February Finds

I am writing while we are having a late February snowstorm. We are supposed to get a few inches and it’s supposed to snow all day today and tomorrow. March is definitely coming in like a lion!
This month was full of creativity for me. I worked on many magazine collage dolls, and even did a series about how to get started trying magazine collage people yourself! That was so much fun! February is my birthday month, so I took the week off for my birthday and just created as much as I could and wanted to. I am finding that creating is my escape from those moments in time where I am feeling dysregulated and need to just come back to where my feet are. I get consumed by colors, images, glue and paper and I can become mindful and present to what I am doing in that one moment in time. I am not thinking about what someone might think of me after that meeting at work, or where tomorrow’s calendar may lead me. I am just in that moment, in my art room, enjoying the beauty before me.

I also discovered Glue Books this month and have just been obsessed with gluing in my random glue book that I made out of a composition book. It is the most low stakes craft I think I have ever done. The materials are cheap, the process is super chill and easy and the results are fun layouts that are unexpected, funny, pretty, and any combination of those all at once.
I have been thinking about why I am so drawn to glue books and the act of gluebooking (I”m making this a verb although every autocorrect wants it to be a misspelling 😂 ). I think a lot of it has to do with there is no huge mess. I am not getting water and paints everywhere. I am not spraying inks all over my desk and having to contend with plopping my hand in a puddle of barely dried pigment. I don’t have to wash brushes and water jars and clean my desk with cleaner every time I finish. I just cut up magazines and glue them down and try to keep my little cut pieces to a minimum on the floor. But even if the floor gets covered in slivers of paper a vacuum will clean it up pretty fast. Again, the barrier to entry and the overall stakes are very low. Not to mention any of the images I find in magazines that won’t work for my collage dolls, I can put in a gluebook and I get save those pretty pictures to look at in the years to come. My dram is to have a whole collection of glue books that I can display on a shelf and take out to look at every few years, to remind me of my creative journey and where I was compared to where I currently am.
After all, this whole journey is just for me. I am so happy that I can share it with others so that they may find their own journey, but in the end, this is for me and me alone and that is the purpose.

On to March! Let’s see what shenanigans I can get up to this month!

January Recap

January started out very calm and mild. The new year rolled in quietly at Halfass Acres. We got our first snowfall on Jan 2. It was short and sweet and left as quickly as it came in. Then about 10 days later we got hit with an actual blizzard and two days after that a proper winter storm. We ended up with about 14-16″ of snow after it was all said and done. Turning my birdbath into a mushroom. Art is everywhere!

This year I bypassed resolutions in favor of a Word of the Year. Which I set as ‘Intention’. There is a whole video on my YouTube channel about why that word and how it came about. I also started Wanderlust 2024 this year. That has been so much fun! I have been learning more in-depth about Art Journaling and the first 3 lessons were using tools that I had but hadn’t actually gotten around to properly using! So that was a huge bonus! My current Wanderlust pieces are all in my gallery here if you want to see them. I’m not a master artist yet, but for me they are just wonderful.

I also declared a money diet starting January 1. I am going to not buy any new art supplies until April 1 (longer if I can do it, but definitely until April 1). I do have a loophole, my birthday is in February, so my husband asked for a list of gift ideas, and I sent him my current list of Art Supplies I Want But Cannot Buy For Myself, Yet. 😂
The magical thing about putting yourself into a restricted state is that you begin using the resources you have. I have been absolutely thrilled and joyful to use all of my supplies. I don’t find them as precious as I once did and I find myself wanting to touch them and play with them and create beautiful things (even if some of the beautiful things are half ass crafts!).
When I began my art journey (this current iteration anyway) I remember reading a quote about how limiting yourself to a few colors or supplies brings about more creativity. I definitely find that to be very true. Once I told myself all I could use was what was in my art room, my creativity really began to ignite.
The other interesting side effect of going #nobuy is that I am seeing just how much we consume as crafters/artists. I am now more apt to bypass social media posts that are selling me something that is promising to make me more creative. That ends up being a LOT of posts and now that I notice that I see just how many ads are in front of my eyes each day. This makes me start wondering about the consuming nature of art. We need supplies to create from, but are we just replacing creativity with shopping? Do you find yourself collecting art supplies more than using them?
During the first few weeks of my money diet, I found myself wanting to browse art supplies online, and making a list of things I wanted to buy, when I could buy things again. But after a while I realized that the (low-key) anxiety that I would get about creating would lead me to browsing supplies instead. It was like I didn’t truly believe I could create something so I was doing an activity that was CLOSE to what I wanted to do (look at art supplies to create WITH) but not the actual thing I wanted to do (CREATE!). Once I became aware of that I realized that I have everything I need to create, I just have to get over the initial hurdle of getting started. Once I did that, ideas and creativity started flowing! If this is the first month of 3 months of no buying art supplies, wonder what will come from month 2!?

Creative Thought Exercise
Do you find yourself buying or browsing art supplies more than using them?
What if you couldn’t buy any more art supplies?
What would you create?
What if you had to use your art supplies up or they would simply disappear?
What would you make with them so as to not lose them?
Can you go create that this week? 🤔

Hello World!

I am going to try and blog once a month, at the end of each month. I want to recap my month and how I did and what I learned or thoughts I’ve been having with my creative journey. Maybe you’ll follow along on your own journey and we can learn from each other! Cheers!