Art Journalling/Journaling: Session 16 - Making Learning Enjoyable

My daughter wanted me to teach her algebra, and that is one of the most boring subjects I can think of. So, to help make it a little more enjoyable I journalled a page focusing on vintage school children.

The page then becomes visually appealing, making a child more inclined to learn as he/she uses (for my daughter) a more dominant process of learning (which is visual for my daughter). On that page I've added the formula, which was BEDMAS (giving the order of how to work out an algebraic equation: Brackets first, then Exponents, then Division, then Multiplication, then Addition and then Subtraction).

I've also included some easy examples, that way it is easier for a child to move onto more complex examples.

Well, it worked a treat with my daughter, who now usually, fully understands how to do her algebra.

Art Journalling/Journaling: Session 14 - Receive a Revelation of Purpose

This week's art journalling exercise is all about receiving a revelation of purpose for your life. As a career counsellor, this is a topic that is quite close to my heart, especially when I am called upon to assist people in doing just that.

You need a nice bright coloured sheet of paper (the hope colours) and add other images you wish to visualise the content. For instance, I've got cyclists there in a race, their purpose is to win; I've got men up in hot air balloons, there purpose was to build a machine of some sort that could fly.

As a believer I have also added in there my notes from what I have learned from other people connected with my faith. You too, can also add proverbs, quotes from books, etc.

The second art journalled page I have done has been chalked with oranges, reds and pinks (colours that are 'happy' and 'hopeful'), I have then made lines and swirls to do more written journalling, where I have briefly explained what I believe my purpose is in life. You can get the idea, but as this is more personal I have made the image small, if anyone is keen on it being enlarged they can email me privately.

Have a great week.

Next week: art journalling exericse is "Come and have a cup of coffee with me"

Art Journalling: Session 13 - Beware of the Masks

Okay, this week I've gone a little trivial after being inspired by Tristan's blog ... and I'm avoiding that cliché 'What Mask do you wear?' ... so it's about the various masks we hide behind. This journalling exercise is quite fun to do.

First prepare your pages with various painted strokes in purples and mauves. Then allow some of the paint to run over and down the page. I have then used some old scrapbook paper from NRN Designs and cut them out and pasted them over the painted page (once dry). I have also chopped up an old catalogue of Venetian masks (Commedia dell 'arte ones) and have glued those also onto the pages.

On to that I have added mardi gras microbeads and glitter for a festive effect, stars and, of course, bling.
Down the side of the left hand page I have added brightly colored trim.

My narrative is about some of the masks I wear, and why I choose to wear them; and then realising some are not masks, but what I am really like, but having to put a mask on to 'tone' the real me down. I have used white Souffle pens that give a sort of 3D feel.

And if you want some inspiration check out my old post on my Fabio Venetian Mask and also go to Tristan's post for some more Venetian Masks.

Art Journalling: Session 12 - Hope

Today's journalling exercise is to look at a 'value' word e.g. hope, love, integrity, etc and then art journal this word.

For this week I wanted to look at the word HOPE and what it means to me.

Prepare your page with colours not necessarily indicative of that word. Hope usually signifies bright colours, but I wanted to use muted tones, greys, and browns .... those colours not usually recognised with the term hope, because it's usually in our grey moods, or our times of least colour in our life that we strongly need hope.

Don't forget these exercises, although private to you, you can share with other people; for instance I got one of my daughters to draw a cave for me (my disllusionment cave) and also a tunnel (with some light at the end of it ... I know it's a cliche).

After painting these colours randomnly I then used a calligraphic ink pen to outline my daughter's drawings and to write up my material.

I also added, yes bling; this is to illustrate the 'glimmer of hope' that we always need. I have added a clock as I write about time. The clouds are representative of my dreams and desires (as from previous art journalling exercise 11.

Add in your thoughts.

Although my thoughts I've added are again private, I have made them accessible for anyone who wishes to gain a better understanding of this word, (and how to apply that insight ... well it was the insight for me, in this case, but other people may have different interpretations).

Art Journalling: Session 10 - Put your Determination where your Desire is

This week it's back to paints on our journal pages, cutting and sticking down images, and stamping.


Put your Determination where your Desire is.

My thoughts this week have come from an article I have just read by Jennifer Leclaire.

Basically she is telling us whatever we are wishing for, we should stop our wishing and get determined. The determination is measured by the hope we have. She says “the difference between hoping and wishing is significant. A wish is a desire for something that seems unattainable. Hope, by contrast, is desire with an expectation of attainment.”

She further explains that hope expects with confidence. Hope cherishes a desire with anticipation. Hope breeds faith, and faithful determination generates grace for us to achieve our desire.

Put your determination where your desire is. So I guess that brings me to what my desires are, and I have plenty, I just have to rank them.

What we hope for, we make little steps (or goals) to achieve, hope then connects itself to those things which indicate its accomplishment. So each little goal boosts us to go further on, onto the next goal.

The point of hope is that to which our soul tends to. If held in our spirit, it is hard for circumstances to take away the power of hope.

This journaling exercise will help us to try and do just that.

Preparation of Page
First prepare your page by using primary colours to create a washed layout. Do both pages of your journal, plus one more on the following page (which is for next week) in one of those primary colours.

Then I have used stickers (Daisy Ds) to emphasise the title of the article, plus a stamped image and also printed off a retro image of a target (Batman and Robyn). On the otherside I have made my own personal journalling of what I got out of Jennifer’s article.

I’ve used Brenda Walton’s Mira mini kit collection to highlight certain words, put tabs on the side of the journal, as well as stapling ribbon (also from this same kit).

Next week: Overcoming Resistors.
Once you are determined to reach your dream or your heart’s desire, you will meet resistance; so next week we journal how to overcome the resistance we meet.

Art Journalling: Session 7 - What are you reading?

This year I have reacquainted myself with the novel. Any spare time I can get, I'll devour myself in a novel. The books I read often give me inspiration for art pieces, or themes and subjects that I wish to study.

So what book have you just read? Or are reading? And it doesn't have to be a novel to do this session.

I've been reading Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronté. This lady was a literary genius. For those who do not know this novel, its genre is Gothic Romantic (i.e. a mixture of the metonymy of gloom and horror, melancholy, foreboding landscapes and weather; with romance - pursuit, emotions and senses, alluring affection, conflict). It is a wild, passionate story of intense and monomaniacal* love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, a foundling adopted by Catherine's father.


The novel explores revenge, desire, love and insanity. Both Catherine and Heathcliff are rebellious, passionate, cruel, misanthropic, isolated, and wilful, have mysterious origins, lack family ties, reject external restrictions and control, and seek to resolve their isolation by fusing with a love object. Their love is cursed, as lovers they are cursed resulting in their insanity.

In this session you can make a double page spread collage in your journal by collecting and cutting out images depicting scenes from your novel, and descriptive words symbolising the novel's message.

For me I used words such as wild, violent, tempestuous, vengeance, revenge, love, passion, desire. Then I also used quotes of what the characters said to each other e.g. "Heathcliff is more myself than I am" and "I am Heathcliff", says Catherine of her unattainable lover. While Catherine is dying Heathcliff says to her "I cannot live without my life! I cannot live without my soul."

Add other images to the collage such as acetate words and hearts. Also add any other material that epitomizes their end. I've used a quote from the Song of Songs (love poem in the bible). I have used a gel medium on my page so when I wrote the words I used a Sharpie pen which allowed me to write over glossy surfaces.

* When I researched a little about the novel (okay I can be a nerd at times) I uncovered that psychologists have examined its contents; and one of them describes their love as being monomaniacal. That is going to the extremes, of a singularization, uber-singleminded determination.

Further notes
Derek Traversi calls it "a thirst for religious experience". The existence of spirit - afterlife.

Dorothy van Ghant calls it "a metaphysical exploration". Mystery of the numinous.
Metaphysics is the branch of speculative inquiry which treats of the first principles of things, including such concepts as being, substance, essence, time, space, cause, identity, etc; theoretical philosophy as the ultimate science of Being and Knowing.

Art Journalling: Session 2 - First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin

Collage your Favourite Song
– and then interpret its meaning


What you will need:
4 different colours of paint which are of the same colour palette (warm colours or cool colours).*
jar of water
paintbursh
Magazines, brochures, etc

* Warm colours are reds, yellows, pinks, oranges, etc - think of the sun, its colour and heat; cold colours are blues, greens, purples, etc – think of water, the sea - it’s usually cold)

Think about a song you like. What is it that you find attractive about it? Is it just the music, the tune, the melody? Or is it the words that are sung?

I love such a diverse range of music and, sometimes, I don’t know if it is just the beat and the arrangement of various musical instruments, ingeniously put together to make music, that sounds so astounding; or whether it is just the words or the combination of both music, voice and lyrics? I still don’t know. What I do know is that I love the harmonic voice of women, particularly Polynesian women when they sing. Oh how I wish I could sing like them. But my favourite singers all tend to be … yes male …. Ummm maybe it's just that I'll never be able to sing like them at all, at least I can try and replicate women singers.

I don’t really like one song out of them all. I do have my iTunes rated with all my favourite songs (5 is the best, to 1 the least – but it’s still a favourite).

So art journalling a song, I decided to do a take on Leonard Cohen’s “First we Take Manhattan and then we take Berlin”. Just don’t get it, or what that song it about.
But I love the verses that talk about imagery and the juxtaposition of describing that imagery, I mean only a man could say ‘the beauty of our weapons.’

And that’s it the beauty of our weapons isn’t about war, but about the invention and design of them and their capability … all used for harm though, what else? That's a shame.

To help me with this piece I painted in four colours (corals, reds, pinks and yellows) one side of my journal page, and then did a wash on the other side, with these same colours.

First I titled the page with the song and then collected together images of the song paying attention to their size and colour – I needed to make sure they were a good fit for the amount of space I had and that the colours were warm, maybe a few cool colours. I then cut them or ripped them out, and loosely arranged them on one side of the page, before gluing down. Make sure you also show some of the paint, so don’t collage the whole page.


I then put the words on the other side of the page with my feeble attempts of interpreting what Leonard was trying to say … perhaps he didn’t really know.

Tip: A good idea is to start collecting images from magazines, brochures, etc that you may wish to use in your art or collage. File these away in generic folders, e.g. you could have men, women, vintage bits and pieces, toys, cities, buildings, music instruments, or any other topic.

Art Journalling: Session One - Rituals

Every week come and play online art journalling with me.

What you will need this week:

• A visual diary
• Dyes (I have used 7 Gypsies)
• Krylon Whitewash paper finish
• Crayons

This week's topic is rituals. Now there's a curly one for you... well at least unusual.
For me I discovered my rituals were connected to food, health and family. They are activities I regularly participate in, and have become quite a joyful routine for me. As an example, Sunday morning consists of Irish bodum coffee and reading the Sunday Star Times.

First thing to do is squiggle some lines on your page and some words. To start you off you can put in the definition of ritual: "a. & n. of, wih consisting in, involving, religious or other rites". Our definition is a little more 'elastic' than this.

Then use a crayon to highlight it. Use your crayon to also highlight other words as you add in your titles and also crayon over the squiggles. The crayon will act as a resistant to the dyes you will brush over afterwards. Use the Whitewash paper finish to highlight certain areas.

Here's one of our rituals, crepes and icecream in summer time, plus a recipe.


You can do as many pages as you like, but for starters I am just doing two pages, our family also has other rituals for Easter and Christmas, but I will post those separately when the time comes.

So here's my take, remember it is art journalling so feel free to make an artistic mess! I've also added some stamped images, cutouts from magazines to depict more on the subject I am talking about.

And here's the other one, cure for the cold? Well, it certainly helps to do this if you have one. But pregnant ladies do not do.


Oh ... the woman in the bath is not me, it's a vintage photo. So tune in next week for some more creative play.