Art Schmart For The Heart

Second Journal Entry

Life is ultimately one big blur. There are too few hours in the day, many of which are spent doing the things you HAVE to get done, rather than the things you LIKE to do. Beginning online summer courses and a new job this month has been bittersweet. For all of the obvious reasons I feel unnecessary to repeat. Despite this, I am doing my best to stay on top of the things I really enjoy---maybe just in a slightly different way. Writing is one of my favorite things to do (well, reading too)...but since I haven't had much time to get online to the blog each time, I've picked up my good old loyal moleskine journal. Sometimes I can't imagine life without technology, I am sure very few of us really could. But in reality, I sure have missed writing the old school way---with some paper and a pencil. Sure, I did miss hitting DELETE on my keyboard since I make A LOT of mistakes and revisions. This led me to realize I should be proud of those eraser marks and smears and scratch outs---creativity is MESSY and imperfect oftentimes. With this said, last week I decided to make a mixed media collage journal--what a mouthful, to me its just my big black book. And despite being an OCD perfectionist, I've really enjoyed it. Honestly, it's been rather liberating to cut little scraps of paper and hear that delightful crunch after deciding it was 'no good' and crumpling it up. Slowly but surely piles of paper start growing into snow covered mountains and I realize how wastefully inspiring it was. My favorite part was water color painting--as a kid I would empty and refill my cup of water every color change...it was exhausting. But now I was no longer required to have arts and crafts in my daily activities, and I could pick and choose what I liked. Turns out I DO like water color, and cutting paper, and drawing, and writing--and I LOVE it the messy way. In fact, when putting it all together, I find it super amusing and efficient to use good old bottled Elmer's Glue (glue sticks are for pansies, no offense). Because when it comes down to it, admiring my 'unique art' (I really couldn't color within the lines even if I wanted to) just wouldn't be the same if I didn't have dried icky sticky ooey gooey glue to wash from my hands. And while I dust off all the eraser droppings and add the finishing touches, I am already thinking of what the next page will contain. And then I remember I have to study, so I close the book, put away my water colors and stickers and scissors, and oh dear even the spray paint...but I leave the glitter out on my desk---it's pretty, shiny, and oh so hopeful.