Why Should I Keep an Art Journal?

Why Art Journal?

I started art journaling in high school. Basically, I realized I could create in a fashion that was consistent and attainable so I dove right in. I filled sketchbooks, altered books, journals, note cards, bulletins, and more with my art. Some of it I kept, much of it I discarded over the years. Here are some reasons why you should use an art journal too: it’s got no firm rules, it helps you track your mood and state over time, it brings a greater sense of awareness, and it helps you process. I could go on.

Let’s take this point by point, starting with the rules of art journaling. I’ll save us both the time by saying this: there are none. Write a stream of consciousness. Splatter paint on it. Rip out pages. Collage some bus tickets, trash on the street, photos of loved ones, ribbons and trinkets together. Follow journal prompts. Make a daily sketch of your pets. Fill each page with gratitude, dreams, and wanderings. 

The number one reason I suggest art journaling, is that it’s a free form medium to express and record your life and experiences. I’ve yet to meet a therapist that doesn’t suggest journaling as an intervention. I’ve yet to meet an art therapist or an artist that doesn’t encourage daily judgment free creative expression. 

As someone who deals with chronic illness of many sorts, I value the records my journaling creates. Pain can make you a terrible narrator. But my journal records exactly how I was feeling day by day. I often review my journal before counseling sessions or doctor appointments so that when the inevitable question “how have you been doing” comes up, I have a real and honest answer to provide. I value this record as it’s able to show practical data for how my medications are doing, the impact of gratitude lists, the correlation between mood and consistent creative expression. 

Not only does art journaling help keep track of my mood, but it helps me figure out my mood to begin with. I am the type of person who needs to internally process before I can successfully externally process. What this means is that I need a place to figure out how I am doing and how I am feeling day by day. By engaging in this consistent practice of journaling, I have become able to identify shifts in my emotions, mood, thought patterns, pain levels, and more so much quicker than I used to. I have become more fluent in speaking the language of myself. 

So, why should you art journal? Because it helps. Because it works. Because it’s fun. Because it brings you into greater connection and awareness with yourself. Because I bet if you were to really give it a shot, you would find that you no longer want to go without it.

Art Journaling: What is Art Journaling?

What is Art Journaling? 

I could take time here to quote others and do vast research on the history of sketching. I could discuss that sketching was a common pastime as well as considered a precursor for artists before they spent the time, money, and materials to make a larger piece. I could discuss how diaries of many forms have been kept for centuries and how the invention of language has expanded our desire to leave behind a record or a way of understanding ourselves and who we are. Instead, I will give my opinion on my lived experience of what art journaling is and what it can look like. 

Art Journaling is a process of creatively cataloging and keeping a record of present thoughts, emotions, and experiences. It is a journal meant to be folded, ripped, glued in, drawn over time and time again until the pages are bursting at the scene. There are no firm rules for what makes it “art journaling” but some related words might be journaling, sketchbooks, bullet journaling, junk journals, etc. Depending on who you are it may look exactly or very similar to one of these related words. Or, it may look like something entirely new, rogue, with your own set of rules and expectations. 

For me, art journaling is the process by which I engage in meditation, in daily check ins to start my day, as a way of processing intense or difficult experiences, as a place to sketch out ideas for larger artworks, as a way to put my thoughts down on paper, a place for list making, and a place where I organize the general chaotic experience that is living within my own head. At this point, I’m not sure if I am making more sense or less sense, but let’s trek on nevertheless. 

Moral of the story: if you’re looking for a “right” way you need to practice “art journaling” for it to technically be considered the exact socially accepted term, you, my friend, need to take a deep breath and understand you’re approaching it entirely wrong.

The best thing about a journal is that it is meant for you and you alone. Although you are welcome to share parts of your art journal with others, it can also stay as a locked diary for your eyes only. Sometimes I’ve had clients who are so afraid of someone understanding what their art reveals that they need to cover it up, erase it, tear it up, burn it, or lock it away somewhere for their eyes only. Here’s the beautiful thing about creative expression that I have learned though, and why I am so open with my art journaling despite how personal of a process it can be at times: only you can correctly interpret what your art “means”. 

Does art not have a universal language though? 

I mean maybe it does. Maybe it doesn’t. I sure believe that I can pick up on the intensity of someone’s emotions and experiences through the art that they make. However, if being an art therapist has taught me anything it is that nobody except the artist themself can fully express the meaning behind what they make. I laugh hearing people pretentiously guessing at what an artist “meant” to do with their work, not because we shouldn’t dig deep into fine art, but because art is so representational and personal that no degree will make you a mind reader into the deeper intentions into another’s creative process and their psyche. 

For some artists, the curtain is yellow, the sky is raining, the person looks sad for a reason. Sometimes that reason is the opposite of what you think. Yellow can be hope, sunshine, or putrid disgust. Rain can be sadness, oppression, trapping, gloom or it can be refreshing, peaceful, and life giving. The person who is sad could be sad because the artist is sad. Or the person could be sad because the artist was trying to portray “contemplative” “disturbed” “meditative” or could’ve made a person with a resting sad face. The curtain could be yellow because color theory informed that the yellow would balance out the red and blues around it. The rain could be because it was raining outside when they made it and they decided their image should capture the moment's weather. How can any of us know? And THAT right there is what makes art so incredible to me.

Seasons

This week I have been engaging in a lot of season related prompts with clients and it's got me thinking about how much we can parallel our own state to that of nature. The trees changes, the leaves falling, erratic weather patterns, a little flurry of snowflakes here and there. Even the changes in light that have us all yawning at 5pm.

Change is necessary for growth. Yet, change is incredibly uncomfortable and met often times by so much resistance. We love to talk about growth and endurance, even resilience and strength. Somehow in this conversation we forget about the necessary ingredient of change to get us there in the first place.

We are creatures of habit. Often times we would rather stay the same than embrace even the most essential changes for us to make. How many times have I myself avoided changing jobs, distancing myself from toxic people, or completing necessary tasks?- too many to count I'm sure.

So my encouragement to you who are reading this post is this- remember that change doesn't mean loss. It can and that loss should be grieved and felt and honored. But change is also growth. It's moving out of the way of a runaway train. It's bursting through the soil into the life giving sunlight. It's becoming who and what you've dreamed of being. My challenge to you (and to myself) is to honor and embrace this season of life now for whatever it may be. I-for example, am in a season of transition as I've been starting my practice and building up art therapy in my hometown. What season of life are you in? Who or what is your support in this season? What do you need to let go of, grief, or forgive yourself for in order to fully embrace the ever changing now? Wherever you may be, change can become your friend if you simply make space and welcome it with openness.