Let me tell you: when you commit to a daily art practice, you go through some emotional upheaval.

Working on art every day pulls more out of me, since instead of working on one painting or journal spread a week, I’m doing several. This means generating more ideas and trying to figure out what I want to create…what imagery do I want to paint? How do I want to draw my girls? Are there landscapes hiding behind them? What shapes and patterns am I drawn to?

And these lead to the deeper questions, because they are the ones that fuel the art. How do you figure out what goes in the background of a painting without diving into the well of your own Self? It’s the only way to find that which you want to express, the subject matter you are willing to commit hours and hours of time with, drawing and refining and staring at again and again.

I’ve never blurred the writing on a journal page before. I’ve held spreads back, but never hidden the words. I’m doing this so I can continue to be raw and honest in my journal without having the thought of what if I want to share this spread running through my head.

It is simply a personal revelation about issues I was dealing with in high school that, honestly, I’d forgotten about until I was working through a simple little pet peeve of mine. The words appearing on the page were eye-opening, a true revelation that shed light on interpersonal relationships for the past, well, a long time!

Be brave enough to take the plunge (hence the girl on the left-hand page, jumping off a cliffside into the deep blue ocean) and risk going too far! It can bring great comfort and wisdom into your life!