Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.

–Pablo Picasso

Art From Within

I flip on the light in my laundry room and settle my iPod into the speaker cradle. I find some music–Imogen Heap’s “Hide and Seek”–and get ready to work. I’m not there to do laundry, however.  There is a workbench on one end of the room with a stainless steel counter. The drawers and cupboards beneath it are filled with acrylic paints, gel medium, pastels and other supplies. Jars of brushes and pens and palette knifes cover one end of the counter. There’s a laundry sink nearby, now stained and splattered with paint. My art space is small and utilitarian, but I love standing in front of that workbench. It’s one of my favorite places to be in my house.

It’s also a place that makes me a little nervous. I’m learning to approach art playfully, without agenda or expectation, to just get lost in the work.  Still, I never really know what I’m going to find along the way, which can be a little unsettling.

Imagery speaks to us in ways that words cannot. This is a good thing. Working with visual imagery gives us access to unspoken, but very powerful, information about what we believe about ourselves and what is possible for us. Art is a way to make visible the stories and thought patterns by which we live. In Art is a Way of Knowing, a book by Pat Allen, an artist and registered art therapist, Allen quotes an art critic named Suzi Gablik:

What we are learning is that for every situation in our lives, there is a thought pattern that both precedes and maintains it. So that our consistent thinking patterns create our experience. By changing our thinking we also change our experience. . . The basic step is to confront what we actually believe.

Making art is a way to confront what we believe, and to make visible the stories and thought patterns by which we live.  Using the basic vocabulary of art–color, imagery, texture, shape–we gain access to what we think, even if we never verbalize it.  If we commit to art making on a consistent basis, however, it can open a wonder-filled world of creative expression, healing, stress-reduction and, at times, transformation. As Pat Allen says, “[a]rt making is a way to explore our imagination and begin to allow it to be more flexible, to learn how to see more options” (Art is a Way of Knowing, p. 4). Art allows us to visualize what we believe to be true, and expands our ability to imagine different options. To me, that’s a pretty good payoff for spending time mucking around with paint.

At least, that’s what I was hoping for as I set to work at my art bench. Rather than set out to create great Art (with a capital “A”), I’m following through on my commitment to set aside time for regular Art Journaling. I want to find out what I know in ways that I haven’t been able to put into words.

Art Journaling

Art journaling is similar to traditional journaling. It is a discipline undertaken on a somewhat regular basis for the purpose of recording thoughts, ideas, and exploring how we feel about any topic. It can refer to everyday experiences and problems, or react to deep, philosophical questions. As art therapist Cathy Malchiodi wrote in The Art Therapy Sourcebook,

While art has been used to record human history, it has also incorporated our ideas, feelings, dreams, and aspirations. Art chronicles and conveys a wide range of emotions, from profound joy to the deepest sorrows, from triumph to trauma. In this sense, art has served as a way of understanding, making sense, and clarfying inner experiences without words.

There is no “right” way to journal with art. You can choose whatever techniques or materials that feel comfortable or inviting to you. Just as some people like to journal by hand in a favorite notebook while others type on a computer, art journaling can happen in watercolor, pencil, crayon, paint or silly putty. You decide what works for you. If you’ve never tried art journaling, however, the following links might help you on your way.

Getting Started

Step-by-Step Project

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