Keeping the Hand Moving


I've been trying to up my journal game recently, and though I haven't kept any official tally, I've probably worked in my journal everyday for the past couple of weeks. It was easy to find time during my winter break to journal, but now that school has started up, I have been trying to maintain the habit. Doodling and writing seem to be the dominant forms of work, as I always have a pen or two handy.

I started the page above with the large face, and then I added orange watercolor to fill in the negative space. I randomly glued in a small piece of paper with a quote during a collage session in the studio sometime last week, and I added the squares and writing as a way to create a pattern on top of the watercolor.

Everyday, I am taking time to get my hand moving.

Text and More Layers


Slowly I have been adding to my pages with the crisscrossing text. (Check out this post to see how they began.) It's nothing earth shattering, but the accumulation of actions is building into something interesting. I recently added to both pages by creating black frames around square cutouts with ink. Placing a scrap of paper underneath kept the ink from getting onto the next page.


Next I glued in some raffle tickets that I've been holding onto since Art Unraveled since August. There was a big Saturday night event with Danny Gregory as guest speaker, and everyone got a raffle ticket. Prizes were given out, and at the end of the evening, there were raffle tickets left on nearly every table. I decided to gather up as many as I could. They have slowly made their way into quite a few pieces of art and quite a few journal pages. I like collecting fodder this way because of the stories and associations behind it. I could easily go out and buy a big roll of tickets like this, but they would have no meaning and no memories embedded in them.

I am enjoying seeing where this spread is going.

Faces


Over the last few months I have been experimenting with a few different types of images. I guess I'm in a period where I'm not focusing on just one thing. I think as an artist, it's good to mix things up and try new things, even if they seem somewhat contrary to a current line of inquiry.


I've explored mapping and monsters most recently, and over the past two weeks, I've been drawing faces. I'm not sure if they'll go anywhere, but it's always good to open your practice to new ideas.




Living on Purpose


I came across this phrase as I read Dr. Wayne W. Dyer’s Inspiration: Your Ultimate Calling, and it resonated deeply with me. I had to stop immediately and write the phrase down before I forgot. The power and simplicity of this phrase struck me.

For far to long, I have been living life mindlessly, going through my days being pulled here and there by the whims of fancy. My life had become routine, and I was caught in a cycle of self-defeating thoughts. I had been swept along by the current of events and happenstance, and my life, at times, seemed like an endless stream of disappointments and resentments. Life was passing me by, and I definitely wasn’t living on purpose.

Over the last year, I have been trying to be more present in my life, and this idea of living on purpose sits so perfectly with where I am on my journey. Living on purpose is about living consciously and with attention and intention - attention to the present moment and the intention that I will stay fully aligned with my purpose and my joy.

In the past I felt like I was not living the life that I wanted to live. I kept waiting for the right time and the right circumstances, but that’s not living. I have made a conscious decision to live the life that I want to live, right now in this very moment instead of allowing life to pass by. I am a firm believer that we create the world in our own image, and the universe returns to us that which we put out into it. If we are filled with anger, frustration, and resentment and allow that negativity to flow out into the world, our world will be an angry, frustrating, and resent-filled place. If we stay fixed on the present and fill ourselves with joy, love, and purpose, we can allow that positivity to flow freely into the world. Our world then will be a joyful, loving, purpose-filled place.

I am working on staying present and aligned with my purpose.

Text and Layers


Writing is a big part of my journaling practice, and I write to record my thoughts, to work out ideas, and to reflect on life and art. But it's not always important that the writing stays legible. Actually, using the writing as a visual device and more like an artistic technique is a great way to get pages started. I wanted to share some ways I have been building layers with text.

I began a two-page spread by writing with a water-soluble graphite pencil and filling both pages. I washed over the graphite with clean water allowing the pencil to spread. 


After a few days, I highlighted some of the words with metallic, black, red, and yellow ink. The ink creates a lot of contrast with the surrounding page. Dave and I call these operative words.


I wanted to give the spread a bit more texture, and turned the book and wrote with black ink. The crisscrossing text helps to obscure some of the writing and creates a more even feel.


To create more interaction among pages, I cut holes through the pages with a craft knife. I cut through several pages and glued down the rectangle of text.

I haven't done much else to this spread, but I'll keep adding to it. I plan on adding some watercolor paint and collage, and I'm sure that I'll end up using some watercolor pencil as well. I love that I don't know how this spread will turn out. For me making art is always an act of discovery.

I'll post more as it develops.

Purpose



Why am I here? That’s the question that we all struggle to answer during our lifetimes. What is my purpose? That’s another way of putting it, and some people never figure out an answer. They spend their entire lives making a living, accumulating more stuff and more debt and more misery. When we are out of alignment with our purpose, we suffer. When we are in alignment, we flourish. It is a wonderful thing to figure out why we are here and what our purpose is. I think that I am figuring that out for myself.

I love art. I love making art, I love sharing my art, I love talking about art, and I love connecting through my art. And it’s that last part where my purpose lies. Hey, it would be great to sell art and make it as a professional artist, but I have bigger plans. I have a bigger mission in mind. I believe wholeheartedly that I am here on this Earth to help other people connect to their creativity. In my forty-two years of life, I have figured out a thing or two about creativity, and I want to share and inspire.

The thing is the word “creativity” has so much baggage attached to it, and it’s hard for people to really grasp it. Actually, that word scares a lot of people. It’s intimidating, and there are a lot of folks out there who will swear they have no creativity at all. But they are confused and confounded. Creativity is an innate human capacity. It’s our original programming. “If you’re alive, you’re creative,” to quote author Patti Digh.

But throughout history we have cloaked the concept of creativity in romanticized ideas and wrapped it in a veil of mystery and magic. Writers, artists, scientists, and philosophers of the past have written and spoken about creativity in enigmatic ways, but creativity is such a straight forward and simple idea. Ken Robinson says that creativity is about coming up with new ideas that have value, and we are all capable of that. However, fear, doubt, judgement, and misunderstanding all get in the way of seeing our own creativity clearly. Our world extols conformity, so it’s no wonder that so many people don’t believe in their own capacity for creativity. When we are so easily mocked, ridiculed, and chastised by others for our seemingly odd ideas, it takes a strong will to hold onto a unique way of being in the world.

But what if we could put the fear, the doubt, the apprehension, and the judgement out of our minds? What if we could simply be in this moment right here, right now? We would find a moment of endless possibility. No fear, no doubt, no little voice saying we’re doing it wrong. We would find the seed of creativity. Creativity isn’t an art thing, an intelligence thing, a genius thing. It’s a human thing, and when we connect to our creativity, we connect to our humanity on the deepest level.


In our ego driven world that is bent on keeping up appearances and having a fixed identity, it’s difficult to be in the moment. It is my mission to help others connect to the present moment where their authentic voice can be heard in full expression of their innate creativity.