Build Your Own Structure

Sketching/ journaling has always been an outlet I have used, however, a couple years ago I became disciplined in my journaling practice. I started with the idea of not liking to separate the different "subjects" of what I was learning from my own life, schedule, personal thoughts, goals, and prayers, etc. During this time I was in the process of developing my concept and body of artwork, the "rough draft" was constant intentional journaling which I like to refer to as brain vomiting. I tried a couple things to figure out my own rhythm of journaling. One was waking up every morning and before I left for the day I had to fill an entire page with words. They didn't have to make any sense or have a goal, just enough thoughts to fill a page, but that over time they developed into comfortability with the process of a stream of consciousness documenting and amounted to tangible metaphors or plans or just life statements of identity or observation.

The success of this was really obvious in the grades of my general subject classes (as well as my overall excitement and passion for life and art). I have always doodled in class but by the combining of my day planner, 'diary', sketchbook and class notebooks all in one NON LINED journal it amounted to the most beautiful overlapping of what I was learning into application of my habits and artwork and general intentions of everything. I began drawing doodles that I would fill in with notes, making the notes a part of the "piece" I would begin drawing  at the beginning of a class. This was a breakthrough to me retaining the information of the class lecture and applying it to not only the projects for that class but carrying over into all of the classes, my BFA concept, and general interests. #purpose of going to college... This also gave me a lot of identity confidence and security and comfort with myself. It taught me how to love spending time with myself anywhere anytime if I had a journal and some preferred pens. The idea is to create your own structure of remembering important things and creating new ideas and falling in love with all the potential of your beautiful unique brain and benefit from its awesome and creative potential.