Funny, I have several blank art journals and a good number of them are empty!

I enjoy buying them. I stand in the art paper aisle contemplating the various art journals available. I compare the paper, the journal size and the way it is constructed. I think about the different art medium I want to use in the journal. I happily buy one or two journals, bring them home, and …. don’t fill them with anything!!! LOL!

LOL! I want to do some sort of art but I really like the beautiful piece of paper and cannot bring myself to begin. What is this strange sickness????

Diana Trout, author of Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression quotes Pablo Picasso “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” WOW!!! That’s it! My creativity – the first word, the first line, heck sometimes even the whole thing – feels so destructive to this perfect, beautiful page.

I’m working on it! I have one journal I’m using for poetry and another I’m filling with artwork. I’m breathing through the angst of destruction!

I was inspired by one of Donna’s ideas but was stymied by that blank page. What to do? As I looked around my room I spotted a magazine slated for the recycling bin. I got it! I could use that as a pile of scratch paper.

It worked GREAT! I used the faces on the page for some sense of proportion, and the fact that the pages were already covered with print and color, and the mag was already going to be junked, gave me a great sense of freedom! I made many, many faces with sharpie marker – trying different weight lines, different shaped features etc etc etc. It wasn’t a big deal if I messed up, I just flipped to a new page and started again. I learned a lot from my practice pages.

I decided to do my final piece with colored pencils instead of sharpies, as I wanted a more muted look. I filled my blank page with words that bring me joy and comfort … and others that were just tangentially related… and then I picked up the grey/black pencil and added the face. I liked it! A bit of color finished it off.

The most unassuming things are often much more than they seem.

Who knew a magazine – ready for the recycling bin – could hold such power?!?!!!