this is happening

Yup. It's been over a month since I last blogged.  Let's call it a winter break shall we:) During my respite, I moved to a different city as noted in my last post, I drove through half the country...the upper western half and I got a month long flu. I know, I know...that's all so 2014. I am now firmly ensconced in my lovely Chicago neighborhood. I've already slipped while walking the dog...definitely a rite of passage for me. I still have far more boxes to unpack than I care to disclose. I am currently flue free...thank the heavens! and I'm thrilled and humbled to be contributing to the new Get Messy as a creative team member.

Oh Yes! You read me right. I am on my very first creative team. More than 20 years after playing in my first art journal which was really just a spiral notebook, I am now excited to be sharing my actual work. Art journaling is not just a form of messy scrapbooking, although it certainly could be if that's your thing. Art journaling is expression, it's no rules, it's experimental, it's liberating, it can be sparse or full of color, layers and texture, it's intense, it's celebratory, it's cathartic whether you speak through words or images...through layers of paint or ripped pages from books. It is poetry laid flat and covered in gesso. I don't use it to preserve my memories...I use it to process them, to explore my present and daydream about my future. It is everchanging...just like me.

If you find the idea of art journaling fascinating, you are right. It is. If you are interested in being part of a community...then the Get Messy Group might be for you. I am happy to have found it. I am happy to be sharing, and I hope that we can be friends...that we can inspire each other, and we can both...in our own little corners of the world, create, share and get messy.