Pagan Art Journal: Green Men and Wild Women

It's been a while since I've really sat down to work in any of my art journals. Mostly it's been because I've been feeling burned out; my days have held very little spiritual time lately, consisting primarily of working, eating and sleeping. But like I said in my farewell to 2011 I have a good feeling about 2012 and plan to get into the nitty gritty and really let the essence of me shine through; I'm not letting anything suck the life out of me or send me to the shits anymore.

And so, a return to art and to journaling is in order. While I was planning on working on something in my giant art journal, the wee book I've dedicated to becoming my pagan art journal called out to be used instead. I suppose my spirit wanted time for both art and spirituality, how could I deny it?

This spread was originally the beginning of a background which would house my thoughts on Yule. However, when I looked at the greens and yellows, I saw someone there. And as I looked further, I realized there were two someones. I worked over the areas without conscious thought, in thin layers of white paint and revealed there lords of the green and growing things:

This page was absolutely magical for me to work on, as the faces emerged I felt energized. In my practice, the Lord and Lady of the Greenwood are the two deities with whom I work most frequently and with whom I most connect. They call to me from the deep woods, from the gardens, they reveal themselves to me in the flicker of leaves. It is their cycles and spaces with which I am most in tune and where I am most at peace.

Then this past week, while on my lunch break at work, I had the urge to write a sort of ode to Wild Woman. And so I scribbled on the back of an envelope and once home broke out the journal. I began to sketch and once pleased, inked the line work and painted the pages. I wanted to convey both night and day as well as Earth and Sky in the color work, so the page is colorful and a bit mottled. I've opted to keep the illustrations white for now because I like the contrast with the background:

The text, a reminder and call to all daughters of the Wild Woman:

I am that which dwells in the deep forest, the music of rivers, the scent of moss and mud. I am the glint you recognize in the stars, the changing seasons, the running wolf. I am the soaring hawk and the delicacy of a feather. I am that which tugs at your feet, urging you to dance, to run and the sing your songs from mountain tops. I draw you to bask in sun and to quest by moon. I am Wild Woman, I am all around and within you.

I needed this reminder and somewhere out there, I know someone else will too. Be well, my lovelies.