” I was on a train in Europe homesick and craving two things. Pizza and somene who spoke English. It had been weeks since I had had a real conversation, and talking to people via my italian dictionary was getting very old… until I overheard the wonderful, sweet sounds coming from the next car. There stood this guy wearing torn blue jeans, carrying a large backpack, thoroughly engrossed in his conversation- his ENGLISH conversation. I wanted to throw my arms around his neck.
I heard someone say recently, I hang around with artists, writers, and musicians because that is where I live. ‘
And that sums it up. We all hang around with people who are like us.. If you play on a baseball team and live and breathe baseball, you don’t hang around with ballerinas-right? As artists, we can dry up and become stale if we stop hanging around like-minded souls.
One solution is to keep an artist-date once a week. Hang around with people or things that speak your same language. Some of my best artist-dates have been spent at a bookstore, jotting down notes on napkins.
Drive around and take pictures of doors. Take your sketchbook to a toy store and design a new dress for BARBIE. Go to a play or enjoy live music at a coffee bar…
When in the right environment, yniques for Art Journaling on the Edgeou may find that speaking the same language sometimes means not having to speak at all.”
from, WIDE OPEN – Inspiration & Techniques for art journaling on the Edge– by Randi Fererhelm-Watts