Enjoy the Unknown When Creating

A few weeks ago, I stumbled on ning.com and a group called "A Year in the Life of an Art Journal."  I looked around and was amazed at what I discovered...a great group of inspiring people discussing, creating, and posting their art journal pages. 

Every month members are given an art journaling prompt to complete.  Sometimes it is a thought to expand upon, other times the prompt is as simple as a word to think about.  February's one-word prompt had me thinking immediately... 

"UNKNOWN"

To an artist, the unknown is what we live for as we sit down to create.  Sure, we flesh out the the ideas/concepts, pick out the colors, and select the mediums to use...

but do we really know what will be the end product of our creations?

That's where our muses come in.  They whisper in our ears.  They inspire.  They make us excited and help us bring our ideas from the depths of our minds and out through our pens, drawing pencils, and paintbrushes.  Face it and let yourself go!  For  creative folks, it's all about the unknown. 

“Who knows where inspiration comes from. Perhaps it arises from desperation. Perhaps it comes from the flukes of the universe, the kindness of the muses.”
~Amy Tan


Visit A Year in the Life of an Art Journal


Materials Used: acrylics, gesso, modpodge, magazine clippings, various pens (brand: Le Pen), alphabet stamps, paint brushes, scrapbook paper, saved-up fortune cookie fortunes.

Fleur de Trois

"Beauty, to me, is about being comfortable in your own skin. That or a kick-ass red lipstick."

~Gwyneth Paltrow

There's nothing like sitting down and letting it all out on paper.  That's what I allowed myself to do last week.  I turned on my iPod, opened up my home-made journal, picked out a few acrylic paints, gathered a few pens and colored pencils, and sorted through the pile of magazine clippings that I've been collecting.  I let my music take over and quickly forgot all about time.  How did it feel?  It was amazing (and the first real time I've used my craft table since moving to my new apartment last August)!   

Before I started anything, I used a brush and primed my blank pages of my funky homemade journal with Gesso. And although you can't tell from the picture below, I used a sponge stamp for the large fleur de lis on each page, so there is a bit of tack and texture to those areas of the paper.   

Shades of green and a bright red were my choices of colors, and I went crazy and got my fingers and hands all messy.  On the left side, I wanted to mainly collage and play with mixing the beautiful greens.  Adding the bright red color was actually a pleasant after-thought once I glued down the magazine clipping of the lipstick/hand/and number 3.  I used a red acrylic paint on a rubber stamp for the fleur de lis in the upper left-hand corner.  Below is a picture of the left page of my journal.

On the right page of my journal...I wanted to write...write...write.  So I let my iPod take me away and Dido and Nine Inch Nails also helped me purge what I felt about the images I selected.  The fleur de lis turned out great on this page.  If you look close, you might be able to see the tack behind the use of gesso on this side better.  I outlined the fleur with red acrylic paint and used a red marker to journal my thoughts.  I also used a red colored pencil to do some shading on this page.

Yes, it felt great!  As you can see, I love to spread out and just let loose!  And the use of my great new Ott Lite helped me see what I was working on without straining my eyes.  I also worked on the backgrounds for a few ATC Trading cards.  I hope to tackle those in my next upcoming project...stay tuned!  Happy creating!

If you enjoyed this blog post, you might enjoy this post:

My Homemade Journal - Learn how to make your own very own homemade journal with just a few supplies.  I learned how to make this journal with the help of of a very crafty artist/blogger named Samantha Kira.  I think I made this one for under $5.  Visit my post to see my finished product and to watch Samantha Kira's step-by-step You Tube video.  You may already have some of the supplies at home!

Inspiration

For months I've been itching to get back to my blog and everything that falls under that creative umbrella that is missing in my life right now. (i.e. mixed media art, water coloring, journaling/writing, scrapbooking, & etc.) After all, I'm a firm believer that creative people need an outlet, a way to express themselves. For someone who has kept a steady journal since the age of 5, I've found over the years that I need to express myself. When I stop creating, I feel it; I yearn for it, and eventually I become blocked and wish for it to happen. Silly? Yes, it is!

2009 was a very busy year for me, a year where I rediscovered myself, and I grew up quite a bit on the road and in the air with my job as a Junior Business Analyst. Spending a total of 184 nights in a hotel since October of 2008 in larger cities such as Oklahoma City and Little Rock will do that to a girl from a much smaller city. During this time I'm continuing to hone my Technical Writing skills, but there's nothing like leaving the methods behind and being spontaneous. This is what I've missed while becoming a grown-up with a career, and now that I've had a break from the constant travel and insane workloads (for now), I realize that I need to create. I need to write for fun. And the yearning and need for me to share this with others is still present. So, one of my New Year's resolutions is to work on expressing myself. I'm hoping that 2010 will see me get back to writing (for the fun of it), creating, and sharing things about myself as a writer/blogger/artist/traveler!

With that said, starting today there are no more excuses for leaving my watercolors untouched, my blog un-updated, and my journal blank. It's time to pick up my paint brush, to get to my keyboard, and to have a pen handy at all times.

For all those artists/writers/bloggers out there that feel blocked. Just get down to business and be creative! Don't worry about what others might think. Don't worry if you mess up. Just have fun! And if you're like me, it will just make you feel much better!

"Over-preparation is the foe of inspiration."
~Napoleon Bonaparte