[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Puppies! 12"x12" mixed media on board"]
[/caption]
I've had blog-writer's block.
My computer is full of photos – paintings, journal pages, even a few of events and such – all cropped and colored and re-sized for posting, yet every time I sit down to write something, I come up short. The words just don't flow. I want to write something valuable, something to teach or inspire, but feel as though I'm moving out on a new adventure, breaking away from the norm, my comfort zone, and, as with all new ventures, my path isn't exactly clear.
A lot has to do with the reading I've been doing lately, on blogging and purpose and content, all of it causing me to reexamine what I'm doing in this space. I still clearly remember the core purpose that got me blogging in the first place: I wanted to create the type of blog I was looking for. One with easy answers, photos, inspiration. Someplace where the jargon and mysteries of complicated, layered journal pages could be magically revealed. When I began visual journaling, I had no art knowledge past abstract watercolor paintings I'd done with my mother when I was very young, sitting at the kitchen table in our small townhouse a town ago.
Heck, back then, I didn't even know what kind of glue to use! That there was a difference between fluid acrylics and heavy-body acrylics. Where to find the cool papers to collage. My first journals were full of cheap, thin paper that warped and crinkled and crackles when I turn the pages. It's the sound of nostalgia. Of beginnings and wanderings and failed experiments.
I think one of the things that is lacking is a clear schedule. Now that I've fallen into a semi-permanent routine re: daily job, I can plan out my time better, which means I can deliver content more reliably. I want to create more videos, not just how-to ones, but me chatting like we're old friends. I want to show my vulnerabilities, my successes and failures. Because I learn from both, and so should you.
I'm not in this to keep things close to the chest, to hide my techniques so I can launch classes and be the only holder of such information. I want so share everything! Journaling and art has opened up my life so much, has shown me things about myself I never knew before, has reconnected me spiritually and socially with the world....
There are so many benefits and I want to give you all a glimmer of this wonderfulness I've discovered, want to help illuminate this path. Every time I hear someone say they can't do art, I want to put my arm around them, pull out some pens and a journal, and laugh at the snouces (I've done this before, with a colorblind and “not artistic” friend, while sitting in the cool shade in Grant Park, in Chicago; we drew and scribbled and created something out of nothing for the joy of it. Thus, snouces, a cross between a snake and a mouse).
So here's what I'm proposing. I'm going to post a video of some kind a week, technology-willing. I'm going to post a lesson of something I've learned once a week. I'm going to post journal pages two days a week, with small posts giving simple instructions. I'm going to link to other inspiring sites and stories once a week. That's five posts a week. And I'm going to do my best to stick to this. Look out for changes coming to the blog in the upcoming weeks, changes to me, to everything.
Friday will be my first video post of this new schedule – the final part of the video series I've been posting. I know the quality's not the best, but I've got all the right stuff, now, so future videos will be much better. Weekends, I'm taking off to gather content for the upcoming week (and to work!). And Monday will mark the beginning of a new A Girl and Her Journal.
[/caption]
I've had blog-writer's block.
My computer is full of photos – paintings, journal pages, even a few of events and such – all cropped and colored and re-sized for posting, yet every time I sit down to write something, I come up short. The words just don't flow. I want to write something valuable, something to teach or inspire, but feel as though I'm moving out on a new adventure, breaking away from the norm, my comfort zone, and, as with all new ventures, my path isn't exactly clear.
A lot has to do with the reading I've been doing lately, on blogging and purpose and content, all of it causing me to reexamine what I'm doing in this space. I still clearly remember the core purpose that got me blogging in the first place: I wanted to create the type of blog I was looking for. One with easy answers, photos, inspiration. Someplace where the jargon and mysteries of complicated, layered journal pages could be magically revealed. When I began visual journaling, I had no art knowledge past abstract watercolor paintings I'd done with my mother when I was very young, sitting at the kitchen table in our small townhouse a town ago.
Heck, back then, I didn't even know what kind of glue to use! That there was a difference between fluid acrylics and heavy-body acrylics. Where to find the cool papers to collage. My first journals were full of cheap, thin paper that warped and crinkled and crackles when I turn the pages. It's the sound of nostalgia. Of beginnings and wanderings and failed experiments.
I think one of the things that is lacking is a clear schedule. Now that I've fallen into a semi-permanent routine re: daily job, I can plan out my time better, which means I can deliver content more reliably. I want to create more videos, not just how-to ones, but me chatting like we're old friends. I want to show my vulnerabilities, my successes and failures. Because I learn from both, and so should you.
I'm not in this to keep things close to the chest, to hide my techniques so I can launch classes and be the only holder of such information. I want so share everything! Journaling and art has opened up my life so much, has shown me things about myself I never knew before, has reconnected me spiritually and socially with the world....
There are so many benefits and I want to give you all a glimmer of this wonderfulness I've discovered, want to help illuminate this path. Every time I hear someone say they can't do art, I want to put my arm around them, pull out some pens and a journal, and laugh at the snouces (I've done this before, with a colorblind and “not artistic” friend, while sitting in the cool shade in Grant Park, in Chicago; we drew and scribbled and created something out of nothing for the joy of it. Thus, snouces, a cross between a snake and a mouse).
So here's what I'm proposing. I'm going to post a video of some kind a week, technology-willing. I'm going to post a lesson of something I've learned once a week. I'm going to post journal pages two days a week, with small posts giving simple instructions. I'm going to link to other inspiring sites and stories once a week. That's five posts a week. And I'm going to do my best to stick to this. Look out for changes coming to the blog in the upcoming weeks, changes to me, to everything.
Friday will be my first video post of this new schedule – the final part of the video series I've been posting. I know the quality's not the best, but I've got all the right stuff, now, so future videos will be much better. Weekends, I'm taking off to gather content for the upcoming week (and to work!). And Monday will mark the beginning of a new A Girl and Her Journal.