What is Art Journaling & Why Do I Care?

Google "art journaling" and you will find 16,400,000 results in 52 seconds. Trust me, I just googled it! On the search bar in Pinterest "art journaling" will populate so many pins I don't know that you could ever scroll long enough to see the end!

So, what is art journaling? When you google that question you will find no shortage of answers, but the FPRs (first page results) will mostly be geared to artists. Art journaling, however is for ANYONE! For an artist it is a way to put creative ideas in a journal to be worked out in detail later.

Art journaling for anyone else - the definition is simple:

A way to express yourself with visuals and or words. There is no wrong way to create an art journal! It is for YOU! Much like a diary, it can be a very private journal you never share with anyone else. Or you can share with anyone else. (See the no wrong way theory at work here?) Whatever you decide to do with your art journal is YOUR decision.

Why do I care about art journaling? You may not, but if you are slightly intrigued then stick with me here! Art journaling is a great way to EXPRESS YOURSELF (as mentioned above).

​There may be times when you don't want to just write endlessly to get your thoughts out of your head or to process what you are feeling, or not feeling. Maybe you just need to splatter a page in RED because your frustration has now moved to boiling anger! Maybe you want to run some cool blue watercolor across a page because you just feel, well - blue!

My favorite part of art journaling is - THERE ARE NO RULES! By nature, I hate rules so art journaling suits my free-spirit very well! There's also no pressure to get it right. If you don't have rules, then what's "right," right?

No rules, no pressure! Just a simple journal of blank pages you will fill with colors and doodles and words and glue and glitter and whatever your heart desires!

My art journals and I have been through good times and bad. We've had fun, we've shed tears, we've been mad at each other, we've created casts of unknown characters, we've spilled and cracked, blossomed and lacked. I have dozens of art journals and each one is a part of me!

​Check out the images below to see a variety of my own art journal pages. (You can also check out my other posts on this blog and see more of my art journaling) There is no rhyme or reason. Some of my pages are decent, some look like I may have created them when I was in the 1st grade. No wrong, no right, no shame - just a great way to express myself!