In Love with Art Journaling

Hello again. It's been quite a while.... Six months of ups and downs, uncertainties, anxieties, horrendous work stress, personal stress, a sudden (unexpected and utterly tragic) death, friends with serious health concerns.... A lot to cope with, and I, at one point, wasn't coping very well at all. 

Suddenly I became a sponge for every bit of worry and negativity that was affecting the whole wide world. Every time I tried to pull myself through the mire of dread, something always seemed to slap me back down. I was trying to be strong for everybody, but I wasn't strong enough for myself.

Anxiety and depression signs and symptoms seemed overwhelming. I turned to comfort eating. Weight gain added to my feelings of despair. I turned to my GP for help. Apparently I am not the right kind of person to take antidepressants. 

My GP... I am SO glad I ended up with a holistic, mind and body positivity, philosophically inclined doctor. She's fantastic. She won't hand pills out willy nilly. She knows me better than most and for this I am thankful. I am thankful that she reminded me at my lowest ebb about the kind of person I am. I always look for the positive, in everything. Yin and yang, there's always a positive to be found somewhere. She reminded me how proactive I was during my slipped disc injury. She told me hat she looked forward to seeing me in an appointment because I always make her smile. I like to create smiles. I like people to know that they are doing a wonderful job in every small way that they don't even think about. She reminded me of my creativity. She switched on the light for me when everything had seemed so dark. "You will find your path through this. You always do".

A dear friend, suffering debilitating back pain & depression, my co-creation inspirative muse, told me she was going to look into training to become an Art Therapist. Curious, I looked into it. The more I read, the more I thought, this might help me.

This blog, amongst others,  has been responsible for so much new found positivity: 'Art Journaling as a creative process' (http://artjournaling.blogspot.co.uk/p/why-art-journal.html). Thank you so much Kelley Luckett! - I have learnt to let go and not take responsibility for things I have no control over.

 I had a fortnights holiday in July, and I decided to begin an art journal and complete a page every day of my holiday. I can't wait to get my pages up onto Flickr to show you what I have done! Art journaling has released me from months pent up stress and uncertainty I was feeling. The process of creating a page, drawing with some writing, it's really relaxing. I feel a sense of achievement afterwards and I look forward to the next page I will create. I like to draw directly with black ink, decisively, no messing about with pencils and perfecting rubber marks. Any accidents are happy accidents, and the process is one of deep concentration. I almost zone out into my own bubble of relaxation. Presently, I am very fond of the transportability of water colour pencils and Art bars. So, I can throw in some colour and wash it later. My sketchbook and pens are always in my bag nowadays.

Art journaling has come to the fore and reawakened my love of altered book art. I feel quite guilty. Today is Wednesday. Woollee Wednesday. Tonight I am hosting for the knitting and crochet group I created over a year ago. I'm waiting for the Woollee Wednesdays to arrive and I'm blogging about my love of art journals....Not done much crocheting for the past 2 months!

I have '4' art journals on the go at the moment. The first, 'How To Feel Better', is constructed from an altered paint samples booklet, containing the most part of my summer holiday. I'm just finishing it off from photos that I took back then. I have a big A4 artists ring bound sketchbook that I'm filling with paint and collage, with many thanks to the inspiring work of Journal Artista (http://www.iamjournalartista.com/). I have a journal in which I am practicing drawing people and faces skills, and a journal of favourite words, quotes and doodles (I've quite gotten into Zentangle too!). I've also gotten my lovely mum into making an art journal habit, and I've started a regular post card swap with 2 friends.

Some of my previous altered art and mini albums can also be seen on UK Scrappers (http://www.ukscrappers.co.uk/ ), where I am ' Artful Adorner'.