I'm art-journalling again!

Just before New Year I was thinking about How I'm Doing, as I often do at that time of year. I become open to Change and Difference. One thing that I really missed in my life was art journalling. It was like a spiral growing out of my core - I art journal when I feel good, and doing it makes me feel good, so it's like a positive feedback loop that keeps on making me feel better. I hadn't done anything artful in such a long time, it made me sad. I won't go into the reasons why I stopped today. I want to talk about how I started again.

I had all this in the back of my mind when I was reading my favourite blogs one day. I saw that Journal Girl was hosting a year-long e-course, Creative Warriors. A year-long journey to document your health and happiness. It sounded perfect! Not only would it be a gentle pathway to get back into art journalling again, but in a space with like-minded people. People who may not have time to create regularly due to illness or lack of energy. People who may not have a studio and may not be able to work with paints at every session. Me, basically! So I went ahead and spent my Christmas money on it.

One of my first pages was to write the Creative Toolbox list.
(I blurred most of them - I'm not giving it all away!)
One of the concepts that really drew me to the course was that of Couch Art. I don't have a studio, and my hobby room is filled up with other stuff. I don't have a space dedicated to making art. Couch Art says that you can make art wherever you happen to be, with whatever materials you happen to have (wet paint or not), and it's real art! This, finally, was the permission I needed to go for it! I had fun picking out some of my long-neglected supplies and putting them in a Couch Box. I thought that having just a small array of materials to choose from would feel restrictive, but it was actually freeing. Not having to make so many decisions. Plus, using the same papers, tapes and colours regularly saw themes and motifs emerge - a style I can call my own.

I tested out my old textas, and glued on a sticky note with brainstorming ideas.
Yup, that's real paint on there!
I haven't actually finished a page yet. My way has always been to work on many pages at once, inching them all towards completion together. Already though, I'm seeing elements that I'm proud of, and motifs that I used to consider part of 'my style'. I guess they still are!

Long, narrow collage pieces form a border around this page.