Pottery, Parks & Art Journaling

It's early in the morning here in Richmond. The sun has just come up. Everyone is sleeping but me. We're having fun visiting with Chris and Kyla. Picked up our "painted pottery" yesterday. The last time we were here we went to "All Fired Up" on Cary Street, downtown - one of those places that have the raw pottery and the paints and when you are done, they fire it and you go back a couple weeks later to pick it up. It's so much fun to see how the colors look on the finished piece! Kyla painted a little pink jewelry box with a peace sign on the top; Chris, a big mug and I did a cute little bowl in colors that will match my kitchen. It is so much fun to do this, I wish we had a place in Milford to do it! Maybe I should take some ceramics classes and learn it from scratch.

I had promised her we would also get a cupcake at Baby Cakes - she likes the chocolate one with chocolate frosting (she is my granddaughter!) and we walked around a bit and window shopped before heading to the park to play. She is growing like a weed! I adore these times with her. She is such a delight.

So, I'm up early, checking out my email, facebook, and "surfing" the net for sites related to "Art Journaling." I sort of discovered this term, searching for other people/info on watercolor journaling and find there are many sites related to this form of expression. I joined one of them called "Art Journaling. It's all good" last week and think it will be a good place to share art, see and be inspired by what others are doing. It's very exciting to see what is being done.

Some of my watercolor journals from Italy - watercolor, pen and ink on Moleskine journals


This type of journaling is different from what I do in that it is more "free form" if you will but the basic idea of the journal being done just for you, a personal expression remains the same. Artists are using everything under the sun to create journal pages that are full of color and imagery - some found art - the ephemera of their lives, anything that tells a story, their own personal story in extremely creative ways and it inspires me to push further, try new things, experiment. I discovered Quinn Creative. She is also a "creativity coach," helping others to bring out their own creative selves. Fascinating. I also found a site called "Daisy Yellow. A vivid life with kids" on art journaling. So much good stuff out there!

I am about to turn a new page. Start a new chapter. Push away from the safe harbor and enter a different world. This coming week I expect to have all my stuff in my new studio. Scott should have finished all the woodwork and trim and there is no excuse now for not setting up shop officially and getting to work. I'll be honest with you, as exciting as it is, it's also pretty scary. No computer to distract me, no TV. Just me and my easel, some paper, pens, brushes and paints. How will I structure my day? What comes next? I'd like to keep a record of how this plays out, what I'm doing, how I'm feeling. And perhaps I'll feel brave enough to share it with whoever is out there reading this. To my artist friends - any advice? suggestions? words of wisdom? I'd love to hear from you. Wish me luck!