The Story of My Art
The process of art journaling has been something I have been doing since graduate school. It has helped me through rough times and has been a way of documenting the happy times as well. Around the time I was writing my Master’s thesis in Art Therapy, I fell in love with the journal pages of the artist Sabrina Ward Harrison. She has been my inspiration throughout the years because of how raw and emotional she is in her pages. When I met her in 2007 and spent a weekend creating art with her, I really got the motivation I needed to do more art journaling. Now, I am comforted by knowing that at the end of the day I can retreat to my own journal pages and feel completely safe there.
I love the randomness of putting scraps of paper, odds and ends, and anything you can find down on paper. My favorite materials to use are acrylic paint, antique papers and photographs, and pen and ink. I very rarely use brushes! I squeeze out the paint on the pages and use my hands to smear it around. I love to layer collage items, paint over them, and layer more on top. Then, I draw lines and shapes or write words or sentences about what I am feeling at the moment. I usually follow my instincts when I work on a page. Sometimes I go back and add items. When I feel that a page is done I stop working on it and move on to a new page.
Art Journaling is a perfect way to chronicle a significant event in your life. When I turned 30, I wanted to do something to remember the year and the new chapter that I was beginning. I was curious what the year would bring and I wanted to explore more about who I was becoming as a woman, an artist, and an Art Therapist. Each day during the year I was 30 I made an art piece and shared it through a blog and Flickr photo page. I used a variety of mixed media and photographs and anything that would remind me of the day. I worked on pieces of 11”x17” Bristol board so that I could bind them myself when the project was over. Now, I have a record of the year consisting of 365 pieces of artwork!
365 Days of Being 30 ended on December 11, 2009 but many exciting things have happened since then...head over to the news page to find out more!
Much love,
Erin Kenepp
.jpg)
