My soul-satisfying adventures continue with today’s shadow box thrift find.

I turned this $2.50 shadow box into another expression project.

Using acrylic paint, magazine clippings, and gel medium to create something unique and beautiful.

I always start by picking out images I like or that speak to me that day and then go from there. Then place the images in different spots until I like the feel of the placement.

It wasn’t until I finished this shadow box that I noticed relevance. The two black and white images came from different articles and different years but their pencil sketched graininess makes them family.

I couldn’t help but relate it to my vegan journey. In the beginning of my vegetarian-vegan journey over 10 years ago, discontinuing my red meat consumption was the easiest and most obvious first step.

Laying off honey and other bee products was less obvious to me and only something I’m just beginning to wrap my mind around. VegNews published a great piece last year (same article the bee image is from). There are times I’ll eat honey (if it’s from a local and respected harvester) but it’s definitely something I’ve reduced my consumption of drastically as my understanding of the overall picture increases.

Cows and bees. The easiest and the hardest concepts for me to wrap my brain around while on the veg*n journey.

I like that.

I had a little leftover Paper Source paper from my last thrifting project so I used that paper to create circle embellishments for the sides.

The hardest part about this project was waiting for all the different layers to dry. There were a few coats of acrylic paint, then the magazine clippings, and lastly the gel medium to adhere and polish off the project.

And I’m quite happy with the outcome and unexpected symbolism.

Cheers! xo