The above photo is a bit of a spoiler alert for an upcoming journal spread I will be sharing, but I just feel like every art blog post needs to start with colour! So there you go. I am absolutely in love with how these two pages turned out, they make me so happy every time I see them. Which leads me into today’s topic: motivation. Why art journal? What I was just discussing is a big reason that I have fallen so in love so quickly with art journaling. When I am painting on a canvas, often my vision is not executed the way I originally planned. And that almost always bothers me. But with art journalling, it doesn’t. I didn’t really have a plan when I started the above spread, but whatever idea I may have had, this was not it. Yet, that doesn’t bother me. I’m not sure if it’s the cheap paper I’m working on, and the fact that it doesn’t need to be “permanent” (archival, etc.) or the fact that I’m not making this journal for any specific purpose other than to try art journaling. But whatever the case may be, I find it very freeing.

There was something that happened to me when I went to art school for a year in college. I became somewhat chained to the rules. At the time I thought this was probably a good thing. I was learning the do’s and don’t’s of art (and probably picking up on a number of my college professors’ particular bents) and thought that if I stuck within this framework that my art would be professional.. or something. I honestly don’t even know exactly how I got there, other than that I am a rule-follower by nature. The problem with me following the art “rules” all the time was that it didn’t get me anywhere. I was doing the same things over and over and getting the same unsatisfying results. I felt that in order to be a successful and serious artist, I had to be a painter, likely a landscape painter, and if I was especially serious.. in oils. I started with realism, but found it much too time consuming with kids. Then I tried out expressionism. This I enjoyed more, but found that I just was never finding “my style.” And all the while this part of me was so drawn to mixed media. But that didn’t seem like a serious form of art. Why did I want to be a serious artist so bad? I do not know. The best kind of artist is someone truly passionate and in love with what they do, regardless of style or how well they follow the rules [I’m learning this as I go, slowly, sometimes painstakingly].

So that leads me to where I am now. Exploring. Experimenting. Pulling out all the supplies I love or have neglected in my sad pursuit of serious. And I am having FUN. Now fun is not the only criteria in my motivation, however it is definitely helpful. My main motivation in finally, finally trying art journaling is freedom. I am free to experiment, use all the supplies, make a mess, and hopefully at the end of the day find what it is that I want to make over and over every day and share with the world. Now my motivation may change as I go along and discover new things. But that is what is motivating me right now.

If you have been thinking about art journaling, like me, for way too long, I hope this gives you the motivation to try it! And if you have any questions please feel free to drop them in the comments. And most of all, I hope you have FUN!