Art Journaling: Developing Creativity

In January, my honey noticed that I was watching a lot of TV.  Compulsively and the content of which, I feel comfortable sharing he finds disturbing.  Something needed to be done, and being a man of action, A.D. got me off my bum and into the big box craft store.

To this point, I had lamented on my lack of creativity and desire to make art.  Specifically I wanted to paint abstracts. A.D. knew this and took me shopping.  We picked out paints, canvas and the trimmings to get me started and then hit up YouTube for some inspiration.

It worked.  I still have the itch to watch my less-than-desirable shows, but I am more often found working on a painting of some sort. Seeing how much I was getting into this new adventure, my honey even sprung a couple of weeks later for an art journal so that I could practice the techniques without feeling like I was wasting too much. Cue in Journal52.

I found the website Journal52 on a day when I had felt a little blocked and was in a YouTube and Interweb rabbit hole searching for something outside myself.  My creativity exists in a shallow puddle as I have worked for so long in more analytical areas that my brain has seemingly ceased to work in this way.  Journal52 provides thematic inspiration for your art journal and if you sign up for the email, you get a new prompt each week.

I have really enjoyed the art journal process and while I struggle each week to find something to create that fits into the prompt, it is good exercise.  If I can work my lats to make them stronger, why can’t I work my creative muscle?

That is the point of today’s post:  Don’t let the fact that you haven’t done something be the predictor that you can’t do something.  Below you can see my first entry into my art journal…it has a lot of meaning for me, but is clearly not technically awesome.  It is a step, it is an exercise, it is a practice in vulnerability.

So what is your lament?  What is the thing you wish you could do?  What are you going to do about it?

Choose how you will allow vulnerability in your journey.