August 09, 2016

Ep 006: Starting Is All That Matters

Messy Conversations is a series of interviews with amazing art journalers who share their favorite tools, tips and why they art journal. You’ll get an exclusive peek into their art journal pages and their process. We have a top-notch line up of incredibly artists who will appear on the show each month. We hope that these interviews educate, encourage and inspire you to make something before it’s even over.

This Messy Conversation is one of the most inspiring and exciting ones yet. Cait describes herself as a mixed media painter who works into art journals daily. Her work is intricate, layered, has depth, is unique, inspiring and beautiful. She is an artist that Caylee and I have admired for a long time and were honored to have this conversation with her. We learned so much and know you will too. I even awkwardly asks Cait to be my art guru… Her art practice makes me want to paint at this very second and then all day, every day. So pull up a seat, but not for long. Cait will have you reaching for a graphite pencil in no time.

TAKEAWAYS

How she began art journaling
Passively sharing your art journals online
What to do when you don’t know what to do
How to develop patterns, colors, etc you like
Art journaling vs ‘real’ art
Her tools of choice
How she finds inspiration
How she found her style
How she uses the prompts
Her art process
Working when you feel like it
Your creative flow

Tips for Beginners

Don't anticipate your style too early.
Do anything that you think of.
Don't over think how you are going to start.
Just scribble.
Even making for a few minutes will make you feel better.

FREE CLASS FOR CREATIVES

In How to Start Art Journaling, we’ll walk you through the art of art journaling, including how to start doing (🙌) and make your very first art journal page (even if you’ve never even opened an art journal before).

Extraordinary Thoughts

I started art journaling everyday and it really changed the momentum of it and I started taking it a lot more seriously because I started seeing how much it was affecting my work and how much healthier I felt artistically.

Sharing online has given my art more momentum and makes me create more and share more and makes me feel like my art actually exists.

When I don’t know what to do, I go on Pinterest and draw whatever I see.

Art journaling for me is just doing anything I think of and seeing where it takes me.

Art journaling is an intuitive process, you start with inspiration but you don’t know where its going to take you. You just have to be open and allow it take you where ever its going to.

Art journals are more honest and immediate than my other work.

There is something about a book that is charged with this intimate energy, that you really can be more authentic when you’re working in it. There is something about the object that makes it so you can take more risks.

I start making marks, putting down color, drawing or doing any type of artistic action at all in order to find some type of inspiration.

Anyone could find their style if they just made lots of work. I (strive to) make anything and everything I can think of.

I feel a low-level anxiety if I haven’t made art recently.

Prompts are really helpful for the spark to start.

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CAIT SHERWOOD

Cait Sherwood is a mixed-media painter who works into art journals daily. She lives on a farm in Brookeville, Maryland. She is obsessed with understanding the creative process.

Learn more about Cait here.