Intuitive Painting Techniques

Intuitive Painting Techniques

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: The last days of the year are a time for most of us to take a deep breath and sink deeply into the couch after the holiday craziness. It’s also a great time to do some introspective art. Rather than endlessly scrolling...
Finding Meaning in My Art

Finding Meaning in My Art

Dear Wonderful, Creative You: These are the tools of my self-healing: A board. A painty towel. Varied colors of paint. Water. This is how I am finding meaning in my art: I wet the surface with a wide brush and let my emotions flow with the water. I’m not pushing...
Diving Deep in Your Art Journaling Practice

Diving Deep in Your Art Journaling Practice

Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the most beautiful gifts in my art journaling practice is the ability to transform my feelings on the page, especially by working in stages and layers. Working over time and in layers creates a conversation between me and the art...
Studio Time: Tinkering and Gathering Inspiration

Studio Time: Tinkering and Gathering Inspiration

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: The last six months have been such an amazing time for me artistically. In the inevitable ebb and flow that any artist goes through, I’ve been enjoying a flow like I’ve never experienced before. I thought you might...
How to Make a Little Art Everyday

How to Make a Little Art Everyday

Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I’d like to share a personal story about why I make a little art everyday. My parents both grew up poor. Their families were raised in the depression and so they learned to be resourceful and practical. They both scraped together...
The Inchie Challenge

The Inchie Challenge

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: By now you are probably aware that I am in love with small format art, and perhaps I’ve even managed to give you the bug too. Perhaps, you’ve signed up for my new class, Fluid Art, which teaches how to use high flow...

Creating a Fluid Art Practice

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the things that scares artists of all levels of experience is creative block. It’s something we talk about all the time in our Facebook group, Creative Self-Care, but something that even professional artists confront....
Your Job as an Artist is to Show Up

Your Job as an Artist is to Show Up

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: We have been talking this year about creative goals, and at different intervals, I’ve been checking in with you about mine. I’m happy to report that I’ve been pretty faithful to my goals, and I want to share how....
Work in Layers in Your Art Journal

Work in Layers in Your Art Journal

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: One of the issues I hear most frequently from art journaling students is that they have no idea what to do with their backgrounds. My solution to this problem has always been to make sure journal pages don’t feel too...
Art Journal Flip Through: March 2017

Art Journal Flip Through: March 2017

Dear Wonderful, Creative You: I just love getting a little tour of other people’s journals and sketchbooks, so I thought you like to see an art journal flip through with some of my latest work. I hope that you find some bits of inspiration for your own art...
Art Journaling: Emptying Out, Filling Up

Art Journaling: Emptying Out, Filling Up

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: Art journaling is a vital part of my creative self-care practice and I hope these little videos spur you into creative action too! It’s amazing to me how something that helps empty me out, lower my stress, and understand the...
Studio Tour: Get Organized to Get Inspired

Studio Tour: Get Organized to Get Inspired

Hello Wonderful, Creative You: I’m so excited to share my studio tour with you today! Creating a space for your art making is one of the single most important creative self-care habits I teach students at Mindful Art Studio. Even if you think you have no space...
Finding Artistic Flow

Finding Artistic Flow

Today I’m psyched to be featured as a guest on Cayleegrey.com. If you aren’t already familiar with Caylee, you should be. In addition to being one of the most sweet, sincere, and organized people I know in the world, she is also one of the founders of...
Wanderlust 2017

Wanderlust 2017

  Hello Wonderful, Creative You: I’ve been holding this exciting news for some time now, so it’s time to tell you: I’m honored to be one of the guest teachers for Wanderlust 2017. I hope you’ll join me, because if you are looking for the...
Painting the Blues

Painting the Blues

  The Blues is a musical form that knows a lot about creative self-care. The blues takes a sad, hopeless, dark feeling, and expresses and transforms it through the music with gusto and style. Today we’re going to be painting the blues, and hopefully,...
My Favorite Art Journaling Supplies

My Favorite Art Journaling Supplies

Hello Wonderful, Creative You: It’s always fun to know what art journaling supplies other artists are using, isn’t it? Working with new art journaling supplies gives me such a kick of inspiration. Does it work that way for you too? And if you are new to...
Shared Journal Reveal

Shared Journal Reveal

Hey There Wonderful, Creative You! Today I got my shared journal back from Cait Sherwood and I can’t wait to show you what she’s done! I’ve been taking you along on this journey as much as I can, so I’ve opened this sweet little package on...
This is How I Play in My Art Journal

This is How I Play in My Art Journal

Part of the beauty of art journaling is that its an art form that is interactive – the journal doesn’t come alive until you open the book and turn each page. Including dynamic elements like windows and pop-ups calls you back to the playful books of...
Trusting the Process: A Shared Art Journal Update

Trusting the Process: A Shared Art Journal Update

A few weeks ago, I wrote about my first shared journal experience with Maryland artist, Cait Sherwood. Art journaling is an important part of my creative self-care practice, and collaborating on a journal seemed a wonderful way to keep me going. We each started with a...
How Creative Collaboration Can Lead to Creative Freedom

How Creative Collaboration Can Lead to Creative Freedom

Dear Wonderful, Creative You, Recently, a wonderful artist named Cait Sherwood contacted me. She said she’d seen my Instagram feed and felt that our styles were similar.  When she invited me to make a shared journal, of course I agreed. Cait suggested using an...
Art Journaling Inspiration

Art Journaling Inspiration

  Dear Wonderful, Creative You: It feels important to sometimes just share my art with you. My hope is that you will find art journaling inspiration in seeing another artist’s work. Perhaps you’ll try new techniques or materials. Just looking at some...

Art Journaling Prompts for Gratitude

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. You don’t need to worry about gifts or extraneous obligations, and all the focus is all on family, food, and all the good things happening in your life. In the United States, it’s also the most widely celebrated holiday...
Make a Shared Art Journal with Kids

Make a Shared Art Journal with Kids

Over the last few weeks we have been talking about different ways to use your art journal for self-care. (You can find the posts on Simple Drawing Techniques for Anxiety, The DIY Adult Coloring Book, and 10 ways to make your own art journal by clicking the links.)...