GRACE: smoothness and elegance of movement .....

..... is just one of the many definitions.

The new Craft Barn Q&L challenge words are PEACEFUL and GRACE.

I've used a poem by John Gillispie Magee Jr called High Flight, which I have come across in the past.  I love the images and emotion it evokes.

John Gillispie Magee Jr was an American pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War.  He came to Britain, flew in a Spitfire squadron, and was killed at the age of 19 on 11 December 1941 during a training flight from the airfield in Lincolnshire. Such a tragic end.

If you want to know more, see here.

Here is the complete poem -

High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth 
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth 
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things 
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung 
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, 
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung 
My eager craft through footless halls of air. 
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue 
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace 
Where never lark, or even eagle flew - 
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod 
The high untrespassed sanctity of space, 
Put out my hand and touched the face of God. 

I've used just one line on my page.  Decided to abandon my paints (for once!) and got out my Distress Inks.

I also went a bit abstract and cubist, though I'm not too sure I'm very happy with the result, but that is the beauty of  this challenge, trying stuff out, even if it doesn't work too well!

The background is created by sponging Distress Inks through randomly cut apertures.  I got the idea from Barbara Grey's blog (see here).  I wanted geometric shapes, so cut them rather than tearing.  At the last minute I also stamped some dandelion seed heads, to give some relief from all the hard edges, but maybe I shouldn't have .....

I cut an angular bird shaped aircraft from black and silver card, and wrote the words in white Sharpie pen. Looking at it, I think I've been watching too much Battlestar Galactica!!