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The "Enchanted Art Journal" Class is Underway!

Writer's picture: Santha KoonceSantha Koonce

Last night was the first session of The Enchanted Art Journal series and it was a lot of fun. This class is a bit different from the ones I've led in the past, in that it was guided and focused on our subconscious processes and not just on the journaling techniques we were learning.


I always like to have a little bit of time before everyone arrives to center myself and get in a good headspace. Music in the background, something lo-fi and relaxed. I love greeting participants with little treats from my garden or some candies. This evening it was zinnias and lavender tied with hand dyed ribbon, and some pink starburst. Yes I am a little bit proud of myself -- I only ate two.


We began with a meditation to get us in touch with our inner child, our soul self. We wrote about this experience, so our first layer was words. I often journal along with the class so I can use what I'm doing as an example -- it's sometimes so much easier to show than tell! I love that I have a spread in my art journal that will take me back to this lovely class as well.


At one point during class one of the participants said "this is like playing!" Exactly! I feel strongly that as adults we need to continue to play, whatever that may look like for us. We learn through play and grow through play. I also strongly believe in the healing properties of art journaling, as anyone who knows me can attest. There's a lot happening on on a subconscious level while we are working through the layers of creation on our art journal pages. We don't even notice much of it but our subconscious does!



Although I've been working with art journals for years, it took me a while to come to an awareness of the fact that it was the process, not the product, that mattered. Sure, I'd love every page I do to be a mini masterpiece -- or not even that -- just to be pretty to my eyes. But they're not, not even close. So what do I do? I turn the page and keep going. It's the doing that matters.


There's just something about having a table full of colorful art supplies! Spray inks and Distress Crayons and gessoes, oh my! I love that you can layer and layer. We could have built our pages up more, but we did really well for two hours!


So now I'm quite excited about our next class, and ready to get to work on it. So many wonderful techniques and exercises and methods are out there, it's a little difficult to settle on what to do next. But that's a great problem to have!


You can still sign up if you haven't already! I'd love to see you. Right now classes are scheduled for these Thursday nights in August: 8/1; 8/15; 8/29.


Have a lovely day friends!






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