My Art Journal 2018
A Book That Takes its Time
One of the Christmas gifts I received in 2017 was a copy of A Book That Takes its Time by Irene Smit and Astrid von der Hulst. This charming book truly does take its time. It is a workbook about reconnecting with your creativity slowly, deliberately, with the help of exercises and resources from around the world. I love it!
And I decided that it was the perfect book to use as my Art Journal for 2018. The book's actual title is A Book That Takes its Time, but one of the first things I did was decoupage the cover so that it now reads A Book of Time 2018.
Most of the content is too personal to share, frankly. It has been a rough year in many ways, and within these pages I have grappled with the deaths in our family, the march of time as my sweet boy grows up and I get older, changes in friendships -- and forging new ones in a new place.
I have worked through the book chapter by chapter, and the pages of text have become the basis for journaling about the topics raised. There is a wonderful timeline of your life to fill out and a section about values -- clearly articulating what you value. The book also includes nourishing recipes, sections on meditation, the joy of list making, a scavenger hunt which I adapted into a photo scavenger hunt.
Here are a few of the less personal spreads I have done in A Book of Time: 2018.
My personal timeline hides behind these pages -- an exercise to determine the threads which inspire and fill you. My threads: writing, creative work, travel, family, and church
A collage about summer travel
A collage about storytelling
Creativity takes courage
My response to the massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
Even garden planning takes creativity, and in the section of the book about connecting with nature, I set out our 2018 gardening goals.
Working through A Book That Takes Its Time is challenging, astonishing, and affirming. I highly recommend it -- whether you use it as an art journal or not!
Don't forget to order your own copy of my new Christmas giving journal: The Nice List!
