a new print and my strength in curiosity

TITLE: Strength in Curiosity. Prints available in my etsy shop.

Have you ever felt like exploring something new or visiting somewhere totally unimaginable? I painted this new mixed media painting to express the freedom I feel when I follow these little whispers. And lately there have been a lot. Maybe that's because I've finally slowed down a bit to enjoy the summer, but all of my dreams are coming to the surface and I've been writing each one in my journal, so they don't slip away.

Today it's, "I feel like going to the book store and browsing for no reason." I have no idea where this came from, but it's definitely something I'm going to do today. When I lived in Chicago, the bookstore was right on the corner from my train transfer after work. I used to LOVE stopping into the store, just to look around. It was a moment I cherished, a moment just for myself, where I let my intuition guide me into the History or New Releases sections and allowed myself to pick up whatever book caught my eye. I know there is STRENGTH IN CURIOSITY. And when I listen to those little whispers they lead me to something, and usually it's something my heart has really been dying for.

For this new painting, I played with lots and lots of stencils and filled them in with layers of spray paint and acrylics. I especially loved using my flower stencil and am delighted by the red flowers floating in and out of the background. For her dress, I cut out a wide rectangle from my new origami paper and painted in her neck and arms with acrylics, then wanted to give her a really brilliant lime green skirt and embellished it with black ink and cut octagons from the origami paper to repeat that pattern. At some point, this girl also had wings, which you can barely make out now, but I covered them up and made her a strong lioness. Then I added all sorts of pastels, charcoal, pencil and orange acrylics to add more detail and definition to her face and head. Because I wanted to express how this lioness was following her curiosity, I added the white, snowy polka dots and a final coat of my very favorite vintage decoupage, for added softness and magic.