(goals for 2014 #1: Keep an Art Journal)
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| A piece of my art journal... using list making to explore myself |
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| Planner Pad got turned into an art journal! |
I kept a journal religiously throughout high school and college, using it to pour my feelings out about unrequited crushes and being overweight. Sometime, around the time I met my husband, I let go of the process of writing in a journal. Around this time my journal, which contained my most private thoughts and feelings, was lost along with my luggage. I was devastated. I felt violated and as if I lost a part of myself. At the same time, I was finding contentment in my life. My weight was stable and I was happy with myself and where I was going. That was 20 years ago. Fast forward to today, when the art world is filled with artists who "art journal"
Artists create spreads in their journals beautiful enough to frame. I wasn't sure if that was something I wanted to do; private art making didn't speak to me. I love to share my art. Moreover, I couldn't see myself writing all over a piece of my art.
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| List the words that touch your soul, a page for you! |
Then I got a
Planner Pad this summer. I got the planner as a way to get myself to focus and organize myself. Something us creatives have a hard time doing. The planner has a month view to write appointments as well as week views to make lists. I found myself turning to the pad to write lists but not necessarily in the spaces that were intended for that day. That evolved into putting gesso and paint over old to-do lists and starting from scratch. I even caught myself stamping words like "inventory", "ideas" and "goals." In order to find the month views more quickly, I bordered each month with decorative washi tape. Somehow, without my realizing it, I had created an art journal. The journal may not be like the other artists' journals. You won't see me creating pages that are frame worthy; I still
prefer to save that kind of art making for the canvas. I also may not be ready to pour my heart out on paper yet (my teenage kids are so nosy!) However, using this journal to make lists-and not just "to do" lists!-really appeals to me. While bouncing around like Tigger around the internet, I found a terrific blog by
Moorea Seal. She suggests to make a list of words that touch your soul. I am sharing my list with you. If you want, you can share your list with me by either linking it here in the comments. To help get you started I am giving you your own blank journal page. Print it out and use it for your list. You can keep this separate, throw it out or glue it down into your own journal! You can also find a template for making a list on Moorea's
blog.
What words touch your soul?
