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.