January Journaling

A chance to decompress creativity

I have been journaling all my adult life in three different ways. The first is a written journal similar to a diary where I am at my most reflective. The second is my planner journal where I keep things that are important to me front and centre. The third is art journaling and my favourite. For me, art journaling is the place where I do my best creative thinking but in January it takes on a slightly different function. It allows me to creatively decompress. As a working artist creativity is my language but sometimes that language gets a little confused or tangled up and then I lose my way.

Every January is the same as I reach for my art journal. I feel a sense of calm as I review recent pages before delving into a new one. I rarely have much of a plan, allowing the page to find me. In the construction of the page I am mindful of giving space for messages to appear without prompt and the openenss to creativity is the thing that presses the decompression button and I find myself able to breath my creativity in and out with a greater sense of calmness. Over the years I have come to understand how important that is to me at this time of year. I don’t really want to launch myself into another year feeling tangled and overwhelmed so I seek the clarity that comes with art journaling.

Art journaling also strengthens my artistic voice and is considered my safe space. There is always a moment in the construction of the page when it turns a wee bit ugly and I have learnt to smile at that knowing that, if I push through, beauty will be restored. Yesterday was a very rare day as I did two pages in one day as often a page can take me a day to complete. The energy that surrounded the task comfirmed that I have settled my creative mind and I am ready for new challenges. It is such a comforting feeling as an artist.

I have been teaching art journaling for many years and it is quite possibly my favourite thing to teach as I watch lights come on in the faces of the participants. As they grapple with bits of torn pages, paints, pens, crayons etc etc something starts to emerge and I can see when they see it. I watch their faces as the page begins to find them and speak its own private messages. Joyful. In recent years I have been teaching mainly in zoom and, although I can’t see their page, I can see the faces and I see the energy well up within them, it is a magical process and really quite precious.

My patrons and I had our January class and decided to start the year with an art journal page cicrulating around the theme of home. As a group most of us have been together for some time and within minutes of beginning the smiling began to take shape in our wee zoom space. Art journaling is not without its challenges and this mainly presents itself as overwhelm as we struggle with resources. I keep my list of resources as small as possible to make the task more manageable. I also do some preparation when I ‘gather’ papers I think I might like to use and here is where the magic begins. I start to see associations and relationships between different papers and so the gentle unfolding of a creative idea begins. Time is the friend of art journaling as it is not something that can be rushed and, for me, it falls into the school of slow art making which is very good for the soul.

My next class is also a favourite one as it is just as Spring begins to arrive in earnest and the page can’t help but be full of hope and new beginnings. This class is a stand alone one and open to all. It will be recorded so if you want to join me and can’t make the date you can still book your place. I keep my classes fairly small so there is time for the essential element of chat, the drinking of tea and the eating of something delicious. You would be most welcome to join me.

Meantime you will see a small corner of my desk with a tiny, but perfectly formed, pile of papers as I begin my gentle gather for my spring page…..