Being an artist requires a great level of trust. You must trust yourself: that you can stay the course even when you have more questions than answers; that you will continue on, even after making copious amounts of “bad” art; that you will allow yourself the grace to not know your “style”; and trust yourself to dream big dreams and give them the time and water to grow.

You also need to trust the process. I always thought this was an overused artist catch phrase. But the more I make art and realize how much I do not know, the more I realize how important it is to trust the process. Trusting the process means you allow yourself to buy art supplies, spend time and materials, and make loads of art, without knowing where it is exactly that you are going. But trusting that in the ‘making’ (ie. all the time spent creating), is in fact, what is making you an artist. Your failures, your successes, your experiments, your time, your learning, all the things that you do on this journey all become built in to who you are as an artist and the kind of art you feel called to make.

I believe it is important to saturate yourself with songs and images and classes and art that you feel drawn to. When your life itself is inspiring, you will not have to struggle to find inspiration.

The process is a lot like life, and becoming who we were created to be. It requires time, patience, and grit. So it can sometimes stifle the process when aspiring artists feel pressured to produce a product or make a profit. While both of those things can be valuable, I believe what is more valuable is allowing yourself the time and grace to become. And in the becoming, doors open and God has room to work. When we desire to be used of the Lord with our various gifts and talents, He needs us to water the seeds He placed in us; He needs us to steward those gifts.

What do you think? Where are you in your creative process?

As for art journaling, the above spread is from one of my newest mini journals. I have been relentlessly creating these in the morning. I’m not entirely sure why I have been creating these so voraciously, but I’m going with it. The art journal I started when I started this blog has been sadly neglected, but I know it will keep. I happen to be rather fond of the rabbit trails, even if they can be a distraction at times. God usually shows me when I’m getting distracted. I am so drawn to bright rainbow colours lately, which I find a bit humorous when so much of the art I see online is lovely neutrals. I do love neutrals as well, but right now my heart wants all the colours. These pages are a mix of hand stamped papers, gel prints, stenciled texture on deli paper, stickers, sheet music, collage cutoffs, hand made collage papers, scrapbook paper, and old book pages.

Thanks for stopping by!