It’s been a long time since I have written blog post. It’s also been a long time since I have worked in my art journal. I guess you could say 2020 was not my year to be creative. It was more of a year of rest for me and I took advantage of that as much as possible amidst the stress of all that was going on outside my four walls. This year, I am still a bit tired but also I finally am finding the urge to create again. When my friend Tina Walker proposed the Cooking with Tina art collab, I jumped at the idea. This one involves Tina choosing an ingredient aka art supply or technique each week and then we add to our art piece. It’s a nice gentle start to art journaling for me. The fun part about this collab is that we have no idea what each week will bring. We could end up with something awesome or we could have a hot mess. The important thing will be that we spent the time to make something.
Tina has been a friend of mine for a long time. She has her own line of stencils with Stencilgirl Products. She did ask for me to use those products in this collab. I do admit to having a large number of their stencils as I am a fan. I just want to be clear that I am not an affiliate with Stencilgirl products at this time and I am not making any money off of this project. If you would like to know more about Tina, check her out over on instagram.
While I would like to say I approached this project with a great bit of seriousness, I honestly still didn’t have my head fully in the game at this point. Somewhere along the line, I had convinced myself I had so much to do ( keeping up house, taking care of others, etc.) that I had not made a time slot for myself. So what you see here is a quick late-night slapping on of gesso to prep for the project to start. I was so mentally tired that I didn’t bother to stage a good photo. Sorry about that but at least you get to see the real mental state that I have been dealing with lately. And that state is just exhaustion. I did muster a bit of creative cheekiness though. Tina said prep with gesso. She didn’t say what color gesso. So half the page got white gesso and the other half black gesso.
Ingredient one called for the use of two different colors of acrylic. Once again, I found myself tired after a long day which meant another cruddy photo. The page is lit by the harsh lamp on my desk and I couldn’t be bothered to adjust it. Ugh! I had chosen to create this project on a sheet of watercolor paper rather than in my art journal. I guess a part of me knew I might not have the full mental capacity to go through with it. Creating in the journal felt permanent. The loose sheet meant I could toss it or tear it up for collage fodder more easily if it ended up being a hot mess. I guess at this point I needed structure. I painted two very clear triangles from each of the colors. I didn’t even paint them well. They sort of just were. Hang in there though, the page starts to change for the better as the collab continues on.
Sometimes we art journal to hash out our emotions. Sometimes it just to create. This project ends up being a bit of both as well as a path back to feeling creative again. Stay tuned to see how it all turns out. Don’t forget to play along too. It takes just a few minutes a day. If this past year has left you as emotionally drained as I have been then I think you will find it helpful. You deserve a little creative time too.