Worried Journaling

A few months ago, I started this blog and was really religious about putting things up on a regular basis.  However, it turned my art journaling into this stressful thing that I had to accomplish.  I was worried about the possibility of people not liking my art.  This was always in the back of my mind when attempting to do any journaling, so naturally in my mind nothing came out like it was suppose to.  This resulted in me abandoning my journaling entirely for a good month or so.

But just recently I sat down and told myself that I would just journal.  I would make no promises that the page was going to be posted or shared with anyone.  And I was so happy with the results, in fact so much so, that I would be more than happy to share it with others.  It wasn't until I told myself that I didn't have to that I felt free to try new things and just play with my materials.

So far I have had pretty good success with my pages, I just need to keep in mind that not everything I do has to be shared.  And even of the stuff I do share doesn't require a really long blog posting to go with it.  This was another issue I had.  I felt that everything I posted needed to have a lengthy written post to go with it.  I'm not sure where I got these ideas, but I hope to get out of my blogging and journaling rut by thinking more outside the box.

Journaling should not be stressful or intimidating, in fact, it should be exactly the opposite.  So I will continue to blog, maybe even in a more consistent way, but I will be careful to let my creative self be my guide not the inner critic who is worried about what others think when reading my blog.

The Playful Child Within

I know that I have been a little behind in my FJC, but I've wanted to do some thinking on the prompts.  One of these great conumdrums for me was asking me... when I grow up what did I want to be. At first, I started with a very colorful page and was going to display all the things I dreamed about as a child of what it would be like to be a grown up.

However, once I got started I found myself stuck.  I didn't know where else to go, so I left the page alone for the day and decided I would return later.  The following day, I was in Borders and happened across a book called Agate; it was a delightful story, but the watercolor pictures where absolutely exquiste.  So when I got home I decided to miminic a lion that I had seen in the book.  Mine turned out significantly different but I loved it none the less.

When I had finished I realized that I had just completed the prompt for the day before that had so eluded me. When I grow up, I want to still possess my inner playful child.  It was perfect in its simplicity. 

A Letter to Divine Places

The last few days I have been busy rock climbing, going to book club, and playing a seriously cool game of Dungeons and Dragons.  I told you I was a nerd; however, I was able to find a little of time to do some art journaling with the prompts given out for the February Journal Challenge.

The first prompt was places that one would like to visit.  Personally, I would love to visit many places but if I had unlimited possibilities I would like to visit Europe during the Victorian era spending most of the "vacation" in England.

The second prompt was divinity.  I decided after much thought to go un-religious and focus on items that I find heavenly such as wine, art, music, colors, plants, and love.  It was a great warm and fuzzy exercise.

The third prompt was a letter. I just purchased these great stamps which are stamps of post cards and writing.  I then did a little writing of my own.  I was going to go a little more wild, but I liked the stamps so much I didn't want to cover them up, so I left the page as is.

Inspiring Inspiration

Thursday morning I was able to read the FJC prompt because my office was closed because of the gigantic blizzard that had just hit Chicago.  The prompt was inspiration, focusing on how to discover inspiration, how one goes about being inspired, etc.  And to be perfectly honest I was very stumped as for what to do with this prompt.

I guess in away I was having difficultly getting inspired in regards to the notion of inspiration.  In fact, I was befuddled by it all day.  I could easily write about inspiration and how it happens for me, but I wanted to complete the prompt like I had the other through a visual means.  Part of my problem was that my inspiration is completely random.  I don't seek it out or look for it.  I just plod along in my daily life and wham it hits me at unsuspecting moments.

I have to say I'm glad that I'm perceptive enough to see it, although I can be rather dense at times, so I'm sure I miss things.  But on the whole I have to say I catch on pretty well.  And I truly believe the "happy accidents" of inspiration, at least for me, are the best.  

The question then becomes how do I display visually the nonsensical way in which my inspiration is thrust upon me?  Finally, I thought perhaps I could just pick some of the items that spark my interest through my average day such as color, books, people, etc.  So finally at 10:30 last night I sat down quite unsure of what I was going to do and began to demonstrate my mode and means of inspiration.

Once I got going things seemed to just start to flow, and I believe that is how I do get inspired most, by piddling around with my art journaling materials and just letting the paint splatter and the tissue paper stick with guided haphazardness.

Beyond a Surface Connection

Today's February Journaling Challenge was to think about the people we would like to meet either dead or alive.  Naturally at first I thought about all the famous and power people I would love to meet from the past and present, but then for some reason I thought of my great-grandmother on my father's side.

A picture of her hangs in my parent's hallway.  She's about my age in the picture and we look strikingly similar, including the same nose, eyes, and facial structure.  I never met her because she died three days after my grandfather was born, and I've always wondered what she was like.  Would there be anything we had in common beyond our looks.

It was this thinking that inspired this page.  Initially I was going to cut a figure out of a magazine, paint it black, and then center it at the bottom of the page.  Then I would place a number of items that people may discuss on their first meeting around the figure.

So I found a picture that I liked, cut it out, and then placed it on a white piece of paper to paint it black.  When I finished I removed the cut out and found that a really cool negative image was left in its place.  Because of this surprising discovery, I decided to place the black picture on one side and do a negative imagine on the other side.  I would then pile the items in the middle between the two figures. 

It would represent us having a conversation, so to speak.  I then added a few questions and wanted to portray the uncertainty if there would be any connection between those that share the same genes.

It was a great prompt to get me thinking about who I would really like to meet given the chance and what would result of that meeting.

Balancing Inspiration

Thanks to my art journaling group on Flickr, I found out about the February Journal Challenge. Everyday a prompt is posted, and the idea is to use that prompt as a jumping off point for inspiration.  Obviously, today was the first day of the challenge and today's inspiration was balance.

At first I was a bit confused about what to do with this, so I decided to flip through some old magazines to see if anything stuck my fancy. While I was perusing the pages I thought about finding a person with their arms out, allowing me to then cut out other items and stack them on top of their hands.  But as I was thumbing along I found a picture of a stool and my idea started to take a whole other shape.

I placed the stool at the base of the page and then proceed to stack items atop it.  The magazines that I was flipping through are all about beauty and fashion and while I am certainly not above such things it occurred to me that the time we spend on looks and beauty may be putting other items off balance.

This prompted me to place a bottle of perfume directly on top of the stool, from here I cut other pictures out and placed them precariously on each other to demonstrate the notion of beauty not being a stable base.  The rest of the page ca be interpreted many different ways.

But the bottom line is that I had a lot of fun and was able to think about life a little more deeply on a subject I wouldn't have thought much about if it wasn't for this prompt.  I'm looking forward to see what awaits me tomorrow.

Paint it Book

I have done something rather unthinkable, at least to me.  For as long as I can remember I've been book nerd, cherishing a good read, and loving the thrill of finding a great new book. However, with my new found hobby of art journaling I have been viewing other art journaler's work and some have created really cool pages in books.

When I first discovered this I was horrified.  How on earth could someone do art journaling in something as sacred as a book, but the more the pages I viewed that had used book pages, the more enthralled with the idea I became.

So last Sunday, rummaging around my closest I came across a book that I received as a white elephant gift about cat care.  I do not own a cat and don't plan to any time soon.  So I thought perhaps this may be the book that I tried art journaling with book pages.

I took a deep breath a dove in.  Unfortunately, I used paint that was a little too dark to actually see the words of the page but the idea certainly has potential, and I've decided not to be such a book snob but be more open to other backgrounds for my art journaling pages.