A little more detail work on the 8/30/18 page spread from my Paris/Basel travel journal, on the last day at the Creative Sandbox Retreat. I don’t want this retreat to end! But people are already signing up for next Fall—September 11-15, 2019. (Okay, technically not yet Fall, but…) So we have that to look forward to. 😊 🖍
I’m also dreaming and scheming of doing Creative Sandbox Retreats at other times of the year. Winter retreat anyone? Spring? What do you say? Wanna join me? 😊
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism

This morning’s efforts at Creative Sandbox Retreat: painting this spread from my travel journal. Painting an existing page is less scary than starting a new page, so I’m easing into the day with painting. I plan to start a new page after lunch. 🖍
But it gets to be crap. I keep reminding myself — as if it’s a brand, new thought! — that whatever I do in my journal, whatever I create *anywhere* (here at the retreat or elsewhere!) gets to be crap!! After all, we need the crap to fertilize the good stuff! And this retreat in particular, we are really celebrating crap! I mean, we always do, but I made a little poster to hang on the wall with the quote, “I’m gonna get on the crap wagon!” after somebody said that at our opening circle Wednesday night.
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So hello, gremlins! I see you. I hear you. I appreciate your concern, and I know you’re just trying to keep me safe, but I’d rather grow, thank you very much. I’ve got this one covered, so I’m sending you off to get pedicures. Have fun, and I’m gonna get on the crap wagon and make art.
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism

In addition to painting an already-inked page spread, and writing/drawing a half a page spread, this is what I did at Creative Sandbox Retreat today: a complete page spread in my travel journal—writing, drawing, painting! And after completing this, here’s what I have to say: WOW! No WONDER I didn’t get this done while we were on our trip! It took me 3 ½ HOURS!! We never would have left our hotel! 😆
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I had been feeling badly about not capturing the moment IN the moment, feeling badly that all the thoughts I had on the trip would be lost (and of course, many of them will be), but in our opening circle last night someone shared a story about her grandmother, who took copious notes in travel journals on her many trips. After her last trip, when she was very old, she looked at the box of notebooks and said, “You know, I wish I’d spent less time taking notes and more time in the moment.”
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So there you go. The upside of not spending as much time writing and arting on my trip as I would have liked is that I spent that time DOING THE THINGS that I’m now writing and arting about. 😊
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Plus I did have my phone with me, which I used to take lots of photos (when my hands weren’t occupied with my crutches!!), and those photos are super helpful now, to jog my memory for where we were and what we did, and what I was thinking and feeling when we were doing it.
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So it all works out. And now I’m enjoying turning the memory of the experience into art (despite what my gremlins tell me about it being a waste of time. Silly gremlins!)
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I hope you’re making time to play today!
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism

This is what I’m working on at Creative Sandbox Retreat: my travel journal from our Paris/Basel trip. Letting it be crappy. Which is something of a tag line for this year’s retreat (not a surprise, since it’s something of a tag line for ME! 😊) Last night at opening circle, when I asked people to share what they wanted to get out of our time together, there was mention of “making lots of crappy art,” and someone said she was “gonna get on the crap wagon” and make a similar goal. 🖍
We all need the reminder that it’s okay to make crap. That we NEED the crap! It’s the crap that fertilizes the good stuff, after all! I seem to need this reminder CONSTANTLY! And I’m the one who’s preaching it! But we teach what we need to learn. And over and over I learn what seems a brand new lesson each time: “Hey! It’s so much more fun when I let myself make crap!” Like it’s a surprising new discovery.
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Well, okay. I’ll let myself be delighted again by that “new discovery,” if that’s what needs to happen. 😆
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Today, and this week/weekend, I will continue to allow myself to release my inner 4-year-old and make crap, and have fun doing it. How about you?
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#creativesandboxretreat #creativesandbox #traveljournal #artjournal #sketchbookjournal #sketchnotes #sketchnotearmy #originalart #artistsofinstagram #artistsoninstagram #originalart #doodle #moleskine #watercolor #watercolorjournal #imperfectionism

Door tags for this year’s Creative Sandbox Retreat. I get so much joy from making these by hand each year. 😊
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But here’s a secret: I got to the retreat and realized one of the door tags I’d labored over at home was missing!!! PANIC ATTACK!!! I couldn’t make a replacement, because I didn’t have any of the tools, or the paper, that I used to make the originals! 🖍
So what did I do? I quickly whipped up an *entire set* of replacements! And because I had an *extremely* limited time in which to make them (about 20 minutes), I COULDN’T get perfectionistic about it!
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That’s one way to scare off the perfectionist gremlins: *radically* reduce your timeline. When you have a Riding short amount of time to do something, you simply do not have the luxury of perfectionist standards. It’s actually very liberating! 😊
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#creativesandboxretreat #calligraphy #originalart #moderncalligraphy #handlettering #brushlettering #brushcalligraphy #kuretakebrushpen #tombowdualbrushpens #dropshadow #imperfectionism