Seasonal art Journaling
The place where I work things out
I trained in art journaling in the US over 30 years ago and it has been a big part of my life ever since. It is where I work things out. The creative brain can be a bit chaotic at times but art journaling has a way of figgering all that out and it can be transformational for me.
If you have never art journaled I would really recommend it as an excellent antidote to the hectic world we all inhabit. I can lose hours journaling as I meander around the page letting the story unfold across time. There are lots of different schools in art journaling. I was trained in intuitive art journaling that allows the mind to wander freely and be represented on the page in a mindful way. I translated this initial training into seasonal art journaling some years ago and it was one of the best creative decisions of my life. It has been so freeing but it has also allowed me to connect far more deeply with the different seasons. Noticing small seasonal shifts are articulated on my art journal pages.
The blossom just before it starts to fade. The seed just before it starts to burst open.
As the mind wanders so does the page and the trick is to let that happen slowly so pages can takes days to unfold. I leave the page open near me when I am in the studio and add to it as things occur to me. Very occasionally, I complete a page in one sitting and that always feels like a complete creative brain dump - this is very rare. My preferred option is to let the page find me and time is my greatest friend in this pursuit.
There are moments during every page where I stop and stare and wonder where the story has come from. I never start out with a story so the gentle unfolding is always a bit of a surprise. By the time the page is finished I understand it and can talk about both what it is saying and how it is saying it. It is almost as if the page has allowed me in to it’s world for which I am always grateful. So, art journaling is magical and if you align the practice with the seasons you will find things out about the world you inhabit that you didn’t know before. Without doubt, a transformational experience.