Art journaling is ON!

here are my first art journal pages...hooray! I started watching you tube videos and got hooked immediately on Pam Carriker's style. She's very talented, very sweet and has a large body of work. It wasn't long before I was hooked line and sinker and on board. I joined the creative workshop site, signed up for her class Journal 365 and started, all in a couple days. One thing I am good at is "taking action". I drove on over to Blick art supplies and got some pencils, paint pens, and watercolor pencils. Then I watched the first video and I was ready for action. I can tell this is my new path, I love mixed media collage so much more than traditional painting. It's just more fun. More free. Before it was paint on canvas. Now its paint, it's pencil, it's stamps, it's paper, it's anything goes baby! That's what I'm talking about.....I like the journal aspect as a playground for ideas, too often I pressured myself by starting on canvas. Now I play on paper, if I have a potential masterpiece on my hands, then I can take it to the next level. If it's just nice and that's that then I can have it in my journal, just for me. GENIUS! I promise to share for those who care, hey that's a rhyme....thanks for checking in

artistic slumps

first of all let me say how I LOVE this sunshine we are having lately. Today I got to go to the beach and the flea market in Santa Cruz and it was like summer. I wore a tank top, flip flops and I was sweating at times....heaven..it is a breath of fresh air after the dreary rain and fog and cold. I will really miss it when it goes away. So on Saturday I had a breakthrough, which happens often actually. It wasn't a huge, earthshaking breakthrough but it felt significant at the time. I had a rough art day the day before, hating my attempts at my new pursuit, 'art journaling'. I was so inspired by all the videos I have been watching and I was fired up to create something fabulous. NOT even close. Funny how that works. Looks so easy and yet its not. So I had to get down on myself about how I suck as an artist etc. cause that's my M.O. and then the next day I had a chat with my godmother Kae about it. I told her I really don't want to do that anymore, beat myself up for not creating perfectly. haha. what an oxymoron, creating is supposed to be all organic and spiritual and zen right? I am in my way, or rather my critic is. So I did something different yesterday that I haven't done before and it was really positive. I stayed late, I closed the shop and locked the doors, and I cranked the tunes and I created. In the studio with no one around and it was awesome. I had medium flying and paper and wax and paint and it was heaven. I danced. I sang. I had fun, creating. and that's the whole point. I didn't care what I was making, and I ended up liking it when I was through. Of course. That is soooo the way of things isn't it? Lesson learned here, stay and play when you can. Big difference having the studio all alone vs. when I'm open and people are coming in and out all day. Lesson 2, when I am listening to my critic, I am too focused on the finished product. Stop and wait til I can make it playful and then it will flow and be better....this is real basic stuff here but to me it felt like a breakthrough. here are a couple of pictures of the things I made in the playtime of Saturday night...

thank you for taking time to check on my happenings and I appreciate your support!