What do I mean by “Art for the Soul”? Grab a drink and get comfy. This is gonna take a few minutes.
if you’ve been following my blog for any length of time, you know that I found art – more specifically art journaling – quite late in my life. My family didn’t do any sort of crafting and the few required classes at school (back in the day when art classes were actually part of the school cirriculum – as important as any of the purely academic classes) held little, interest for me. i took an “art appreciation” class in in college, and found it only mildly worthwhile.
In my various former business lives, I was manager at a Dairy Queen; a bank teller; a medical records abstractor in a kidney transplant unit (don’t ask); a legal secretary and a paralegal. I wrote software user guides; conducted intranet usability studies; installed the first PC network in the company I worked for (waaay before I appreciated the elegance and simplicity of Apple – once you’re Mac you’ll never go back). I managed large teams of technical customer support people and implemented enterprise-wide software solutions (don’t ask). I completely re-structured the member services division of a local county bar (as in attorney, not as in alcohol) association. And then I retired.
What does all that have to do with “art for the soul”? Not a darned thing. That’s my point – all those years of working the gray cells in the left side of my brain had me convinced I had no artistic abilities at all. None. With a capital zippo. But guess what? I was wrong. As my family will tell you, I don’t admit that very often.
Once I got interested in art journaling and started taking classes, I discovered that I can play with (and spend money on) art products right up there with the best of them. I can splash ink on a page and smear gesso around with my hands. I can collage and layer acrylics and stamps. And all those years I spent claiming I couldn’t “draw a stick” – convinced I just “couldn’t do it”. Wrong again. I’m not saying that I’m a “fine” artist, but I know now that I can create a page I love looking at. And I can even draw and then paint “a girl’ – now that was a real shocker!
But the biggest shocker is how “arting” makes me feel. If i’m having a bad day, I hole up in my little studio (ok, 
it’s really the guest bedroom) and start laying down paint. it’s not long before I’m totally involved and humming. If there’s something on my mind and I scribble those thoughts in my journal and gesso over them, I somehow feel better. It’s not that I’ve resolved the problems – or the things that are on my mind have magically disappeared. It’s more like once I’ve given them a “voice” those things don’t seem to be quite so heavy. Some days I just feel like playing and I can spend hours just experimenting – and still feel very accomplished. When I am the lucky recipient of “happy mail” it’s thrilling to open the package. When I’m making happy mail, I’m get all warm and fuzzy thinking about what the recipient will like and creating something pretty for them. That’s “art for the soul” – part therapy, true, but mostly it’s just fun and it satisfies something in me I can’t quite define.
When my friend and fellow artist and digi designer, Courtney (of Courtney’s Designs) and I were discussing a collaboration project, she gave me her list of possible themes. One of them – “Art for the Soul” immediately resonated with me. We set out to create something that really represented the art we love to make and I think we succeeded. I’m am totally in love with this kit – Courtney and I both hand-made/painted almost everything in this ginormous product. We both used our gelli plates to create the backgrounds and textures in the kit and we both sketched and doodled the same kinds of elements we would use on our own journal pages.
I hope you love “Art for the Soul” as much as we do! Thanks for reading – and I’d love to hear your thoughts on what art journaling means to you.
Heya just wanted to give you a brief heads up and let you know a few of the pictures aren’t loading properly. I’m not sure why but I think its a linking issue. I’ve tried it in two different internet browsers and both show the same outcome.
Thanks so much for taking the time to let me know about the broken links, Joella! I’ve fixed them. Vicki
This is just so cool! Ever since I started digiscrapbooking, I have wanted to get away from the ‘cookie-cutter’ kits, though, some are still gorgeous. I just wanted to see more hand done work, artsy, if you will, on pages and layouts. Ya’ll are but only a few of the designers who work like that and I love it.
This kit exemplifies artsy to the nth.
Thanks again for all the free parts!!
On what you wrote in the beginning, I went about it almost the same as you, only I did have a keen interest in art my whole life. I just never really did a lot with it. When I discovered Photoshop, that was all she wrote, as they say. Six years later, I am happily creating artsy elements and backgrounds and turning them into layouts. I will never sell any of my work. It takes the fun out of it for me. I’m not so good that I feel I can charge, anyway. But, maybe, one day!
Su
You are such a nice person, Su! Thank you so much for your kind words They mean the world to me!
Well, I can honestly say there have only been a handful of people that I have really been inspired by; you, Courtney, of course, Cilenia, Christine Martin (les idees de Christine), Anna Aspnes, Rachel (Captivated Visions), and perhaps a few others. It doesn’t take a rocket scrapper to see a common thread. They/you start with your art and go from there. I set out some time back to transform my digi-scrapbook kit making into more artsy elements so others could make their pages look more hand made. I, as with everything else, started doing research. I must have been under a rock ’cause you guys had already done it! I was enthralled with what you all put out there. The pages DID look hand done! I am planning on switching some of my scrapbook kits to artsy kits. I have enjoyed the journey and still am! So, if it seems like I am stalking you, it is because you have just been a real inspiration! Sorry if I am a pain!
Su
You are not a pain, my friend! I love hearing from you and I so appreciate that you read and comment on my blog! And I love that you share about your own journey!! Hugs!
When I click on the freebies in my newsletter they both link to the Facebook freebie. I am not able to get the newsletter freebie
My mistake, Lois. Just sent a correct! So sorry for the confusion!
I agree with Robyn! 🙂
Thank you, Kim!
Art For The Soul is BEAUTIFUL ladies!! Thank you too for such lovely and generous freebies!!
Thank you Robyn!