care bears

embracing your inner third grader

This video is of an “art journal page” *(see this post for more info. on this process).

I started this page months ago. I had judgment, “…why are you using a care bear sticker?”. I quickly caught my inner critic and invited her to sit and see how much fun it would be to play with markers and images. I never really know if I will return to an art journal page. I would say, on average, it’s a fifty / fifty chance.

Most of my process-based visual creations (I am intentionally leaving the word art out of this sentence) are made using a blend of water-based art supplies and permanent ink. When I returned to this page today, I added color and put water over the whole page. The water products blend, and the ink stays. Such is life?

Lately, on my socials (link here) I have been sharing images of pencils, paper, and paints I use. You can gather stickers and images from magazines. Honestly, there is no limit to what you can create on paper or beyond. Let that sink in: there is no limit to what you can create. Water-based products and permanent ink have been in my mind for over a year.

recent cultivation journals

Inviting the Buddhist concept of impermanence, I ask the water to symbolize what I can control—my thoughts. Let the unhelpful thought wash away. Don’t keep doom scrolling; let it wash away like water on the page. I can put the phone down! The ink is the permanent part of life; this is who I am, and I embrace those complex parts that seem immovable. Other people are the ink; I can’t control other people! There are many ways we can play with the supplies in our creations. Glue holds us together; we can also glue down that which we don’t want to carry anymore, ah the paradoxes.

I titled this post: Care Bears; embrace your inner third grader because creating visual process-based things/items/stuff on paper (aka “art”) has been a deep, long, almost eight-year process of returning to my love of painting, buying stickers, dancing, and finding all the play we were allowed or were not in our youth. Halfway through the writing process today, I have decided I will call my art journals - cultivation journals. What the heck?! Why did I not think of this before?

As I sign off, one last bit of insight I have had into more profound healing: I believe we have to move. That is it; move your body daily—another metaphor. Seventeen years ago, I made this commitment to myself in earnest. I have allowed the medicine of moving my body not to be about the shape of my body but the overall mental health necessity of movement.

Ok, one last thing to celebrate: my meditation practice has been more consistent than ever. So, I hope you might share this lovely hodge-podge confabulation of words and join me. A creation itself, this substack blog. I hope this invitation into my chaos of cultivation journals becomes a beautiful message practice that helps you wake up and greet this messy world.

If you think you might want to come along on your journey, where I also point out stepping stones that might help you, I am available in the new year to see if we are a fit.

With love and solidarity! Bridget

https://calendly.com/bridgetexpressivearts/gettoknowyou

all the links:

https://linktr.ee/bhopeb