Finding your voice

You know what I get tired of in this little community?

Games.

Pedestals.

Pissing contests.

Judgment.

Come on.

Seriously.

Get off your fucking pedestal. Don't put your art on a fucking pedestal. Don't put artists on pedestals. Stop being so damn judgmental. It's a fucking journal page. Seriously.

This isn't to anyone in particular, btw. It's to *anyone* and *everyone* who has ever had any doubt-self imposed or thrust upon them by others. I was going to say something yesterday but needed time to soak it all in.

What do you use a journal for?

It's YOUR safe place. It can be a place to:
document
record
vent
rave
gush
play
experiment
get it out and onto the page
create
dream
-seriously all those cute little word stamps (dream, believe, create) totally apply to art journals.

Your art journal is for *you*. Who really and honestly gives a shit if someone else doesn't think it's "good enough". HELLO? IT'S A JOURNAL. It's not hanging in the fucking Louvre.

It's

a

JOURNAL.

It ain't the Mona Fucking Lisa.

I highly doubt that Da Vinci sat down and worried if what he was putting in his books was "good enough". Seriously.

I had someone email me and tell me that a page the other day "just wasn't me" (uh, it was a simple page and it said what *I* wanted it to say). Uh, okay. I've had someone email me in the past saying that my shit looked like everyone else's shit (fuck you, I don't think so). Uh, okay. I've had people say absolute stupid STUPID shit to me that they would never want said to them nor would they say it to anyone else. I just stand there with my mouth open thinking "Really? REALLY? Did that person REALLY just say that?" Yup. Yes, they did.

I'm not tooting my own horn (or anyone else's horn here). I'm not just talking about MY experiences here 'cause I KNOW others have had 'em too. I'm just saying that a journal is your place to sit and expressive yourself-in whatever means you want, however you want, whenever you want (though I am a firm believer in daily journaling). It is *not* meant to be judged.

It has nothing NOTHING to do with how GOOD ANYONE is.

If I want to cut out an image, slap it down and write a few words around it and call it a page. If it says what I want it to say, it's a page. I don't need someone to email me and tell me that "it's someone else's image", it's not "original", it's not "you". If it friggin' says what I want it to say and I'm DONE WITH IT, I'm moving on. I want YOU to do the same thing as a journal keeper. As a journal artist.

Open up the page. Paint. Collage. Write. Do whatever makes you happy. Push the envelope. Try. Fail. Try again. Push push push. Play play play. Use your book to express YOU. Move on when you need to move on.

Stop looking at the shit in the magazines and comparing your work to it. It's NOT you. YOU are you. Seriously. You want your work to look like YOU made it. Not like someone else made it.

Someone tells you you're not "good enough". Screw 'em. Do a page about it and move on. You've got a journal to fill. You've got pages to play with. You have things to record. You have moments and thoughts and ideas to spill out.

Worried about what's gonna happen when you croak? Why? We all go through shit-good times and bad times. It's that sappy saying called a roller coaster of life. It's true though-up, down, we all ride it. People say "Oh, I don't want my kids to read this when I die." WHY? So they'll find out that Mom (or Dad) was a real, honest, unique person?? That Mom or Dad fucked up every now and then. That good things and bad things happen-TO ALL OF US. We share one common thing: we're all human. Get over it. Write it in your journal. Someone reads it and gets pissed. Screw them-your journal is YOUR book. Not theirs. If they read it, that's THEIR problem. NOT YOURS.

It's your book.

It's for you.

Don't ever forget that.

Go make something and don't look back.