The Wonderful Word for this Wednesday is ‘Bloom’

If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m taking a break from creating classes right now.  I’ve come to a point in my creative journey that I need to take some time to just play art without an end in mind.  I need to be able to play art intuitively and find my own voice.

I’ve had a blast this first year of ‘Play Art With Kim’ learning and sharing and playing art with many of you!  And, don’t worry, there WILL BE MORE, but for right now, in a particularly challenging season in our family’s life, I am taking some time just to explore my art horizons, learn from others, and as I said above, find my voice.

Until now, the discovery of my creative side and the joy of sharing that discovery with others (you know, PLAY ART & SPREAD JOY) has sustained my art practice.  Learning how to start a personal business with all that entails has kept my intellect growing and learning at every turn!  Those things won’t change, but something is stirring inside of this virtuoso right now.  I want more.  I want more of myself to go into my art practice.  I want my art to be meaningful, not just pretty.

Essentially, I’m feeling the urge to ‘open my petals and BLOOM’.  I feel as if I’ve been a little bud, my petals tightly layered up inside.  But Spring is in the air and I am feeling the urge to open wide and BLOOM.

Story Time

Recently I participated in an on-line art journaling retreat with Lally Mille.  She guided us through a very intuitive process to make journal spreads.  First you can start by writing a journal entry across both pages, just letting it flow.  As you write, or when you’re done, see what theme emerges from your writing.  Mine was “Open your petals and bloom”.  Next you cover all that writing up with layers of paint, inks, collage, whatever you think helps tell your story that day.  The page at the top of this post is my finished spread from the retreat.

I loved the process so much, I repeated it the next day and the same theme emerged for me:

 

The next page I did emerged with a slightly different theme.  Here’s the spread:

This form of art journaling is truly helping me tap into my voice as I create.   Journal pages are just for play and for exploring yourself as a creator.  You share them only if you want to.  When it is finished, your art journal is your own personal story book.

So, if you feel so inclined, give this process a go.  Journal across an entire page of good paper (like watercolor paper), discover what your theme is, and get creating a picture and a few words to tell your story.  Cover over all of your writing!  I imagine you’ll be thrilled with the result and want to repeat the process often!

Check out Lally Mille’s website to see more amazing inspiration!  She has some fantastic free resources on her site as well.

If you have any specific questions for me, just comment below and I’m happy to answer.

Happy creating ya’ll!

Kimberly Snider, Virtuoso, signing off

Links to all the things here