Mindful Art Studio - Art journaling and mindful creation from the heart

Intuitive Art Journaling

07.06.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 10 Comments

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Intuitive art journaling is one of my favorite ways to work through feelings, let go of stress, and play with art. It’s a journey that started for me in graduate school, as I learned to use my journal not just to write, but to process my feelings through a combination of words and images. I find that I can breathe again after I get things out when I’m stressed or confused. There’s often a sense of adventure when I’m open to the mystery of what can unfold on the page instead of trying to manufacture and control the images. For me working intuitively is like a mindful prayer. It’s contemplative. It’s present. And for those reasons it’s both grounding and inspirational.

In today’s video, I’ll show you how one intuitive art journaling page unfolded. You’ll see how I combine writing about my feelings with an open-ended painting process. Sometimes it’s important to just focus on something simple, like color; that was my focus with this page.

5 Tips for Making an Intuitive Art Journal Page

Start by writing about your feelings.
Cover your writing with a color that feels good to you. Dry your paint.
Make shapes in a contrasting color, and let them vary a bit in tone and size.
Collage with scraps or tiny pieces of your own art.
Stand back frequently to see what your work might want or need and follow your instincts, even if the idea seems “weird,” those are usually the best!

Fluid Art Journaling Supplies:

High flow acrylic paints

Strathmore Watercolor Art Journal

Strathmore mixed media board, cut to 2 inch squares

Art brushes

Water

Paint rag/ paper towels

Parchment paper or wax paper for protecting other pages from paint run off

Intuitive Art Journaling with High Flow Paints

If you are looking for more guidance on how to use high flow acrylic paints in an intuitive, playful way in your journal, Fluid Art can help you find artistic joy with these playful, addictive paints. Learn more about Fluid Art here.

I’d love to know how your intuitive process unfolds in your journal. Will you share about it in the comments?

Creatively Yours,

Amy

*The links in this post are affiliate links. That means that if you choose to click a link and purchase something, at no extra cost to you, you’ll support the work of Mindful Art Studio to empower the artist in all of us. Thank you!

*Mindful Art Studio and Amy Maricle provide information on using art and art journaling for personal enrichment. This is not art therapy. To learn more about art therapy, and find an art therapist in your area who can help you with mental health concerns by working through art, visit: https://arttherapy.org

Even If You Think You’re Not Creative

06.29.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 4 Comments

if you think you're not creative

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Our creative lives are made up of lots of little acts of creativity – the way you arrange the flowers, the card you made for your mother, the silly poem you wrote with your nephew, or the art journal page you worked on while waiting to pick up your daughter. Your time spent reading this post about art is creative. It’s all a part of your creative life, and whether you own it or deny it, you are an innately creative human being.

I’ve got a great little exercise I’d like to share with you, it comes from my new class, The Small Creative Acts E-course. Take out your journal or a sheet of paper and when you get to the questions, pause the video to give yourself at least 5 – 10 minutes to write about your answers. Really let your mind wander. I’d love to hear about what you discover in the comments.

What did you discover? Who are the makers in your family? When I did this exercise, I was astounded to realize how many makers there are. And now looking at the family I’ve created for myself with my husband, it is FULL of makers. Frequently at Christmas, I’m thrilled to notice that we exchange so many handmade items: bread, candles, cutting boards, scarves, and tiny paintings. There are makers in your family, you just need to take some time to look. Think about the immense creativity of things like being a good story teller, creating technology that makes our lives easier, and putting together a delicious meal with whatever you find in the cupboard.

If you want to start really living your creative life, I’ve created The Small Creative Acts E-course to help you do it. With 1-hour 15 minutes of video instruction and a 22-page workbook, I’ll help you to appreciate your creativity, visualize your creative dreams, and make more art. You can get playful and creative with your art supplies in ways you never thought you would, and commit to your art practice. You’ll have lifetime access to class material and your private FB group.

I would love to have you in class! You can register here right now.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

Facing the Empty Space: Practicing Mindfulness Through Art

06.20.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // Leave a Comment

Dear Wonderful, Creative You:

Since last fall, I’ve been participating in a practice called authentic movement. It’s a movement-based mindfulness practice and active imagination process. I’ve been inspired by all of the parallels between the movement practice, and my art practice, and I wanted to share with you about one of them today.

Just so you understand, I’ll give you the basic layout. We practice in a light-filled renovated barn – a big open space. There is a facilitator who is the witness, and there are movers. Each of the participants moves with her eyes closed for about 45 minutes. The idea is to tune into what your body wants to do, and to follow the impulse as closely as you can. So if your hand wants to make a fist, you do that. If your feet enjoy sliding on the wood floors, do that. (I do that often.) But it’s not a planned movement or a performance of any kind. It’s about being mindfully, non-judgmentally present to your body and what it wants and needs in the moment.

When the movement is over, the witness reflects back something she saw and what it made her feel and experience. Her job is to help you feel that you were non-judgmentally seen, not interpreted. It’s a very beautiful practice, and I find it more accessible than regular meditation practice. There’s something really powerful about being seen non-judgmentally, both by yourself and by another.

Before we begin, we stand at the periphery of the room and make eye contact to honor each other, and then we do something interesting – we look at the open space to honor it too. We do this again at the end. At first I wasn’t quite sure what this meant, but recently, my teacher offered a little nugget of wisdom that really struck me. She said:

“In the beginning, there is nothing. In the end, there is nothing.”

It’s the same with art. In the beginning, there is nothing, and in the end, there is nothing once again. You begin a piece in the empty space, fill it with your marks, complete it, put it away, and return to the emptiness. We face the possibility, the curiosity, and the anxiety of not knowing.

So much of what scares us about art practice stems from facing this empty space. So much of what excites us about the art process stems from the emptiness too. What helps me to face the possibilities and the anxieties is knowing that I am not alone. I face the unknown in community.

Fluid Art Workshop:

We’ve been talking a lot in my Diving Deep class about how important community is in building our courage as artists. I want to help you build your art courage too. I’m inviting you to a free workshop tomorrow, Thursday, June 21st at 12pm EST. There’s still time to register, and you’ll get an amazing PDF with all the goodies from the workshop. There’ll be a 48-hour replay as well. I’m thrilled to tell you that I’ll be announcing an AMAZING freebie at the end, so stick around for that. Click here to register now.

Creatively Yours,

Amy