A belated update on my March art practice

Here it is, the end of March and I haven’t updated my Studio Notes all month. You would think it’s been crickets in the art studio as well. But oh no, l I’ve been quite busy!

Twenty-six art journal pages in march

My whole art practice shifted this month.

It’s hard to believe, but I began creating visual art in journals almost 15 years ago and I continue to this day.

And yet, this month I’ve come to understand that I didn’t really believe in it. Can that be true? I think it is. I resisted identifying with myself as an art journaler.

I have to credit Amandaswork for big help in perspective shift as she shared her process and mindset, but also it’s taken a lot of inner self recalibration work to learn how I value myself to get to this point. But this month I finally came to a place where I could accept that, well, filling art journals is worthy of creative practice.

Of couse, I’ve always known this. I have filled sketchbooks with line and color, shape and form for years because at some level I believed in its value, its worthiness. But I don’t know, I also questioned its legitimacy, I guess. Making art “just” for myself didn’t feel like enough.

But the truth kind of settled. I was tired of fighting myself. I create in art journal to have the experience of making—within and for myself, and I am enough to receive such a gift. And filling books with art IS such a gift.

So I just I decided to just do it—really do it—this month. I created pages nearly every day and I released concern about good or bad, beautiful or ugly. And this alone was a shift because yes, I admit again, in the past I tried to fill every page with a full, final, good composition. I had to let go of this really persistent fear I’ve always had with every blank page: that I had no ideas. Which really meant no good ideas. Instead, I got curious.

What if I just start and fully accept the results even when they suck—maybe especially when they suck? And yeah, I’ve known intellectually, that this is the way, for years. Make a lot and make a lot of bad art to get to the good. But it’s another thing to actually do it.

As you can see above, I let go of those expectations (and perfectionism) and I just let myself come to the page every day. And yes, some pages are pretty bad…but some? I either like quite a lot—or I see kernels of ideas for other ideas…

Anyway, for whatever reason, I finally let myself go, and that’s how I’ve worked all month. Now, fear has been largely replaced with excitement to see what will actually come from my hands and my heart over the days and weeks and months ahead. Probably more than nothing. Probably new ideas, some good ones. How will what I do here inform other work? Or maybe, I’ll just have had spent really good time every day.

Oh—and I don’t need to share every page I make. In fact, I probably don’t need to share most of it (“I am enough”).

And/Both/Also: Art journaling doesn’t have to be my only art practice.

I art journal AND I make other things: paintings and collages, zines, comics, essays... Although I’d say lately those other things have become fewer and farther between, but I’m just saying (out loud, to myself), it doesn’t have to be either/or. I can be an art journaler and also a maker of other things.

I do think that one of the problems I had with art journaling is that i create for myself there, but I do very much believe that art is made to be shared. I believe art is a fundamental human force for good that enriches our human experience on this planet with beauty, empathy, human connection, insight, delight…the list goes on. We take art so for granted, but a world without art—music, story, imagery, writing—would be dreary and alienating—even impossible. It’s not just enrichment—art makes survival possible. Story, music, film, the visual arts in its many forms—so much art from other artists has altered my life completely. Shouldn’t I create for others too? 

The answer is yes. I feel that calling. I can’t deny it. It’s time to think about making art with the intention to share it. And I can do that too. Both/and, not either/or.

And so with this permission shift, I’ve been thinking about what to make as an art practice, as an ongoing effort and I do have some ideas, and I feel very much at peace with the idea of creating for both myself and for others. That proverbial juggler spinning plates comes to mind. With the art journaling plate fully spinning now, I feel like I can pick up a few more plates and get them spinning too. I feel renewed energy and focus.

Hello April…

Assessing my February Weeknotes Experiment

This year began with a big intention to illustrate more of my life in my sketchbook. I’ve created those kind of pages haphazardly for years now, but I thought I would commit to a more rigorous practice. I got going in January but I challenged myself and followed through in February to create daily entries called Weeknotes where I painted one thing about my day each day and compiled them into a weekly sketchbook spread.

(I explained the project in my February Cover page post and shared spreads each week here on the website and on instagram.)

Now it’s March and after a full month of that Weeknotes experiment, I have some thoughts. And also new ideas for where I’m headed.

First, I loved painting these little illustrations. I stuck to goauche all month with the intention to express something of my days in an abstractified way (less realistic drawing), and it was great practice.

I learned a lot about painting with this medium as well as about my style. The seven pics in this post are my favorite from this Weeknotes month of illustrations, and I think there is a throughline. There’s a certain graphic quality. I like bold, high contrast color and shapes, and I guess I like clean lines. And a bit of quirkiness.

And yet…as these last two images created later in the month reveal…huh Maybe it doesn’t have to be so loud. And maybe I can go with more texture and layers. I think I like these two pictures the most.

All in all with this Weeknotes experiment, I gained a lot of clarity. Yes about painting and style, as I said—but also, more importantly about what I really want out of an illustrated journaling practice. And guess what? It isn’t to create daily illustrations of something in my life.

As much as thought I wanted to do illustrated journaling as part of my art practice, I realized this month that what I REALLy want, what lies beneath the surface of this ongoing creative desire to express myself—is 1) to create with paint and other art mediums because I love it (loving doing being enough of a reason), and 2) to express not necessarily what I do in my days, but what it feels like. To follow how I feel, in other words, rather than what I do.

So - I think I scratched that itch for documenting my days. I want to focus more on the pleasure and practice (and development) of mixed media painting and creating daily pages in my sketchbook that express rather than document.

Now, some would say (and my Inner Critic would lead the charge) that this is me quitting ("Again.”) But actually, let’s reframe: This is me evolving.

And actually? I’m proud of myself.

March 2026 Art Practice — and what happened in February

Okay! So March is here and I’m ready to go with my art practice intentions for the month. Here’s the cover page in my I made in my sketchbook and post on the front of my personal website, too..

And here’ are the January and February cover pages for reference.

I opened the year with a lot of experimentation. I’ve made daily art practice a cornerstone of my life for years now, but I was at a place where I didn’t really know what I wanted to make anymore, and didn’t know what I wanted my art practice to look like.

I’ve been in this place for a while. I’m totally committed to creating art—I love it! But…I’ve been feeling at loss for what, exactly, I want to make. So in January and February I focused on experimenting as a way to find out.

It turns out that what became the greatest focus of these two months was variations of illustrating my life in my sketchbook. And it was the February Weeknotes practice, particularly, where I learned something very important about my creative preferences: documenting my life doesn’t hold my attention. It’s not what I’m interested in spending my creative time doing. What I loved doing Weeknotes was simply the drawing and painting.

Okay, so not so much a discovery and a remembering. Oh yes. I really do love to draw and paint, especially in a more abstractified style that I want to develop. So that will be my March project. I’m going to draw and paint a series of wonky things in March. Let’s see how many pictures I can paint this month.

As for expressing myself in some daily way, I am also still committed to creating daily pages in my sketchbook—but I won’t be focused on documenting life. Coming to the page each day to create rather than document is a practice that has always served me well on so many levels—it’s where I learn, it’s where I explore and express, it’s where I meet myself where I am, fully present to the range of experiences that flow and float and scream through me onto the page.

And that practice, that daily experience of creating for myself, is enough.

So that’s March: Daily Pages and Painting. Hopefully a lot of it!