cindy Kallet