Creative Self-Care Archives - Page 2 of 33

My Completed Collaborative Art Journal

09.11.2018 by Amy Johnson Maricle // 13 Comments

Dear Wonderful Creative You:

Tomorrow I am off for my annual art retreat for the next several days, so I want to leave you brimming with ideas for YOUR creative life. Connection with other artists is one of the most nurturing things I do for my creativity. An art retreat or a workshop is an amazing way to do that, but a less expensive, more sustained way of doing that is to connect with someone and make collaborative art journals.

A Collaborative Art Journal

If you’ve hung around here for a while, you might remember that in early 2016 I started an art journal collaboration with artist Cait Sherwood. We both purchased the same Moleskine accordion journal, worked on it a bit, and then swapped. We continued this process for nearly 2 and a half years, until we finally met up in New York this summer. I’ve shared our progress all along the way. You can see the first marks here, see how the journals evolve and hear about my art fears here, and watch as I open Cait’s creation for the first time here.

This art journal collaboration was a ton of fun, and helped me stretch as an artist. When your style is similar, but also really different, it takes some time and trial and error to put the pieces together. Initially this felt like a challenge. I worried about upsetting her with something I did in the art – doing too much or too little. But as the collaboration continued, we found our groove, and things began to gel.

Cait had been the one to reach out to me on social media and suggest a collaboration. I didn’t know her. Over the last two years we have shared our art and some personal things too. I love the way that art has the power to connect us and make us better. Seeing Cait in person for the first time was such a beautiful way to complete this project. I also had no idea she was so tall! (And yes, I’m a bit short. But hey – not that short!)

So my hope in sharing some of the completed pages here is to inspire you. Cait has an AMAZING eye for color and texture. I love how everything feels so alive in these pages, and how our styles melded. YOU could do this too!

Aren’t these flowers that Cait made so loose and beautiful? They are a wonderful example of the beauty in imperfection.

See how they contrast with my slightly more neat plants, but still relate? This was part of the challenge initially, and then once I figured it out, the fun – going back and forth between these styles and building bridges between what each of us was saying in the art.

I made several of these birds throughout.

Cait made these fanciful cows. We also mimicked each others marks.

I punched holes all throughout this one, and we both took advantage of the different layering options that afforded us.

I love the loose lilies that Cait makes.

Cait introduced fish throughout, which were also a lot of fun to play with.

Inspired yet? What about doing your own art journal collaboration? You might have a friend nearby who is interested, or you might reach out to someone new and make an art penpal like I did. I have to tell you, getting a colorful journal in the mail takes fun mail to a whole new level. I’ve done a few other collaborations with other artists I didn’t know, and it’s always been such a rich experience. Not sure how to start your art journal? This post has tons of great ideas, or you can grab my e-book guide here, or take my intuitive art journaling class for beginners here.

Creatively Yours,

Amy

P.S. Today I was featured on the Self-Care Soother Podcast with Suzanne Falter. We talked about the way I use art journaling to express and transform my feelings. She had some great questions for beginners and I think you’ll really love it. You can listen here.

P.P.S I’ve just added a free workshop for next Friday and I hope you can join me. We are going to build our creative muscles by playing creatively. You can RSVP here: Call Off the Art Police!

The links in this post are affiliate links. This means that at no extra cost to you, if you decide to click on something and purchase, you will support the work of Mindful Art Studio to empower the artist in all of us.

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