Studio remixing

Since my computer had the little coffee mishap last week, I had some time in the studio to reorganize and make more space.
I do much better making art if I have an environment that invites me in.
Otherwise, I end up puttering around and never getting to it.

I also started a Pinterest board with art studio images, to get me motivated.
I like the open-ness of lots of these spaces.
An inspiring space facilitates inspiring art.
(I wish we all had loft studios in New York, but making our own space nice is the next best thing.)

I also started filling in the latest junk journal.  I am very happy starting work on pages that aren't white.  The bits and bobs of the random collage get me going, make me more creative, make me more loose.

Also, looking at so many journals that are posted on line, I am dismayed at the level of just re-creating stencil and gesso and girly faces.  (and birds.)
So many pages out there have the same look.
I don't know about you, but this process for me is about discovery.
It's not about making pretty little postcard art I can post.
It's not about knowing in advance what you are going to do on the page.
It's not about following a step by step recipe of how to stencil and layer.

Yeah, I get that people only post what they are proud of.
But listen - let's all learn to be proud of our own crazy individual styles, of our own experiments and mishaps and mistakes.
Of our mashups.
of our remixes.

Scan something, tear it up, glue it down.
Find an image you love in a magazine, tear it out, start from there.
Sketch and embellish.
Carve an eraser stamp and stamp the heck out of that page.
Art journaling is about going within, not copying others' style.
Yes, we all need the boost of posting a pretty image and having the world say Ohhh Ahhh.
But let's be brave.
Let's make some messes and share them.
Let's be proud of our process, and not always look for a neat and tidy finished page.

So after you shovel some snow, warm up and get a cuppa tea, get in that studio, and mess around.
You'll find something unexpected, and maybe something you totally love.

"Tune yourself to your own highest vibration, then make a mess. What comes out might surprise you." --me

this

coffee spill disaster. keyboard not working right. cant type the first word I need to type which is __ournal. yeah, I bet you can gess the letter that wont type. and the other one. G_ess. this is very bad news for e. __e. sorry.

Passion.

What does your passion look like?
What really turns you on?

If you don't know, this is a great thing to journal about.
Tear out some images, glue them down.  Add some colors.
There, now you're loosened up, so now you can write some words.
Quick.
Don't think too much about it.
What did you find out?

I think one of the most powerful tools we have as visual journalers is that when we play around with color and shape and image, our right creative brains are loosened.
We can experiment and mess around, and thus access the more sub-conscious part of our mind.  And this is the part where the secrets of the Universe are.  (Just ask Rumi.)

I see so many journaling "lessons" which show exactly how to make an art journal page; videos where the artist goes through a lesson of paint, color, stencil, whatever, expecting you to follow along and learn that technique.
This is art.
It's not art journaling.
Someone said "creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes, art is knowing which ones to keep."

If you are trying to make pretty pages to share on a blog or facebook, what will you find out?
Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's pleasing to make a page you like, a page that looks finished and even frame-able.
But if you let that become your goal, you'll be missing out on the true discovery of your own inner mind.

Try to let your mistakes lead you somewhere.
Let your playing in your art journal ask the questions, don't work to force the answers.

All this is hard to put into words, but if you mess around, I think you'll know what I am talking about.
Just start with something that catches your attention, play with that idea or image or feeling.  Tear a picture out of a magazine that attracts you.

See what happens.

 
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider's web.

--Pablo Picasso