A funny thing happened to my owls . . .

In the Art of Wild Abandonment class I'm taking, the instructor Junelle Jacobsen created a wonderful art journal page featuring owls.  Here's an example of one of her owls, taken from her blog "Yes and Amen."

It was a totally fun exercise to create these whimsical creatures.  But a funny thing happened to my owls.  As I drew in the wings, they looked more and more like baseballs.  Which, of course, makes sense because drawing and art journaling taps into the artist's experiences and subject position.  And, you know, I'm all about baseball.  So, I went with the baseball theme and created the art journal page up top.  I titled it "The Joplin Night Owls of 1910," (named after a Negro League team from back in the days when American baseball was segregated).  I like my whimsical owls, and I realized that in many ways they reminded me of a baseball photograph I took and used in this recent art journal page.  I had been toying with the idea of doing a painting based on the photograph during Alisa Burke's Finding Your Muse online class.  Obviously, my subconscious hadn't let go of the idea.  So, I went with it and created this art journal page using acrylic paints:

I think one of the things I love most about art is the way it taps into my subconscious and brings out the things which are percolating inside my head.  Junelle has described the process as one where we "Let our hearts speak through our fingers."  I guess my heart is more full of baseball than owls!  Are there things in your heart which you find your fingers speaking about over and over?