The way I understand ‘Play the cards you were dealt’, ‘When life gives you lemons, make lemonade’, or ‘Life happens while you make plans’ is that we are all given a set of circumstances at any present moment and it is up to us to ‘make the most of what we are given.’ Easier said than done, isn’t it? We all know we should ‘turn our obstacles into opportunities’…but who does it well, and all the time? Do you? Look how many exhausted expressions we have come up with to describe what we ‘need to do’. Having said that, I also believe that sometimes the same hindrances actually do nudge us gently to bring some amazing things into being, breathtaking creations into existence and I’m talking about life. Same can be said about art, many limitations can come to play when creating art; critical and unforgiving voices from within, fear, rusty minds, hearts and hands, lack of tools, time, focusing on the end result rather than on the process, the list goes on and on. Sometimes having limitations can produce unexpected processes and outcomes. A rough road may be more inspiring than a smooth one, it may stretch our imagination and make our creative juices spill all over it. It may present a great opportunity to grow. In terms of art journaling, I enjoy being a student, I thrive on the limitations set before me by someone else, it may be the graphic designer in me,  “here is your prompt, your theme, you will now use this material to achieve this next step, you will use only soft natural colors, you will create 7 layers, you will incorporate lettering in your pages,” and so on. That’s when I go beyond my usual self to discover more bits and pieces of me, bits and pieces I have not known before. With this spread I became a student of myself, setting limits…do you know how hard it is for me to work with pink? with ‘cute’ images?…well, ‘I made the best of a bad situation’…hehe.

The definition of ‘doodle’ in the dictionary is ‘scribble absentmindedly’. Doodling is one of the things we do in our journals that are so mind freeing, so much fun…it truly brings out the child in anyone who is willing to let go of their ego. Take a look at this slideshow of my last art journaling class…10 teenagers and 4 adults, all left their minds at the door and got engaged in wild doodlery.

My journal pages seem to be always overflowing with images, textures, colors, lines, and words, sporadically jotted down, scrawled and scribbled in layers upon layers. I am all for mess, don’t like sterile surfaces…I love a good mystery. I am mostly in favor of putting more ‘more’ than less on my pages…not that big on Minimalism. But when I came home from Journalfest with a spiral Journal I made from scratch, out of bits and pieces of recycled papers, wax left over papers from previously done painting, gluing and gesso’ing, tissue and sand papers and used images of mine, I didn’t know what to do with it. Here it was, ready for me to journal on, but I didn’t. You know why? Cause I liked it ‘just the way it is’, Minimalistic in nature, yet full of character and strength. I didn’t need to do anything to it. I like this journal. So I’ve decided to let it be. To honor that book, scanned a few of its pages, and let it speak. I did add this picture of me as a little girl; it has that same quality as the pages of the book have…a simple image recalling a whole world. No need to always use so many words or images, or lines, or too much of anything to say something profound.

I was never much a person who is into organized anything…always private…always favoring individualistic ways over collectiveness…essentially solitary. However, things have shifted for me while attending Journalfest, a 4-night, 3-day art journal retreat at Port Townsend, Washington State. There, in a stunning landscape drenched in autumn colors I found so many wondrous spirits, just like me people who love fussing with scraps of paper, pasting, tearing, painting, doodling, sketching, drawing, attaching, writing, stenciling, stamping, photographing, layering, image transferring, on pages of visual journals…keenly expressing themselves aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall day long, each day, from 9am to 9pm. My kind of people, lovely people, warm and open-minded/ hearted, ready to share journal supplies, thoughts, words, companionship and lots of laughter. People who journal in any given present moment, without dwelling on the outcome…it felt so true…formfitting to the contours and the shapes of me…elating me. In the same time, and that the nature and beauty of art journaling, ones went to the very intimate places of their hearts. Ones had the choice to reveal or conceal, what to make known to fellow journalers. And then there was that awesome quality of art journaling I often talk about…the understanding that a journal is not a book hidden under the mattress for no one to see nor is it a picture in a gallery for everyone to see. It’s somewhere in between…As Danny Gregory beautifully says about an art journal: “This is an art form that must be experienced one on one!…your head bent over the pages, you feel the time pass. You see ideas unfold and deepen, you see risks, mistakes, regrets, thoughts, lessons, dreams, all set down on these pages, for an audience of one.” I so agree with that, I love the intimacy that journals offer us, the tangibility of the ‘book’ and the generosity shown by letting another human being touch it, use their hands and fingers to flip the pages of a book that someone else touched to make. Beautiful. On a more personal note (yeah even more), I enjoyed learning from other art journalers, in workshops and evening journal jams, some of the best learning came from teaching my ‘Attachment Theory’ workshop to a group of unbelievably kind and ready to soak up every bit of inspiration I was ready to give…willing to expose beautiful sensitivities and show vulnerabilities and therefore making it a meaningful 6-hour workshop. From the hosts of the event, the bursting of creative forces and generosities, Teesha and Tracy Moore, I’ve learned many things, mostly of the endless possibilities of turning one’s passion into a deep well of inspiration to many, many others. So many words I spilled over this post, and yet I feel that my words do not encompass the scope of my incredible experience…let’s just say I am filled with gratitude and bliss…

What you see is not always what you get…in fact it’s never what you get…there are always ‘the layers’…the moment unceasingly laying itself upon the past moment…the present day upon yesterday, the words I speak now upon the words I spoke earlier…new events steadily hide old ones…this thought holds sadness for me…as it also yields new opportunities for renewal. Layers on my mind…layers should be on all our minds as we gently remind ourselves of the layers of others…as we create new layers in our life pages…as we go about our day.

Don’t you find yourself sometimes choosing the same colors for your clothes, your home, drawn to the same images, ordering the same dish at a restaurant? I do! So I wanted to see what would happen on my journal pages if I chose the opposite of what my instincts usually tell me and work with different colors, textures, and images. So voila! It still looks like an ‘Orly’ to me…how can that be explained?

What would make me start messing about on two blank pages of a visual journal? How about…hmmm…a new day…looking once again at Robert Rauschenberg’s art or Joseph Beuys’…Anthropology…guests…beads…topography…typography…graphics…funky fonts…print methods…new brush markers…Japanese papers I just bought at Marukai…students…conversations with friends…Youtube art videos…old calendars…yellowing books…gum wrappers…too much work, not knowing where to begin…a new sketchbook…a new anything…vintage textiles…field trips to museums, flee markets, food markets…listening to languages I have not heard in a long time…memories of sand storms…cracked soil…voices saying it is time…red cactus fruit…other people inventiveness…

The list can go on forever…what would make me start messing about on two blank pages of a visual journal is just about every thing.

How about you?

Painter Georgia O’Keeffe once said that nobody could teach her how to paint her landscapes. I can see that. I have ways of understanding this statement. As for me…anyone can teach me how to paint my landscapes. In fact everybody does, always did and always will, even long after they’ve been gone and even when I wasn’t quite paying attention…my mothers and my fathers, my men and my children, teachers and students, friends and strangers and the oh so many in betweens. In fact ‘they’ are an integral part of my landscapes. ‘Their’ topographies, fused with mine, create valleys and mountains, waterfalls, and rich, lush habitats. I am aware of it every day. I am taught how to paint my landscapes by everyone who crosses my path and even for a split second, I am taught by you! Take a look at only a tiny fraction of my present day teachers, a handful of people I’d like you to meet and allow yourself to be taught by them…let them be taught by you.

Dainty Soul Donna                      

Chris Bliss

Celebratory Stephanie

Whimsical Aimee

And last but not least…

Grizzly Cub Brian

(For more ‘painting’ teachers refer to my ‘Creative Types’ list to your right.)

Who teaches you how to paint your landscapes?

I remember a long time ago when I worked as a textile artist. My supervisor often told me: “I want to see newness”.  I remember dreading these words as they meant p r e s s u r e! It did get me going though. My sensorial antennas would perk up and I would immerse myself in the search of the elusive ‘newness’. I was reminded of the word lately in a recent post written by my ‘new’ friend and fellow blogger Chris where she presented some interesting questions about the meaning of creativity to her and even more interesting answers about the meaning of newness. Newness. I love ‘newness’. I love the way it sounds. And I love what it signifies. Freshness of thoughts, feelings, approaches to life and art, attitudes to the moments presented to us at the present time, past, and future. It encompasses everything! It’s inclusive of all people, it doesn’t imply ‘for artists only’. The word creativity is over-used, boring and tired. Let’s let it rest. It is stripped of all newness. Let’s approach creativity with newness….fun-ness.  And so I’ve created this…it’s a cover spread to my instructional ‘introduction to art journaling’ journal…it came about after I heard that in the class I’m going to start teaching this evening there is no black board, chalk board, dry-erase board, or any kind of board I can use for instruction…It was so much fun to make.

So if it doesn’t annoy you by now, what does the word newness mean to you? 

It is while focusing on the grandness and the courage of another that I find my own.