The Basics Mastered

I have completed three basic layouts and one intermediate layout in my quest to understand digital scrapbooking. I understand the appeal having done it now. It is SO fast and easy. And the clean up? Close files - done. I get it.

The question remains - would I ever switch over? Completely? No. Does this have it's merits? Yes. And I am sure that I will sometimes scrap digitally. I just sent out a spread to be printed to see what the quality looks like. I am really curious.

But I love my stuff. And I want to make other things besides just 12x12 or 8x8 albums. I like having the multisized page albums - like my art journal. I like the process of actually touching and making a page. Opening a file for a grunge frame is not the same as sanding and inking your own.

So, let's say I am a fan but not ready to switch over at all. And what would I do with all my supplies? Yikes!

I have been painting (on canvas - not the walls) and art journaling. I am trying some new things to see how they feel to me. A completely new approach is just letting the art happen. Whatever comes out, comes out. It is NOT PLANNED. You know me - This is a Big Step. A huge change. It is not at all planned. It just happens and I do not have a clue to what I am doing until I step back and look. The results have been surprising. Can I keep it up? Is it me? Dunno. It is a mystery to me.

This is quite a journey I am on. I like it. I just shut off the inner critic and DO. Another big change for me. I no longer judge my work. I just do. And everything gets a proper showing hung on the wall in my art studio. And sometimes that is when I discover what it is truly saying about me. So I do not make assumptions until I have seen it for a few days - unless the message is so apparent that it jumps screamingly off the canvas as some do. Those are not subtle or hidden.

I am on the last chapter of The Artist's Way. I am procrastinating like crazy about finishing because this has been such an amazing challenge to look at the way you treat your art and yourself. I am much kinder to both now. I am reluctant for this to end. What if I go back to the old way of judging, being critical and planning everything? I know that I have made changes that feel permanent - there is just a little piece of me that is afraid that it might slip away and old behaviors return. But that is just fear and I am not going to listen. Hey - shut the hell up, fear! oh yeah - and Bite me! There, that took care of that! : )

Make it a good day and tell something in your life to BITE ME.