This page, which I completed a few months ago, is entitled, “Where is the Sun?” On this very frigid February day in southeastern Wisconsin, it seems especially fitting!

When my friend and fellow artist Kim Rae Nugent asked me to contribute some journal pages to her new book, Journal Starters Sampler Volume I, I was extremely excited. I loved many of the gorgeous images she planned to include in the book as inspiration, and couldn’t wait to start creating pages with them! The first photo that caught my eye was the one that appears on this page, featuring barren tree branches against a dark, dreary sky.

As a lifelong resident of Wisconsin, I know barren tree branches well, as that’s how our trees look for at least six months of the year. The dark, dreary sky is also all-too-familiar, since the vast majority of our winter days have this as a backdrop. While I do love my home state and can’t imagine living anywhere else, the winters have always been very difficult for me. As a sun goddess who loves soaking up rays at the pool and prefers spaghetti-strap tops and flip-flops to heavy parkas and boots, winters in the upper Midwest can be a bitter pill to swallow. I instantly thought of this as I looked at the image, and immediately asked myself the question, “Where is the sun?” — which is exactly what goes through my mind day after day in the months of January, February, and March, when I look out my window and the world seems cold and dead, and July feels like a distant dream.

I was drawn to warm, bright colors when I created this page, and the contrast with the photo seems to work well. I think it’s a good reflection of the warmth and light that we Wisconsinites always hold in our hearts during the endless winters, enabling us to survive until the spring thaw.

This page was created with vintage papers, patterned paper, Washi tape, masking tape, gesso, spray inks, a punchinella stencil, pigment ink, stamps, found text, rub-ons, stickers, photo corners, pens, and the image from the book.

Journal Starters Sampler Volume I can be purchased at Amazon.com.

Hoping that tonight, wherever you are, you are warm and cozy–and looking forward to the spring, as I know I am! 😉