Archetype: Spirit Animals ( Crow )

 I'm up on StencilGirls Throw Back Thrusday today and I picked the Three Crows stencil designed by Kimberly Baxter Packwood who was inspired by crows that played happily on the roof of her house. The crows gathered crabapples from the ground then flitted up to the roof where they dropped the crabapples just to watch them roll off the roof.

I created a small booklet that is inserted into my larger journal. The first crow was stenciled using ColourArte's shimmering Twinkling H20's watercolors and I just love all that shimmer and shine that shows through!

The middle insert talks about the crow as a spirit animal archetype. Mary Beth Shaw turned me onto this book: Art Journal Your Archetype: Mixed Media Techniques for finding yourself which I really loved because I learned so much about myself.

( And yes, you can find the awesome Mary Beth Shaw from StencilGirl in this book too! )

The next crow was created by tracing the image onto some cardstock which I then added some brown ink over it to distress it some and cut it out and glued it onto the paper. I really like the writing used as a grounding tool.

And as you can tell, I have been enjoying my manual typewriter too. It's been a lot of fun to insert my art and type my journaling. I'm sure you will be seeing more of this technique in my art and lots of typos too, lol

And yes, there are 3 crows on the stencil, I'm saving the third one as a surprise ;)

Hope you are having a wonderful day, thanks for stopping by!

Crows

Crows really do not interest me that much, although I know how smart they are, they are also loud and annoying in general. Usually I don't bother taking pictures of them either, but I admit that every time I see them I wish they were Ravens...now a Raven is a bird I would love to fly into my backyard! 

However, back to the crow. This is about the only time that a crow fascinated me. Which means, I actually said "oh wow", and grabbed my camera...a sure sign I am impressed. I've never had one land on my suet feeder before, it's amazing how big they looked when perched on my tiny feeder.

But the amazing part was that he managed to hang upside down in order to be able to grab the suet out of the cage.

I really had no idea that he would have the strength to pull himself up like that!

This is my favorite shot since it looks like he he posing for me and thinking how I shouldn't put him so low on the list of my favorite birds. I do admit he redeemed himself a little bit this day.
Just a little...

Still wish he was a Raven....

"American Crows are familiar over much of the continent: large, intelligent, all-black birds with hoarse, cawing voices. They are common sights in treetops, fields, and roadsides, and in habitats ranging from open woods and empty beaches to town centers. They usually feed on the ground and eat almost anything – typically earthworms, insects and other small animals, seeds, and fruit but also garbage, carrion, and chicks they rob from nests. Their flight style is unique, a patient, methodical flapping that is rarely broken up with glides."

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology  

1. Crow