Messy May “kindness”

Series: Messy May #14

Prompt: 14 KINDNESS
Host: Helen Colebrook @journalwithpurpose
Guidance: Create a journal spread that encourages you to share kindness with others and yourself.

This sort of thing is the reason why I don’t often do prompt-driven challenges. It’s hard for me to find a visual response to a concept like kindness that makes sense to me. I didn’t want to go down the very literal hearts and quotes route the host took: that is a prime example of exactly what I don’t like to do with art journalling.

So, what to do. While Helen’s overall approach didn’t resonate with me, I did like her use of masks on the gelli plate and in the finished journal spread. I die-cut some butterflies — not symbolic of kindness, but beautiful, delicate creatures nonetheless — grabbed some paint, deli paper and the gelli plate and made a print. Once everything was dry, I tore a piece of the printed deli paper and glued it to the bottom of the page and then added some textured paint in the background. Then all that was left to do was arrange the painted butterfly masks on the page and add some gold dots to their wings.