Meghan is happily retired after a career as an administrative analyst in the field of education. She spends her days exploring art and spirit in her mountain studio, taking breaks to walk with her cat in their ever-changing woodland. Family and friends are important and she loves to make art while she Zooms with her granddaughters or her art-ner Traci.

What is art journaling to you?

Art journaling is an opportunity for me to connect with my creative soul. To allow Creative Spirit to move through me and manifest in this time and space by making. With color and texture, line and shape I express the yin side of my nature, she who speaks through imagery and symbolism.

What does community do for your art?

Art community magnifies my artistic pleasure exponentially. It is so lovely to spend time speaking and making with other kindred souls who love beauty and understand the need to create, and who share a love of all the supplies!

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

I can’t help but live a creative life! I was dancing by the time I could walk, started a theatre in our barn when I was 10, and have explored acting, costuming, photography, writing, and pottery over the years. Even when I was an analyst my spreadsheets were colorful and beautiful. Now that I have time to dedicate to my creativity I choose to art journal. I am inspired by nature and my spiritual explorations daily and I allow that inspiration to express itself in little books.

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

We live in a tiny house so my loving husband, who nicknamed me Firebonnet, built me a studio overlooking our woodland, complete with a porch for all my bird feeders. We call it my art hut. I have stations in the space for various purposes: a sewing area, computer area, puzzle table, and two worktops, one at standing height. Last year I invested in different forms of storage and so the hut is now jam-packed but has places for all the things I love to create with.

Do you have creative routines?

I am generally energized by routine and spend time in my studio around the same time every day. However, I always check in with myself to see if I need to take a break. As with all things in nature, creativity has fallow times and when I’m in tune with myself I can feel when I need to take a break.

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

It is hard to pick a favorite page as I tend to fall in love with each one while I’m making it. But I’ll choose this one today. I made it with another Messian during the Season of Collaboration. Traci Taylor and I found each other during this season and have been fast friends ever since (my grandkids call me Mimi and hers, Annie). We would randomly pick a recipe from the Get Messy Recipes and a color and make a page with those guidelines. Look how similar and yet how different our pages are. My page is not only a lovely expression of some of my spirit animals but also a symbol of the deep friendship we nurtured during that season.

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

It is when I have too much stimulus and I can’t decide where to start. For instance, if I enroll in too many classes at once, or get overly inspired by scrolling IG I can creatively freeze. At that point, I invoke turtle time, narrow my focus, and slow down. Sometimes I have to say no to things, but more often than not, if I just prioritize I can get back into my creative groove.

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

I had artist’s block when I retired and found I had all this free time but was crippled by my perfectionism. It had been years since art school and I was out of practice yet still held high expectations of my creative self. I slowly moved through that phase by working through Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. And then I found Get Messy and the field of artistic grace Caylee Grey held (and still holds) charmed my shy artistic child into blossoming.

How has Get Messy impacted your creativity?

Get Messy gave me permission to let go of my creative perfectionism. I have a BFA in art but I hadn’t used it for 15+ years. When I heard the name Get Messy and discovered art journaling, I found my creative joy again!

What journal do you use?

I vary my art journals with the seasons of Get Messy. Right now I’m enjoying making an art journals that fit with each theme, choosing the perfect size for my mood and binding just the right amount of pages so I can reasonably finish it in a month.

What is your one *must have* supply?

Paper …. vintage book paper, gelli printed tracing paper, rice paper, magazine images, coffee dyed graph paper; you name it I love it. (I also need a glue stick with that paper, although I recently got into alternate forms of attaching paper, like little pins, needle and thread or fun paper clips.)

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

I get out my scrap paper basket (small papers from previous projects) and look through it and see what calls to me at that moment. That usually sparks something for me and I’ll make a collage with other mixed media using whatever colors work with the scraps I picked.

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

Consistency. I feel the best when I take myself out to my art hut daily, and show up for my creative self.

Who are your favourite Messy artists?

I have a big place in my heart for the Get Messy art journalers, past and present.

Advice to new art journalers:

I would recommend you woo your inner artistic child. Think of your creative space as a place for play and then create without judgement. If you have an inner judgy voice, find an image that represents it and then whenever you create, send that image on vacation. I made a snooty looking paper doll and stuck her in a travel magazine whenever I came to my art table. I promise it works, last I looked my inner judge was enjoying a vacation in Tahiti.