Creative Wanderlust
Unlock Your Artistic Potential Through Mixed-Media Art Journaling Techniques - With 8 sheets of printed papers for journaling and collage
Written by Kasia Avery
Published by Quarry Press
This artist and writer guides us through the pathway of how to Art Journal. To be honest, I think I have myself as an artist always used this method, yet I have never thought about what it was or what it could be titled as. The injection of large partitions of text, covering this as a Self Care form and the concept of the meditation through art connects this book with more of the emotional humanistic context of mending through making. As this is a niche subject of which I myself enjoy perusing and researching, it hit a place on a book shelf I will return to.
Finding the space, the time, the need to quieten the inner voice which describes to us why we will never make the work we will be proud of…this title covers it all. Consideration is given to the word Joy. The book even stocks pages of pattern we can cut out and use to start us off, as many of us may be lacking the inital supplies we feel we need in order to get started. If we are new to this practice, then it might seem scary, so this will help the newbies.
The artist has used the work and insights of others too, to inspire us. Creators who are likeminded to her way of thinking - Helen Colebrook and Amy Maricle are two on offer.
On page 46/47, I loved the Creative Rituals ideas - it is not all about making art on paper visually, it can be the happy environment of our mind and surroundings too which helps us inside. Make a tea, turning off devices (that is an ongoing lesson I totally need to put into practice), taking five deep stomach induced breaths….I will let you read over the rest!
One little note is the books format. These more neiche individual publishers have a lively way of making more artistic looking books. It is soft back but it is set out beautifully. The font is normal, expected, however some pages have little ‘tip’ highlights - for example on this page on rituals there is a suggestion to pace our own self care lists - not to create a new ritual which is too big to achieve. We can gain more confidence by making smaller goals and then being happy when we manage to tackle them.