Hello beautiful soul,

Sometimes I use my art journal just to have fun, play and experiment (see my previous post) but more often than not, it’s also a safe space to express and process my thoughts and emotions. In particular, I’ve noticed that my personal way of doing this is always to “work towards the light”. This is actually at the root of my whole creative process, which is why the very first course I created is called Layers of Light.

It feels very healing to start by acknowledging the darker parts, the difficult emotions, the struggles, the doubts, the pain, and give them a safe, sacred container to be expressed. And the key is to not stop there, but shine a light on them, transcend them and find ways, creatively, to come back in alignement with who I truly am, a being of light, like we all are, deep down.

Lately, with the weight of two years of pandemic and now the atrocities in Ukraine, I have to say that my hyper-sensitive little self has been struggling and feeling lost, grabbing at ways to make this whole human experience make any sense. And in fact, just writing this makes me feel confused and guilty and ashamed to be so lucky, to have a good life, and at the same time it all feels so fragile.

I think many of us artists and creatives can feel a little bit like fairies, dedicated to bringing magic and wonder into this world, to open other people’s eyes to the beauty around them and within their hearts. Through our art and imagination, we capture ideas, images and even whole worlds that never existed before. We give them form, we make them real. Isn’t this completely and utterly magical? Yet in such brutal, ugly times, we may wonder if our magic can make any difference, if our fairy dust might after all be just dust, if it matters at all.

We probably know, deep down that it does matter more than ever, but we can still feel useless and powerless, maybe even a bit silly. These are some of the thoughts and feelings I was processing while creating this page in my art journal.

Something else that makes me feel fragile are health issues I’ve been battling with for about two years now: let’s just say that the vertebrae in my neck are not ageing in the most graceful way, causing chronic pain and limiting some of my activities. Hence the C4 C5 etc. on my page, it’s how the vertebrae are named, isn’t it cool? Like a secret code or something.

I created the page right after getting the results of an mri, which in itself had been a bit stressful, so I definitely wasn’t in the best place emotionally with this whole mix of stress and worries, both global and personal. At such times, art feels like a lifesaver and I am so grateful to have my journal to turn to.

I love that in my journal I can not only make art but also write and express myself with words. One of my favorite practices is to pick little cut-out words and let inner guidance emerge. It never fails to reveal some wisdom. A little text came together very intuitively, starting with the expression of the darker, negative feelings, then moving towards light with a message of hope.

This image of “an army of angels” suddenly made me feel stronger and supported. I don’t even know which book it comes from, but it was meant to land on this very page, on that particular day, at that exact vulnerable moment when I was alone in the studio with music on, having a good cry, trying to make sense of the world. As the words and the page came together, I could feel deep inside a shift from confusion to hope. From feeling lost to feeling centered. A shift from dark to light.

From there, I kept following the magic, building up more layers of light on my page, even ending with a good dose of fairy dust! And somehow I know, crystal clear, that when this kind of shift happens, it’s powerful magic, and it can’t stay limited to the surface of the page or the person creating it. It has to ripple out. Because energetically, spiritually, whatever you choose to call it, it is so much bigger than that moment, that page, that person.

And that’s the magic of art, to make us touch this otherworldy reality: that we’re not, in fact, small, fragile and powerless. That there is so much more to life, and to us, than what we can perceive in our human reality, in the events of the world, in our ageing bodies. That we are stronger than we think and that we can make a difference, have a positive impact, throught the act of creating.

It doesn’t mean that the feelings, the worries and the pain will go away. But it does mean that we can keep going. Not stay paralyzed in fear or discouragement, but pick up our paintbrushes, or whatever your own kind of magic wand is, and do what we, as artists and creatives, are here to do in this crazy world.

As it turns out, this page is the very last in my art journal. Not the last I created, as I don’t do them in order, so I still have another one to share soon… with a flip-through video of the whole journal! (if you’d like to stay in the loop, make sure to join my creative community by email)

And I’m so excited to be starting a new journal soon, a new journey, a new adventure… I’ve already painted the cover and given it a title: this time it will be “A Book Of Light And Shadow”, as a way to honor this magical process and remind myself that it’s OK to express the darker parts of our stories, so we can find our way back to our inner light.

If you too are feeling this longing for art, light and creative magic, then I invite you to join me in Layers of Light. It is the very first online class I ever created, before I had all the tech and the know-how, but it is still one of my deepest and truest offerings, and I would love to share it with you.

And if you are feeling the call of art journaling, whether you’ve never done it before or want to renew your current practice and inspiration, I have plenty of free art journal resources for you. And even better, join me in the classroom of my main class The Artist & the Journal where I share absolutely everything I know about this beautiful and meaningful practice.

What motivates you and inspires you to create during challenging times? Do you find that creativity helps? Do you share it with others to inspire them too?

I wish you an inspired and creative week. Keep up the magic!

Leave a comment for me!