welcome back to the creative notebook
reviving a little something i used to do 12 years ago, but really never stopped doing at all... filling creative journals.
the creative notebook is back to its old shenanigans.
a dozen years ago, my friend elizabeth and i started a little side biz. “the creative notebook,” we called it, was created to share our love of art journaling with others. we held workshops, sold paper packets, taught people how to stitch together their own journals and what to do to fill them–and talked a lot about why we thought that was so important. well soon enough, as american lives are wont to do, we got too busy to keep up the side hustle.
but since then, i have continued to fill journals. i’m finishing up number 100 right now. i’ve taught college-level art courses that i incorporated art journaling as an important part of the coursework. i’ve gotten officially certified as a journaling coach. i’ve taught a workshop in an almond grove, out in the fields of catalunya, spain, watching a beautiful sunset while we drank spanish wine and nibbled on spanish treats and wow was that ever a dream come true.
and i think, just as important as all of that, i’ve been thinking through this naming of what i do, “art journaling.” through teaching university students, teaching adults in a field in spain, and endless conversations and journal entries, i have been observing how that word “art” makes people think that what i am offering is… not for them. journaling becomes, because of that little three-letter word “art” in front of it, scary and something they aren’t capable of doing… or not interested in.
and to be honest, as many of my pages are just scribbling down thoughts as there are drawings or collages or photos or anything else that would be considered “art.” so why keep using a word that doesn’t always apply, and immediately creates a wall between this gift i have and about 80% of the people that i try to share it with?
and so, i’ve started instead calling it “creative journaling.” that, first of all, feels like a better descriptor for what i do. but it also feels much more approachable, while still having a little growth edge for people: too many of us were taught to think we aren’t creative beings. but we all are. all of us. and all of us can benefit from keeping a little notebook where we spill everything out onto paper, where we play, where we practice beauty, where we just have a blank space to breathe.
and so, full of so many ideas of how i wanted to share the gift of keeping a creative journal with others in a more regular and intentional way, i reached out to elizabeth to get her permission to continue using our instagram page and email. of course that generous soul said yes, and good thing because i have plans. lots of plans of course, because, well, if you know me you know i love concocting big wild beautiful plans.
but one plan is to share—here and on instagram—some things with you:
my own creative journaling practice
information on the hows and whys of keeping a creative journal (even if you insist you are not creative), so you can try it out for yourself
weekly prompts and visual ideas to try, for my paid subscribers here.
of course, handwritten notes will continue to tell you about our adventures here in spain, but the creative notebook will be an important part of what i offer to my readers.
of course, i mentioned big plans, so i’m also looking for my first official one-on-one creative journaling coaching clients, and developing a weekend retreat to host here in l’albi spain, and much more. but let’s start here, yes?
let’s start here. with a notebook, and a pencil or a pen, and maybe we could get wild and use a gluestick to paste little bits of our lives in with our thoughts.
let’s start here, with the creative notebook.
I have a drawer full of misc. fragments and scraps of things from my life that I saved "to make art with some day." This may be the answer I'm looking for. And, Spanish wine is delicious. I'll enjoy some with you from afar.