Depicting your life is an art

Angela Churchill is a Rockhampton (Gracemere) artist who is teaching journaling techniques in upcoming workshops in the region.

Sharyn Oneill

WHEN Angela Churchill moved back to Central Queensland she joined a craft class to meet new people.

As a bonus, the 34-year-old Gracemere resident also discovered her inner artist, and is now selling her work and teaching classes.

Attending a scrapbooking class with a workmate six years ago, Angela found an offshoot of the craft, art journaling, attracted her attention more.

"It is more like making a diary," Angela said, admitting she wasn't skilled at all in photography, which is an major part of scrapbooking.

"It becomes more about you."

Art journaling is like creating a personal diary, but instead of just writing words, you can include paintings, drawings or glue in anything that reflects the theme in a book.

Adding layers to pages need not be an expensive exercise either. You can put anything on the pages, using things you find at home to create a collage on the page, Angela said.

"You can use anything you like; it just means it is all different.

"It is just recording my day."

Angela is now teaching classes on the topic, through Out and About Crafts in Berserker St, Rockhampton.

Following her first class on Saturday, she is already planning more classes to give people ideas of how to create different effects in their own personal journals.

"It is not the technique you use, it is how you put it all together.

"It is not finished until you say it is finished," she said.

Angela has also incorporated art journaling into other forms of artwork, some of which have sold at local markets and through My Sister's House in the East Street Mall in Rockhampton.

A mother of two, with both children under the age of three, Angela said art journaling was a pastime you could fit around a busy lifestyle.

"I can do it in 10-minute spurts.

"There is no pressure to finish anything, it is just fun to play, experiment and just try different things."

What is art journaling?

You can use any kind of book for your journal, like a notebook, or even recycle an old hard-cover novel, by gluing some pages together and painting over them.

Then you fill the pages to depict your mood, using whatever materials you like.

"It is kind of like a daily journal, but using pictures or art instead of words," Angela said.

What can you use?

Paints

Watercolours

Chalks

Ink

Paper

Material

Lace

Buttons

Plaster

Tissue Paper

"Basically anything you can glue down."