Art journaling: honoring the light + dark

Last Saturday, I attended an amazing art journaling workshop hosted by an online turned real-life friend, DeAnne Williamson.

We met through Liv Lane’s Build A Blog You Love program way back in 2012 and have followed each other’s journeys ever since. She even made a move from California to Minnesota last year. Glad to have her here!

She is an incredible mixed-media artist and has been teaching art journaling for years, but this was her first time teaching in Minnesota.

I didn’t know what to fully expect other than I’d get creative with color and writing, but that was about it. The whole experience went totally above and beyond all my expectations! The whole three hours I kept thinking how I didn’t want it to end…I felt so sparkly and alive! Being creative is something that is definitely a missing puzzle piece to my life. I forgot how much it adds to high spirits!

A big reason I don’t draw, paint, or color often is because I can fall in the self-judgment trap. With DeAnne, she gave me *just* enough guidance to find the confidence to express my creativity without hindering what needed to come out naturally. She’s a fantastic guide on this journey and I didn’t feel hindered by my ego telling me I wasn’t doing a “good enough” job.

I don’t want to give away all the magic of the workshop, but here are a few incarnations of my process. The theme for this workshop was “Manifesting 2016.”

First we started with some power words to bring into this year.

Then we wrote a letter to ourselves that expanded on these words and what we’d like to manifest in 2016.

From there, we chose a photo that spoke to us to use in our journal. I chose this image of a skeleton half buried in sand with a little turquoise gem right by the nape of their neck. It was the turquoise that captured me of course.

I know it is a dark image, but I liked playing with lightness that surrounded this heavy photo. I also am fascinated by death, not in a weird way, but in a spiritual one. This may sound weird, but I was present at my Grandma Hanky’s passing, and it was an incredibly moving experience and one I was so grateful to be present for. Like birth, death I believe is to be honored. Also, for this year, there is so much conclusion and graduation that I wanted to honor those parts of myself that I have been saying goodbye to. I think it is important to remember “where we came from” because without that, we would not be who we are today.

After that part, came a lot of other fun parts that I won’t give away, but here is my final journal entry.

I love the colors and the contrast! To me, it is the true essence of life. Light and dark. We have to accept both in this lifetime. Both bring beauty, growth, and a higher self.

I can’t wait to do this again!

DeAnne will be offering a second art journaling class on Sunday, March 6 at the Solar Arts Building in Minneapolis. If you want to learn more, connect with DeAnne here!