OMG - I just returned from a three day art camp with Teesha Moore - the mother of art journaling. I had such a blast in Cleveland (who knew?)
Ok, actually, let me start out by saying that upon my arrival at the airport and getting picked up by cohort Kerry Burns, we made a wrong turn (that damned GPS!) and ended up in the middle of what we thought was a crime scene…dead body in the middle of the road (under a sheet), crime scene tape all around, and 4 police cruisers.
Really….is this why they call it the “mistake on the lake” city? Turns out that on the evening news it was actually a fatal motorcycle accident, but still. Not the way I planned to start my art retreat…..(and yes, I’m very sad about the man who perished, but really…I paid $400 for this retreat so who needs to start on such a downer???) Sheesh!!!!
On the first day we actually made our journal, and this was, by far, the hardest part for me. I’ve never bound a book in my life, and with a room full of 30 “professional” artists I was a little intimidated. Turns out that both Kerry and I held our own, thank you. And we were having fun, which most of the other “artists” didn’t really get. We laughed and giggled, and they were more interested in talking about themselves and how great they were, so we just tuned them out.
On days two and three we really got to work inside of the journals. Who knew you could spend hours and hours on just one page? The minutia is incredible, but it turned out to be so much fun.
I really enjoyed learning about all the layering techniques and different ideas from Teesha, and of course getting a chance to get critiqued by her was amazing.
She said she thought I really “got it” so I think I’m well on my way to enjoying this art journaling thing. Now the hard part will be to dedicate a chunk of time every day to this, but who knows? Maybe there’s an artist in me yet!
