Art Journaling for Creativity and Self Awareness

Fish Out of Water, Mixed Media, 5.5" x 8.5"

Today was pretty busy with a trip to the dermatologist and several biopsies. It's such a treat to be fair in Florida. After that ordeal, I came home and took a little nap before my art journaling class at Maitland Art Center. I know I don't get out much and my art room is a solitary refuge, but it was almost more than I could take. It turns out the class is sort of an open studio with people coming in and painting, collaging, doing pastel, everything under the sun--a lot going on and a lot of commotion. I'm apparently the only one doing journaling. Before I bolted for the door, I asked the instructor, Kaye Calloway, if it's like this all the time, and she said don't get scared off because it should quiet down after the first class. Even though she was spread thin with so many students, we talked quite a bit about artistic goals, earning a living from art (or not) and even hard to tame inferiority complexes. She seems like a very caring and astute person. I absent-mindedly doodled in a corner of the room on a page I had started in one of my sketch pads while taking in the chaos. Ironically, when I came home and looked at it again, I saw that it had an image of a fish out of water--the same way I felt in the class. Maybe there is something to this journaling thing.

Feeling "crappy"* about your art? *edited by my saner half

If your drive to produce art starts bringing you down, as mine has lately, and you start wondering why you're putting yourself through the turmoil of it all, you must check out this piece I found on the Artistic Failure blog called The Nester.

The main argument in the piece is that since so few artists profit from their art in the "quasi-bourgeois" art scene, we have no obligations to conform to it and should reevaluate our artistic motivations and transform our approach to creativity. The author, Brennan Vance, sums up and suggests that we ask ourselves: "What do we want to get out of life, out of art? How can I use the latter as a means to achieve the former? We should attempt to create from a place where these types of questions guide us, while refusing to indulge an arts scene that is, for lack of better term, shit to begin with." After reading this piece, I'm sure you'll never look at the conundrum of art creation in quite the same way!