Week 27: Make the Art!

It’s Week 27 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey, and if you missed last week’s prompt, you’ll need to hop back because we need that small art for this week’s small art…

Week 26: Halfway There

If you’re new here, Welcome! If you’d like to know more about what the 52-Week Art Journal Journey is, check out this introductory video, or the 52-Week Art Journal Journey tab. Our first step was to make our journals, and this journey, our own. You can find the first prompt here.

I enjoyed looking back at past small art for last week’s video, and once again playing with watercolor. If you completed the prompt last week, everything has had plenty of time to dry, so let’s get started.

If you’d like to watch the video first, scroll on down…

The first thing we do is NOT pull off our tape. Instead, get out your black Sharpie.

Have fun!

No real rules here, Friends. We’re just drawing fun designs on our fun colors. Follow edges. Breach boundaries. Be organic. Geometric. Doodle. Have fun.

As your paint should have overlapped your tape, your designs should, too.

Have fun with it. Don’t think too much about it. Just enjoy getting lost in the process.

As we go forward on our 52-Week Art Journal Journey, we’re going to be focusing more on incorporating our journaling into our art. Which will also mean more short-form addition of words. Many weeks, like this one, we’ll have the words in our art, and the opportunity to take it further.

Last week we wrote about how this journey is going, what we’re getting out of it, and where we’d like to go as we move forward.

This week let’s write about the thing we’ve made that we’re most proud of, or that gave us the most satisfaction. Or that continues to if it’s something that’s a habit.

My father recently completed a StoryWorth subscription. He wrote about the wood crafts he used to make and sell, and how sometimes the owner of the shop that sold them, would call the house to tell him something had sold before he even got home. And what he was proudest of making was a set of custom kitchen cabinets for the home my cousin was building to live in.

Then there’s the woman whose kids are grown, who finds great satisfaction in preparing meals for her growing family. It goes beyond the food she prepares for when they all gather; it’s the experience, the feelings, the opportunity to bring everyone together and reconnect.

My original 100 Day Project art journal was transformative. You can check it out here. I will always be grateful I chose to participate, and stuck with it, for how it brought me here, and for wherever my arty journey continues because I recognized the importance of making art to my mental and emotional and spiritual health, and made creative self-care a priority.

Maybe you’ve made something big, like a kitchen, or even bigger. Maybe the creative acts you find most fulfilling aren’t making physical pieces of art. Maybe what has given you joy to make seems small, or you haven’t even realized is creative. Where are you creating beauty, peace, calm… transforming chaos into order… shining light… embodying truth… being honest… exercising your skills… giving form to something intangible… building… growing…

Write about it.

Maybe writing is the creative exercise that lights you up…

Adding the words

When your page is as full of funky design as you’d like it, it’s time to peel off the tape.

The words IN today’s art are simple. But meaningful. And a reminder, particularly for those of us who need to make art but won’t consistently take the time.

Three little lines. Three little big words…

MAKE THE ART

Thank you for joining me for another week of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey. If you’d like an extra bit of weekly creative self-care encouragement in your inbox, sign up here. If you haven’t yet, I’d love to have you join me on Facebook or Instagram. If you decide to share any of your small art on Instagram to encourage others to take time for creative self-care, tag me @melindavanry (I’m @melindavanrydesign on Facebook), and use #artjournalwithmelinda. I’d love to see what you’re creating! If you’d like to share, be encouraged, and encourage in a safe supportive community, email subscribers are invited to join the private Art Journal Journey Facebook group.

I appreciate the opportunity to encourage you to reclaim your creativity, and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care. I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt.

In the meantime, doodle and journal this week’s prompt, and click here to catch up on ones you’ve missed, or revisit past favorites!