You Have To Show Up-Art Journals

I've been keeping an art journal off and on again for at least 10 years.
Generally I start my journal and then get excited about a new journal. Because of this I have many journals that I have started, and a few that have been completed. It was a pretty exciting moment when I completed a full journal. I worked pretty hard at it to get it done. Somehow, it's just more fun to start than finish. Something about all those pages to fill calls to me, but this year I'm going to be a Closer. My goal is to create an art journal entry every day and finish my current journal by the end of the year,

Last year I discovered the joy of completing a journal. Usually in November I get the hankering to complete a journal so that I start working on new one in time for the New Year.This year the book I am working on completing came from a garage sale. I have two of them. One I began working on a few years ago, and the other is pristine with beautiful white pages just waiting to be filled. They are square with a corrugated cardboard cover and a metal butterfly charm.

Usually I start with the words.  I just pour out all my thoughts, no worries about correctness.  Next is the background. I use acrylics and watercolor crayons. Sometimes I pour the paint directly on the paper and squish them together ink blot style. Then I add collage elements. Some from magazines, some from my own artwork and some from our discarded dictionary prints. The hunt is on for that perfect element that says, "I belong right here."

There's a lot to appreciate about art journals.  I can pick up where I left off at any time. I'm certaintly not perfect. I don't think I could journal every day obsessively. There's an ebb and flow to journaling. Life gets busy and hectic at times. Yet my art journal is always there, a sanctuary from the craziness of life. I gather my thoughts in my journals, harvest recurring themes, and brain dump on occasion.
It bothers me that I'm not able to stick with my journal consistently for long periods of time. But for all that my journal is what remains and what I come back to. I've always kept a journal in some form or fashion, it's just taken a while to complete.

I'm not an expert. I can only share my experience. You don't have to be able to draw to be an art journaller. You don't have to journal everyday to be an art journaller. You just have to show up.

Until next time,

Kim