The "occassional sidestepping" journey of art

Have you ever had? then lost it? then regained it? in your art? 

I can see some of you nodding your heads and saying
"oh yeah"...

I know I am not alone. 

The "art" to this process is sometimes walking away ( sometimes for a LONG time, like weeks ) but, and this is the hard part...never giving up!

Here is the finished journal cover

The journey

Several weeks..OK, maybe more like several months ago I began working on a cover for my current art journal. I had a pretty good first layer and then I had the bright idea to see if I could drop some alcohol inks on top of the first layer and I liked the results for the most part but it seemed unfinished...and I was regretting the alcohol inks...yet I liked it too....lol

Then I thought I would take this piece of text paper and do a collage around the outside edge of the cover and this is where I go off in the little art abyss where I know I am in trouble but I cannot stop myself. ( kinda like wiggling your legs in quicksand, you know your making it worse, but you just do it anyway! ) I began covering up all the stuff that I really liked....wth? ( insert big sigh here ) and this is where I should have walked away...should have, should have...oh why didn't I?

But noooooo...well, I messed up big, BIG time. I used way too much alcohol ink and it just made a super big YUCK over everything!

I frantically spritzed the cover with alcohol and tried to wipe everything off as best that I could considering the frame of mind I was in by now, and then I very calmly walked away from it. Cleaned up my work space and admitted that I was defeated...for now. 

Then after months of glancing at the disaster every time I opened up my journal to work in it: the idea resurfaced...and it all started with last night's dream

 ( which was really weird and I wish I could remember all of it, hence the words ) 

 So while my dream flitted around in my head...( segway into the afternoon ) 

I was sitting on the couch opening my mail and sorting it into piles...what to keep, what to pay, and lastly my favorite, what to re-cycle into handmade paper when I came across some "fan art" that Netflix ran a contest for ( and which I sadly didn't enter ) big regret now, but oh well...I immediately cut the image out and laid her on top of the journal cover and it just fit...and I knew I wanted to use it along with the words above...very simpatico! 

Netflix artist: Alice Malone

Sometimes the journey in art is a straight path, and sometimes it is the long, winding backroad that you get lost on...and when it's all over it doesn't seem so painful and ridden with angst...it seems to be just something you had to go through to get where you are.