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ABOUT

 

ABOUT


AKO has a master's degree in Art & Visual Culture Education from the University of Arizona and BA's in Psychology, Sociology, and Fine Art from St. Ambrose University, Davenport, IA.

Art journaling is a cathartic processes that can help us overcome the mental hurtles that sometimes barricade the path to emotional health and maturity. 

The major purpose of this art journal is to help demonstrate how I, a single soul in the universe, does mental/emotional/behavioral health processing through art journaling. The intent of this journal is to help exemplify a single method for anyone struggling to identify a solidified process that works for them. 

This process and/or content may not be the best way for you. Take it, leave it, or adopt parts from it. 

As a general disclaimer, the content herein is not and is not intended to be a therapeutic method. Serious emotional, mental, and/or behavioral health issues are best addressed with a practicing professional in Psychiatry, Psychology, and/or in the Behavior/Mental Health domain. 

I invite everyone to share your stories, thoughts, suggestions, and/or your own preferred art journaling processes on my blog posts! I love hearing what you have to say!

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ART JOURNAL- ENTRY #2

SUBJECT MATTER: NAHUI OLLIN The Nahui Ollin is a Nahua and Aztec cultures' graphic, hard-edged representation of a four-petal flower. Here, it is depicted as a soft petal flower similar to the one found over the womb on the tunic of the heavily pregnant Virgen de Guadalupe. The Nahui Ollin is a Nahua and Aztec symbol that represents 5 era cycles of creation and destruction. The 4 petals represent the four cardinal directions and four previous cycles to the one we are currently in. The center of the flower represents the axis mundi; the central locus of the earth's rotation that conne cts the poles of the celestial bodies (the heavens and the underworld) to the earth. The axis mundi also represents the fifth sun; our current sun and earth cycle. Our current cycle, it's believed, will end due to numerous, catastrophic earthquakes. In other cultures, outside of South America, the axis mundi is represented as a pole, a line, a dot, a tree trunk, a temple, etc. which illustrate ...

ART JOURNAL- ENTRY #4

  SUBJECT MATTER: MEXICAN BOUQUET Mexican paper flowers in an earthenware pitcher. It's said that the Spanish brought tissue paper from China to Mexico and that that introduction was the initial starting point for paper flowers being used for weddings, quinceaneras, and other ceremonial activities. But, in reality, no one knows for sure where and/or when the tradition actually started.  Earthenware in Mexico began during the Purron period (2300-1500 BCE) when they moved from stoneware to clayware. To put this into perspective, in pre-colonial America, pottery was being made over a thousand years before pottery in pre-colonial Mexico. The earliest known pottery in the U.S territory (in what is now known as Savanah, Georgia, United States) was being made by Native Indians in approximately 3500 BCE.  DIPICTION OF SUBJECT MATTER I used vibrant, gaudy colors for the stemless, floating flower heads and I used earthy, clay-like colors for the solid, blocklike, geometric, earthen...

ART JOURNAL- ENTRY #3

  SUBJECT MATTER: THREE BALL CROSS The Three Ball Cross is symbolic of the Trinity; The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and of juggling the responsibility of a personal cross.  DIPICTION OF SUBJECT MATTER The base of the cross stretches from the earth and vaults into heaven where the three "balls" exist. This is a call to the axis mundi and the central point of existence from which all divinity rotates and/or flows to and from.  PERSONAL DRAW OF DATA FROM THE SUBJECT MATTER The cross in this image is grounded in the earth in the foreground of the picture plane to imply something more (i.e. an underworld) is available for the base of the cross to slip into. This lack of firm planting into the underworld itself, going only as far as the earth, shows me a personal lack of desire to dive into the sphere of the underworld and/or a personal lack of desire to know more about the realm of death as an actual destination.  Given that I find my personal power in God; in the Trinit...