Art Journaling with Symbols & States

Hi, everyone! Mary Nasser here today to share what I created for Week 26 of

The Original Documented Life Project™ The Journal!

June Theme

Travel Journaling

June 27 Challenge & Prompt

Art Challenge: Photos and Words

Journal Prompt: A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

For this journal page, I began by using a palette knife to spread copper embossing paste through

Roxanne Evans Stout's Earth Song Symbols 1 and Earth Songs Symbols 2 stencils onto vintage labels.

I incorporated Roxanne's symbols because they bring back fond memories of travels during which I studied petroglyphs (rock carvings), both in the Southwest and on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Roxanne's symbols evoke a sense of mystery for me, of lost civilizations, story-telling, and recording memories. Her symbols are poetic, timeless, and open to interpretation.

Next, I used Teal Blue StazOn Ink, a jumbo dauber, and these same stencils

to create a background on my gessoed journal pages.

With red Dylusions paint and an old plastic gift card, I scraped acrylic onto the surface.

I also wiped some away with baby wipes to give it a weathered look.

Then I scraped turquoise Dylusions acrylic paint onto the page, allowing some of the layers

underneath to peek through. This color palette reminds me of the Southwest, too.

Afterwards, I arranged the labels and my photographs onto the page.

I chose photos I'd taken of a petroglyph on a hike during my artist residency at Petrified Forest National Park  – 

Roxanne's spiral symbol brought back memories of this amazing petroglyph.

This particular petroglyph is a calendar, marking summer solstice.

I hiked to this glyph on the morning of summer solstice because at sunrise on this day,

one can experience the interactions between the glyph, the sun, and natural landscape features.

Then I used June Pfaff Daley's Road Trip USA and Southwest Road Trip USA stencils

to add another layer of color and shapes to the pages.

Lastly, I added some black Stabillo, black ink, and washi tape to complete the pages.

Below are detailed photos:

Thanks for visiting StencilGirl Talk!

Mary C. Nasser

Mixed Media Map Art