Being Me - Weeks 8 and 9

Week 8 of Being Me occurred while I was on vacation at the shore. So needless to say, I'm playing catch up.  The theme for week eight was finding solitude.  The theme for week nine was reflection.  And to me, these two go hand in hand, I use solitude as a time to reflect, gather my thoughts, recharge, and start anew. So I found a lot of overlap in the two layouts I created for these themes:

Week 8 - Solitude:

This page started with a photo of sunrise at the shore that I printed at roughly 10x7 on regular copy paper. I laid the photo in place and painted a background around the space that the photo would occupy. Then I adhered the photo down and went to work trying to blend the photograph into the background. Obviously, I couldn't get a true mix of all the colors in the photo, nor am I able to paint quite as well as I photograph, but I was happy enough with the results.

The quotes read:  "Solitude is not a way of running away from life ... from our feelings. On the contrary, this is the time we sort them out, air them, get over them, and go on without the burden of yesterday." Joan Chittister  and "Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace. Great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart."  Jeanne Marie Laskas

Week 9 - Reflect:

For this one I first painted a background of sand, sea, and sky. And added bits of stamping and texture. I printed off two 4x6 photos on actual photo paper and fit them into  background I'd made. Both photos I chose have reflections in the water, so symbolic of the week's theme. I had to trim down the one on the right hand side to fit. Then I went back with paint and blended the photos in a bit with the background.  The quote reads "Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away." Barbara De Angelis  

While I'm happy with both pages, this second one is brighter and just feels more like me.