Week 45: Colorful Watercolor Frames

Welcome to Week 43 of the 52-Week Art Journal Journey. I’m Melinda, and I’m here to encourage you to reclaim your creativity and establish a healthy habit of creative self-care through my simple form of art journaling, with one small-art and journaling prompt each week for one year. 

If you’re new and curious, click here to watch the video introduction, or choose 52-Week Art Journal Journey from the menu above.

And don’t miss Week 1, where we made our journals, and this journey, our own.

This week we’re creating colorful watercolor tangles inspired by an Instagram reel by Lacey Walker aka Rebel Unicorn Crafts from a series of art inspired in various ways by things around her house. There really is no shortage of art inspiration in the world. Though at times it can seem there isn’t.

This small art was originally inspired by… rubber bands.

If you took a handful of colored rubber bands and tossed them down on the table you’d have an interesting, bendable tangle of color.

I didn’t notice at first how it’s a new variation of watercolor blob…

But these blobs are outlines. And overlapped. With different amounts of colors blending together where they meet. Both times I did this for the video I chose to just let all of my blobby rings run together. You can keep yours from doing so by not crossing any while they’re still wet. Lacey would overlap some, then dry her paper to add another blendy layer. If I’d had time I would have done another like that.

Nora came up with her own takes on the concept, which you can also see in this week’s video. If you’d like to watch that before reading about this week’s journaling prompt, scroll on down…

As I said, if I’d had more time…

I’m struggling to find enough time for everything, more than usual. A few days ago I decided to sign up to sell some art pieces and gifty items I’m making with my mixed media collage and hand-painted papers (magnets, jewelry, keychains…), at an upcoming art/craft/vendor Christmas Bazaar at a local church. I also still want to get an online shop up and running.

And we’re on WEEK 45, for crying out loud! This year is flying past. There aren’t many weeks left to finish the year strong.

I’m not quite where I’d like to be this deep into 2023, and if I don’t take a step back to assess and reprioritize, and get some new plans in place, I’m not going to get close enough to where I’d like to be. And there’s a lot to get done before the Christmas Bazaar… before I open my shop… before the holidays… before the end of the year…

I need to approach things a little differently. I’m again falling victim to tyranny of the urgent. It can feel like all of the stuff has more control over me than I have over all of the stuff.

As we’ve talked about before, some of the stuff is very important. Some of it not so much.

How about you? How are you feeling about where you are this 45th week of the year? Where do you want to be when 2024 rolls around? How would you like to feel?

What things are necessary to accomplish what is most important for you to accomplish? To make you feel good where you are? Not just with what you’ve accomplished, but also the way in which you’ve accomplished it?

Sometimes shortcuts can seem prudent. We can make short-sighted choices so we can feel something good in the moment, but in the long-run are disappointed in ourselves, or we miss out on something better. Sometimes we don’t put in the hard work where we should.

If I want to establish an art business selling my art, providing creative self-care services and running creative self-care workshops, I need to be doing more hard work. That is the reality of it.

Yes, it is vitally important to take time for creative self-care, to take time to just create in a way that is enjoyable, that feeds our souls. But we can never use self-care of any kind as an excuse to let ourselves off the hook where it’s important.

I can’t tell you how to best balance your life to get done the most important things. Or even what your most important things are. But I can tell you to never stop seeking balance.

Some seasons of life are busier. And some are easier.

Wherever you are right now, whatever it is you need to do, or get through. Whatever it is you need to let go of. Journal about where you are, where you’d like to be, and how to best get there.

And, of course, take some time to make some art. It’s not a waste of time.

But, as I’ve said already in this video, I can’t just take more time for it. In this moment. At least not in my art journal.

I am, however, enjoying making so much art. I do make art every day. And not all of it is something that will be marketable, or I will use to encourage you to create art. But I will keep sharing art to encourage you. And I’ll be back next week with another small-art and journaling prompt. In the meantime enjoy watercolor blobby outlines of something sort of like a pile of rubber bands. However you see them, let yourself get lost in the pleasure of creating them. Let your colors blend as much or as little as you’d like.

You can also click here for more inspiration from past prompts.

If you decide to share your Art-Journal-Journey art on Instagram, tag me melindavanry or my new account better.with.art. As I move into more selling of my art, and also doing more to encourage people to practice creative self-care, I thought it would be helpful to separate those two things on Instagram. If you’re not following me at one or the other, click my handles above to visit and follow.

If you’d like a smaller, safe, encouraging place to share, click here to sign up for my emails and to receive an invite to my private Facebook group, Better with Art. Because we are. Better with art. I know I am; I know you are.

I would love to see your creativity. Thank you for the opportunity to encourage you to take time for creative self-care.