Brooke Gorrell-Beaudoin (aka @mintgreenthumb) is an artistic crafty queen from Canada. She lives with her husband, 3 cats, and a blue staffy in a small town on the prairies where she has converted a spare bedroom into her cozy studio. She started out scrapbooking as a pre-teen and has been playing with paper ever since! In her art journaling, Brooke loves to incorporate bright colours, powerful words, & all the layers. She believes that having a creative outlet is both healing and necessary!

What is art journaling to you?

Art journaling is necessary. It’s my way of expressing my emotions, feelings, and thoughts. It’s a big part of my mental health therapy. It allows me to explore creatively and grow in my art practice. I get to experiment with new mediums, colours, and techniques without pressure. We all need our own outlet to be vulnerable with ourselves, and art journaling is mine.

What does community do for your art?

Community enhances my art. Learning new things from other artists, being inspired by what they create, and receiving positive feedback from them is essential to my creative process. We’re all here because we want to see beautiful things in the world. We have a treasure trove of connections at our fingertips and it can transform us if we allow it to.

How do you live a creative life? How do you incorporate journaling into that?

I live a creative life by choosing how I see and interact with the world, and it’s my way of trying to understand the world around me. A creative life makes the heaviness of the real world feel a little bit lighter.

I live with imagination, questions, and possibility. Someone once said that creativity is just connecting things – it’s finding patterns in the everyday. It’s the beauty of seeing what others can but won’t.

I incorporate journaling into my creative lifestyle by using my journals as a “home” for my pattern-finding. The concept of having a PLACE to unload all those ideas is very liberating.

What does your creative space look like? Where do you journal?

One word: maximalism.

My creative space is a spare bedroom in my house that I’ve converted into my studio. It’s small, but it has great light and cozy vibes for sure. My friend once gave me a sign as a gift that says, “Your home should be a reflection of who you are and be a collection of the things you love.”. I’ve really taken that to heart in my studio – filling it with pretty things and covering every available surface with things that give me joy.

I journal at my desk, usually with a cup of tea and a cat within arms reach. Surrounding myself with things that inspire me makes my creativity flow.

Do you have creative routines?

My main creative routine is waking up early. It’s not for everyone, but I find that I do my best to create first thing in the morning, usually after my morning pages. That’s not to say that I never create at night or anything – I just like starting each day with a creative jumpstart. I make a cup of tea, turn on the lights in my studio, boot up my computer, and check Instagram. I check in with myself to figure out what I need to process that day and that dictates what I will create. Squeezing in some dedicated creative time before I head to work (or whatever I’m doing that day) calms me down, centers me, and gets me ready to face the world.

What is your favourite art journal page that you’ve ever made and why?

This is a cruel and unusual question LOL -it’s like having to choose your favourite child! This is my favourite art journal page I’ve ever made because it was during my first month of Get Messy, it’s honest, and it corporates a piece of ME into it. The symbolism of the sewed-up scars on my hands gets me every time!

What is your biggest barrier to creating? And how do you overcome that hurdle?

We’re getting raw here, y’all.

My main barrier to creating is my mental health. I battle anxiety & depression on the daily and it can really throw a wrench into my creative plans. It can be very frustrating to have a creative mind and feel like your ideas are trapped inside your own brain by the lies anxiety tells you.

Along with medication, therapy, and exercise, art journaling is a big part of my mental health journey. Most days are good days where art journaling is a haven for me to process my thoughts, but there are also some not-so-good days where it all feels like too much and I can’t make anything at all. These ebbs and flows can be discouraging but knowing that the lows are not forever helps. I will create again and make beautiful things that reflect who I am.

Have you ever made something you don’t like? What did you do?

All the time!! I think social media tricks us into thinking that artists are creating beautiful, perfect art on the daily. We ALL make things that we think are ugly and THAT’S OKAY.

Sometimes the ideas in our brains don’t quite translate onto the canvas and we end up with a big, hideous mess.

Sometimes the creativity flows and we make something we’re super proud of.

The whole point of art journaling for me is experimenting, trying new things, and exploring my creativity – not perfection.

When I do make an art journal page that I’m really not feeling, I usually cover it up. A layer of paint can do wonders!

Strangely, sometimes I share a page I don’t particularly like and that ends up being the one I get the most positive feedback for! It’s cliché, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Have you ever been through artist block? How did you return to your work?

Of course – what artist hasn’t?

I’ve gone through artist blocks that have lasted MONTHS and the only thing you can really do is give it time. I know that at my core I am a creative person, so regardless of how long I’m away from art I know I will ALWAYS return to it.

Sometimes I need to remember to extend myself some grace and allow myself time to grow without judgment.

How has Get Messy impacted your creativity?

Get Messy has given me a consistent way to make art. I’ve always been a creative, artistic person, but now having an outlet that’s so supportive & inspiring every. single. day. has helped me grow as an artist. We can’t underestimate the power of our amazing community and the inspiration we share with each other. The number one thing that people say to me is: HOW do you have the time to make art? And my answer is simple: I make it a priority. I carve out time in my day to focus on me and my creativity no matter what. Everyone has time to create; it comes down to how you prioritize that time.

What journal do you use?

I use a few different types of journals, but my favourite is vintage books. I like to pick them up at local garage sales, thrift shops, and book sales. Thankfully, vintage books are easy to come by & inexpensive where I live. Finding a GOOD hardcover, vintage book for $0.25 just hits different! I prep my book journals one of two ways: either tearing out every few pages to make room then using the actual pages or cutting out the whole book block then rebinding the cover with my own choice of papers.

What is your one *must have* supply?

I’d say my latest favourite has been acrylic paint, but my first love is and always has been – paper. All types of paper. There’s just something about it that makes my heart happy. I want limitless paper in a paperless world, you know?

What do you make when you don’t know what to make?

If I’m stuck on what to make, I will choose one thing in my craft space that I feel drawn to. It could be a bottle of paint, a postcard from a friend, or a sticker I think is cute, anything really. I then base what I’m creating around that. Oh, the sticker has pink, yellow, and green on it? I’ll grab some paints that coordinate and go from there. The postcard is a picture of shells? I’ll pull ocean-coloured papers and start collaging. Paint is a good one because you can just make some messy paint marks and there’s your background! If I get to this point and STILL don’t feel inspired, I use the handy prompt generator on the Get Messy site. It’s helpful!

What is the most important (non-tool) thing to your creative practice?

Showing Up. It seems meant to be that my very first season with Get Messy was the Season of Showing Up. In the past I’ve struggled to find a consistency in my creating…somehow finding every excuse not to make the things I wanted to make. That month I made a conscious decision that I would make my creative practice a priority in my life. No matter what. I have chosen to show up to create every day that I possibly can, and it has changed me as an artist. Show up for yourself!

Who are your favourite Messy artists?

There are SO MANY amazingly talented, creative artists in our community. Like, an insane amount! I get inspired most by Brandi Kincaid, Caylee Grey herself, Katie Licht, Joy Malcolm, and Felicitas Mayer.

What’s the best art advice you’ve ever received?

Create what you want to see more of.

Advice to new art journalers:

Just MAKE stuff. Don’t get caught up in the social media expectations or making your art look like someone else’s. We all must start somewhere! Learn from other artists, pay for art classes if you’re able, use what you have, and MAKE STUFF. A lot of people are intimidated by the idea of starting and there’s no better way to overcome that than to get some paint on your hands.