Pen to Paper- Journaling
Beth Forenz Blog, Pen to Paper- Journaling #artjournaling #mixedmediaartjournal
Pen to paper- Journaling
Journaling has pretty much always been a part of my life. There is something very freeing about clearing your head and writing your thoughts down on paper. For me it’s like a cleansing of my mind. Many people call it a brain dump, when you just pour out onto paper all that's going on in your head. For me it's a way of refining my thoughts, realigning them with truth. I don't know about you, but my thoughts get carried away sometimes and that's just a breeding ground for negativity and anxiety. For years when our children were young and we had 5 who were ages 5 and under. I would even journal my prayers. It was sometimes the only way I could complete a thought.
We were having some serious behavior issues with one of our teens and there came a time when I no longer felt safe journaling my innermost thoughts. I tried keeping my journals in a locked box, but what a pain that was! It was at about the same time that I began art journaling. People would constantly ask to see my journals but I found I didn't want them flipping through pages where I had written.
I can't remember where I saw it or who said it, but an artist I was watching, probably on YouTube, suggested writing in your journal and painting over it. This was an amazing and literally life changing revelation for me. I found that I could pour out all the stress, grief, anxiety…whatever emotion that was going on in my head, onto my art journal pages and then paint over them and turn them into something beautiful. When I put words onto paper I found they were less likely to come out of my mouth, which saved me many times!
Sometimes, my writing would be carefully lettered and beautiful, other times wild, filled with emotion and out of control, however, the act of painting over the words was like a balm that soothed my soul. By the time I had finished painting, I was in a different place emotionally, I was calm, at peace, ready to face whatever came next.
Oftentimes, I would then write words of affirmation, inspirational quotes or scripture verses on top of my art, which would cement those positive thought into my mind.
In my mixed media Sketchbook I would use a Sharpie or Micron pen, something waterproof, to do the writing, then use a palette knife to scrape white gesso over the top. I liked how the words underneath were still slightly visible but unreadable. It allowed me to share my artwork without sharing my thoughts. This has honestly been one of the most healing practices I’ve ever encountered and I would highly encourage it!
You do not have to have any artistic training or skills to do this. Anyone can write on paper and scrape paint over the top! None of the products that I use are terribly expensive. As a single income family of 11, I have always had to do things as reasonably priced as possible. I’m not ashamed to say that most of my art has been created with inexpensive bottles of acrylic craft paint because that is what I could afford.
I’m including links for products that I personally use and love because I was at one time new at this and clueless about how to get started. However, I want to make you aware that if you use these links to purchase any of the products, As an Amazon affiliate, I will receive a kickback from Amazon.
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