art equals happy.: 12 ways to get more out of Art Journalling by Corey

Yay! I'm excited to share this with you. I've admired Corey's 'papercuts' for a while now & she has such a good eye for colour & paper combos. I think you'll find this useful, as well as her pages inspiring!

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Hi! My name is Corey Marie. I’m a kinda nerdy illustrator/designer. One of the things that I blog a lot about over at corey marie ♥ com is art journals. I'm an avid art journaler and I also make recycled art journals with mixed media pages and covers from reclaimed vintage books.

I normally talk a lot about art journals, the noun, but today I thought it’d be fun to talk about art journaling, the verb. Ok, technically “art journaling” is a gerund which is still a noun. Regardless, I’d like to talk about the act of art journaling, and yet, here I am going on about parts of speech. (To be fair, I warned you that I was nerdy. ;D)One of the things I love most about art journaling is how great it makes me feel. No matter whether I’m writing, drawing, or just pasting something neat I found into my art journal, it is spiritually fulfilling and really helps me to get in touch with my deeper thoughts and feelings. Art journaling has helped me work through difficult times and also helped me celebrate positive ones.

Here are 12 ways you can make your own art journaling experience a fulfilling one:

1. Make Time for Art Journaling
It’s not always easy to find time (as a wife, mama to a 3-year old, and small business owner, I definitely speak from experience,) but when you really start to think of art journaling as a type of therapy, it’s a little bit easier to “make” time. Try to schedule time in your daily or weekly routine the same way you would for a gym membership or a doctor’s appointment.

2. Separate Yourself from Distractions
When you sit down to spend time with your art journal, do so in a quiet, comfortable place - even if privacy is hard to come by, do what you can to separate yourself from distractions. Get away from your computer, put your phone away and turn off the TV.3. Create the Right Environment
This time should be a time of reflection and relaxation. Your environment must be one where you feel comfortable and creative. You may choose to art journal in a quiet room with a mug of hot tea by your side, or you may find yourself dancing and singing to music while you art journal. Try both! You may find that you create entirely different pages by changing your environment.4. Revisit & Reflect
When I sit down to art journal, the first thing I do is flip through pages I’ve already worked on. This allows me to not just revisit ideas and thoughts that I might have forgotten about, but it also allows me to reflect on them from a new perspective: The person I was when I wrote in my journal six months ago is not the person I am today. You may be surprised at how much different you feel about a subject that you were intensely frustrated or flustered by just a short time ago.

5. Don’t Wait for Inspiration
Artist Chuck Close says it better than I ever could:

"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case."6. Keep it Positive

Avoid putting negative statements and imagery into your art journal. When you revisit and reflect on negativity, no amount of time can turn negative messages into positive ones. When you find yourself in a tough place, fill your art journal with the encouraging messages, instead. The act of writing these positive affirmations will be comforting healing, and when you revisit and reflect on these pages in the future, you will be able to feel positive about the growth you’ve accomplished. You’ll also find yourself revisiting your own encouraging messages when you NEED encouragement -- and they’ll always be there for you.

7. Make it Meaningful to You
Not everyone is a poet or a philosopher. That’s OK. Your art journal pages don’t have to be “deep.” But the more honest you are, and the more open you are to exploring your inner self, the more you’ll get out of art journaling.8. The Meditation of Writing
Both the contemplative act of choosing words to describe our thoughts, and the pen strokes themselves can be a type of meditation. The art of shodō (書道, a type of Japanese caligraphy) is a part of Zen Buddhism. Find a pen, pencil, marker or brush that you enjoy and feel comfortable with. Most of us learn to write as children, and soon after stop thinking about the act of writing. See what happens when you write slowly and watch yourself write. Spend time focusing on the letter forms that make up the words that you write.
9. Try a Mantra
A mantra is a sound, syllable, word, or group of words that is usually repeated over and over. Mantras are used within several Eastern and Western religions as part of spiritual growth. You don’t need to learn about other languages or other religions to use mantras in your art journal. In very frustrating times, a simple mantra can be very effective to help you put things into focus. Try a short sentence such as, “I am ______.”
Once, on a very tough day, I felt the all-too familiar signs of a panic attack. I pulled out my art journal and wrote the words “I am strong.” Then I wrote them again. Then again. After writing these words only three times, my breathing and pulse had already slowed and I felt more in control of the situation. I read them back to myself, repeating the phrase in my head three times. “I am strong. I am strong. I am strong.” and instead of panic, felt an incredible sense of calm. Fill an entire page with your mantra, making sure to spend time repeating it to yourself in your head. Focus on the act of writing and the repetition and rhythm of the words.

10. Take Your Art Journal with You
I bring my art journal with me almost everywhere I go. If inspiration strikes, I am ready. If I am in need of encouragement or direction, I can consult it. When your art journal comes with you everywhere, it becomes almost like a part of you: a literal and figurative extension of your creative self.11. Keep it Private
You may not wish to share your art journal pages. That’s OK. If you are adding to your art journal in a public space and someone gets too nosy, just inform them that “This is a private journal.” and return to what you were doing. No one is entitled to see what you create unless you want to share it with them.

12. Or, Share It
However, if you do feel like sharing all or a portion of your art journal, don’t be afraid to do so! Share it with people you know you can trust, or seek the community of an online art journaling community. It can be very empowering to share personal thoughts, dreams, ambitions and observations. You may find that sharing your art journal will inspire others and start great conversations.

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You can see even more of her beautiful pages here.
or say hi anywhere here:

Blog: http://www.coreymarie.com

Twitter: @coreymarie

Shop: http://www.PAPERCUTShandmade.com

Etsy: http://coreymarie.etsy.com

Thanks Corey! Keep rockin' that blue hair!

Comments

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Thank you for taking the time to post. All really great ideas, and I loved the quote by Chuck Close.

Posted by: Judy | August 25, 2011 at 09:13 AM

Thanks for the fab post, Corey! :) I love art journaling, and will definitely be checking out your blog and etsy shop! I love the tips that you suggested -- especially about using a mantra -- very helpful now that I'm in the stress of searching for a 2nd job. :( My art journals are for me, but I love to share my pps. online and with friends and...-eep- even people I work with...anyway, thanks and your pages are lovely...I love your lettering style/style of typography. :)

Posted by: Shanta Devi | August 25, 2011 at 10:32 PM