Thoughts on joining an Online Art Journaling Group
Here's a page with closed flap of my Documented Life Journal
Currently I am participating in two online art journaling groups. The Documented Life Project and Identity: A Study in Ephesians. I have been posting about them, and will continue for a bit, back and forth. If you haven't ever been a part of an online art journaling group, I thought it might be helpful to know why people do it and how they decide which ones to join.
Some of the benefits of being in an online art journaling group are:
Connecting with a community of likeminded people.
Inspiration from other participants
Opening up of one's imagination to new ways of looking at things and doing things.
It's fun to see all the different interpretations of a prompt or technique.
A defined focus that creates a loose sense of accountability
Being able to share your artwork and get encouraging feedback
At the end, there is a finished journal :0)
I am not much of a rule person, mostly some guidelines and even more outside the box freedom, especially regarding art and journaling. But there a few rules I hold myself to when joining an online Art Journaling group. If the spirit of the group does not agree with these, I don't join. Art journaling should be fun, fresh, and encourage the journey I am on and/or want to be on. So here are the rules I set for myself when joining, or considering joining, an online art journaling group:
Before joining I ask myself:
Does the spirit of group feel comfortable to me? Are these "my people"? Does it feel "safe"?
Does how the group approach art journaling inspire me and work with my schedule and lifestyle?
Am I interested in the content?
Once I join here are my two rules:
DO NOT "Should" on myself. If I start thinking, "Oh I should do..." or "I need to catch up," I stop and ask myself why I am feeling that way. Then I consciously take the pressure off and do something else until I can come back to it without the pressure "to do"
NO COMPARISON ALLOWED. It robs the joy and any focus on creative possibilities.
Below is the open spread of the closed flap shown in the image above. The prompt that inspired the silhouette part of it is: be inspired by one of the artists from one of your boards on Pinterest, giving the artist credit for the inspiration (of course). I use a lot of silhouettes in my work so I'm always noticing them. I admire the figurative work of
. Her inspirational image is shown below the journal page with a link to her site.
Inspired by:
No Boundries
by Jeanne Bessette.
Actually, another prompt was also fulfilled with the page - repeating a shape and adding color. So, since I started a bit late, I feel good I got a two for one deal. Not that I am thinking I "should" do all the prompts. After all, that is not allowed :)
I like how when the flap is open, the pages preceding it show it to the right. For me, I made it my own by the message of us all being connected. It was important to me that the figures were touching each other to make that point. Then with the word "connected" I am reminded that throughout our days we really are connected to one another and make a difference in each other's lives.