Felicitas is a mixed media artist and instructor from Germany. She has been working in the memory keeping industry for over ten years, has taught scrapbooking & mixed media workshops and online classes, and also has designed her own creative products. She finds fun, enjoyment, contentment and gratification in art journaling and all things mixed media – Felicitas heavily believes in empowering creatives to explore their own creative potential.

What is art journaling to you?

exploration of creative freedom, activity to calm my mind and ground myself

What does community do for your art?

connecting like-minded people who probably would meet in real life.

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

making creative content is my job, so that’s a thing i do almost daily. it can be stressful at times but i also need it to ground myself and get lost in my art. beside the things i do for the job, i also make dates with myself to just create and have fun.

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

i’m very blessed to have a separate room that i call my art studio. i have a big table with camera equipment above and open shelves for my supplies. I promised my husband to do all the messy stuff in this room, but sometimes I sneak my art things out to the dining room table when he’s not home 🙂

Do you have creative routines?

there are times when i participate in challenges, like 30 days of morning pages etc, but no… i don’t have a creative routine…hm, I probably should establish one

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

wow, tough question. I like most of my pages for different reasons. I like the ones that have a photo on it. I like to make myself visible in my art. the one i submit here is me sharing my recovery from elbow surgery and that i’m able to make art with my arm again.

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

of course. many, many things. i usually finish the page, analyze it and notice what and why i don’t like it, like certain color combinations, the over-use of a certain medium etc… and file that away in my brain and go on. i brows through my journal from time to tie and then briefly stop on the pages i don’t like. i never re-do them or paint them over, but i don’t bother with them to much.

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

the exhaustion from daily creating for a job i guess. creative block is a thing for me. i usually switch to another form of creativity. like when i’ve done a heavy phase of messy art journaling, I crave a much neater “art outlet” like clean & simple memory keeping, just shoving photos in pocket pages and vice versa.

Has Get Messy impacted your creativity?

Absolutely, I’m not very much active on the website but browsing GM’s IG and their stories is one of my fave places to gather inspiration.

Felicitas is one of the incredible teachers at Get Messy. She shares her art and her heart in the Season of Ideas.

You’re invited to embrace the messy middle and join the best art journaling community on the internet.

What journal do you use?

an altered old book cover with random papers as inserts

What is your one *must have* supply?

spray bottle of water

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

glue down various paper scraps (collaging)

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

explore and have fun

Who are your favourite Messy artists?

caylee duh, laura dame, lisa goddard

Advice to new art journalers:

gather inspiration from different sources, replicate what you like and transform it in your style, give yourself permission to explore your own creativity, be ok with the level of art-making you’re at but be open to widen your artistic horizon