“Art journals are the catalyst for my story.
The kind of story that skips and bumps
along reeling you in as it unfolds.”

— Rae Missigman

ART JOURNALING / A PIECE OF MY STORY

A STORY ISN'T ALWAYS A FAIRY TALE // BUT IT is a story

My story wasn't always worth telling, and it only brushed the outskirts of being a fairy tale once that I can remember, but I knew that I wanted to get it down, even if that meant scratching it out in the form of images instead of words.

So many parts of my story are not pretty and I have often thought of taking the time re-write those moments into something more breathtaking. To do that I would have to cover things up, start things over and re-work the things that still seem broken and ugly. But truth be told, the images that make up those parts of my tale are too important to consider it. It would be like ripping the pages from favorite book, forever altering the storyline.

The images created in those first important chapters of becoming a mark maker are not beautiful, but basic and rudimentary at best. I could revise those artful pages into something with a much happier ending, but that would be to cheat the viewer of all the forward thinking and learning that sprung from those primary images.

Looking back, I can see that I was always leaving my mark. I can leaf through those very first pages in my journals and see the marks forming, some hidden others shadowed, but all ready to come front and center when their chapter finally unfolded. I know that my art has not always been beautiful, but neither has my story. What I do know is this- I have always been learning. I have been growing and re-shaping myself and the way I create along the way. The chapters will continue to write themselves via my images and words, sometimes lovely, other times not. But I have learned to make my mark.

The most important part of my story is moving forward. In moving forward I make progress. Progress breeds growth and growth breeds understanding. With understanding we find ourselves as artists. And when we find ourselves we are ready to leave our mark on the world.