sometimes an ugly art journal page is the best art journal page.
life gets messy and downright ugly at times. using an art journal as a tool for self-discovery, for healing, for growth, means looking at the messy parts and the ugly parts and giving them much needed space to express. our world seems so focused on putting on a good looking mask, of appearing happy or ok or successful or strong or whatever. we are not those things 100% of the time. sometimes we are sad, depressed, lonely, angry, frustrated, or just plain ugly. what do we do with that?
denying any part of us does not make it go away. it shoves it into the shadows where it becomes twisted and scary and can actually burst out at any time. denying parts of us turn us into ticking time bombs.
we have to express the painful parts and the vulnerable parts and the wounded parts.
an art journal is a safe soft space to express those parts.
when i am in a painful place and i take it to my art journal amazing healings come from it. the only necessary ingredient for this is honesty. can i be completely honest in my journal? can i write what i am really thinking, express what i am really feeling?
if a temptation comes up to make it pretty, stop and look at the temptation. what is it really saying?
don’t go there.
we need to take off our masks. we need to go there. we need to be present with all parts of ourselves.
each time we go there we lighten our shadow, we lower the pressure and we give ourselves space the really breathe. each time we move through this, we find there are gifts on the other side.
confused art journal page
here i was “not feeling so hot right now” which is what i wrote at the top. i wrote that and then allowed myself to really move into those feelings and get it al out onto the page. it felt like i went inside, scooped up what was making me feel icky, and put it onto the page where the light could find it and shift it. the last part i did was the middle, where i wrote about love finding a way to shine through it all. once we get this ickier feelings out we do find that love is flowing below them.
crap
here i was completely frustrated and felt like everything i do is absolute crap. this one felt heavy and icky even after i got it out so i left it in my art room for a while as i gave the feelings the space and time to start moving inside me. having this sitting out gave those feelings permission to come up. they have been stuffed down for a while so it did take a little while to get moving again. but they did move and now i look at this and smile because i remember how good it felt to let that feeling go.
i have more ugly art journal pages and i do want to start sharing those more often here. there is so much power in taking off the mask and giving all parts of us a voice.
andrea schroeder creates creativity workshops, downloadable creativity kits and guided meditations to support you in knowing and remembering that you are a creative being and you can create anything. you can do it. let’s make some magic. join in on her free creative journaling workshop now and learn how to use an art journal as a tool for healing, happiness and self-discovery.
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Anrea I agree – a journal can be very good art therapy. Recently I did a dreadful messy page – horrible colours, with a black, jagged, sharp pointy design – ugly stuff! The very next day I had a severe migraine (not that there’s any other kind!). The page was like a premonition of what was to come – interesting!
So true, Andrea. And it is ever so much better to make an ugly journal page and let “the crap” out than hold it in and be paralyzed and cut off from the art itself.
That has happened to me before, and it is truly dreadful. Great stuff – thanks!
This is great Andrea. Well said and very important. I have posted about your article on my blog as I want my students to see it. I have been talking to them about making ‘ugly’ pages.
Great post Andrea, and I agree. I’m sure all artists of all forms make ugly art sometimes. There’s a competition about creating an ugly necklace – I think it’s Art Jewerly Magazine. They say that it’s actually hard to make an ugly necklace because our minds lean towards creating things of beauty .. well, they haven’t looked in my journal
I have not yet managed to gather my courage to post my yucky pages.
Great post Andrea!! I love that your post inspired Zom to propose a little challenge for this first week in December. You both are such Art Journaling Ambassadors of LOVE!!!
Lots of LOVE to you!
No truer words have been courageously spoken…be gentle with your inner self’s journey on the pages of your journal. Some days you are the bug…and some days you are the windshield …sorry but I do think these are Mary Chapin Carpenter’s words from one of her songs. The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time…James Taylor’s words help me when I have a day where the pieces just do not fit. Imagine and Live in Peace, Mary Helen Fernandez Stewart
Visit my blog and see one ugly page I mustered up the courage to post .. another will follow in a few days!
Thanks for this.
Hugs to you.