Eat Pray Love

I got inspiration to do this for a class assignment.  The class was called Concepts and Practices and the assignment was a semester long map incorporating different levels of my life and experiences throughout the semester.  I read the book Eat Pray Love, by Elizabeth Gilbert and fell completely in love with it.  

One of the physical levels of this piece is the background.  The background is made up of all the receipts I collected during the semester that were school related expenses. I used a water-based sealer/glue and finish on it covering a large piece of poster board.  I then sketched out a quick outline of a woman's body and took quotes from the book that I loved and used them to fill in and outline the contours of the figure.  I used gouache to paint the flowers. 

Some of my favorite quotes from the book: "We loved each other.  That was never the question.  It's just that we couldn't figure out how to stop making each other desperately, shriekingly, soul-punishingly miserable..."

"...beauty attracts beauty.. but we are not what the other one needs.."

"You should never give yourself a chance to fall apart, because, when you do, it becomes a tendency and it happens over and over again.  You must practice staying strong, instead."

"Soul mates come into your life just to reveal another layer of yourself to you, and then they leave. "

"You're wishin' too much, baby.  You gotta stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone oughtta be."

"Happiness is the consequence of personal effort.  You fight for it, strive for it, insist upon it, and sometimes even travel around the world looking for it.  You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestations of your own blessings and one you have achieved a state of happiness, you must never become lax about maintaining it.  You must make a mighty effort to keep swimming upward into that happiness forever, to stay a float on top of it.  If you don't,  you will leak away your innate contentment.  It's easy enough to pray when you're in distress but continuing to pray even when your crisis has passed is like a sealing process, helping your soul hold tight to it's good attainments."

"To lose balance sometimes for love is part of living a balanced life."

"Fear.  Who cares?!"

"Do not wait to be rescued by a prince.  Be the administrator of your own rescue."

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