Journal 52-A Special Place

This week, I decided to totally abandon my comfort zone.  Instead of a digital image, I played with watercolors.  I tried my best to ignore my inner critic.  It said, "You don't know how to paint."  I felt like a child again, which is a good thing and a bad thing.  It's good because tapping into my inner child is healthy, in my opinion.  It's bad because my adult self doesn't want to make art that looks like a third grader made it.  I have friends who are awesome painters.  My ego just wants me to pick up a brush and paint like them. 

My child self won out.   I actually had fun, even though I had to have a conversation with the critical voice throughout the entire process.  I certainly know how my students felt back when I taught elementary school.  They would get frustrated and tear up their art.  I tried to nurture their artistic sides by saying that messing up is okay.  It's not necessary to throw away our attempts when they don't please us.  I'm proud to say that I didn't throw anything away.  I kept at it until I decided it was time to stop.  The hardest part was scanning it in two pieces.  You can probably see the fuzzy line where I hastily repaired it.

I believe that art journals are works in progress.  You can't get them wrong, no matter what.  They're captured moments, visual translations of thoughts, often spontaneous journeys into unfamiliar territory.  I will definitely play with watercolors again.  And if my art looks like a child made it, I guess I can thank Little Lou Anne.  Apparently she lives inside this body too!  You'll probably see more of her in the future.