Thoughts

I have looked at a lot of the other June pages for the Beaded Journal Project. Now I kinda wish I hadn't.

They are wonderful examples of people's expressions. It is interesting to see how different each page is and how people come up with their page/image. Everyone uses beads in such different ways to express themselves.

Just as an artist's journal will vary from person to person, these pieces also vary which is to be expected, naturally. It'd be so boring to be alike. Although we all use beads as a medium, beads do limit our expression to some extent, although they don't have to dictate how a page/piece will come out. Backgrounds don't have to be filled with beads (negative space isn't a bad thing.) Backgrounds don't even have to be fabric.

I'm influenced by other people's art, which isn't such a bad thing, but it's something that I personally wanted to avoid, especially on this project. I wanted to come up with images/pieces on my own, using beads in whatever manner I wanted to. Now I find that I "wish I'd thought of that..." blah blah blah.

In some ways, seeing other artist's work pushes me to dig deeper, but I want my pieces to come from my own creative well. I think this has a lot to do with my inner critic. Mine can be especially vicious, but I'm working to quiet it. I don't think I'll ever be able to silence it, but I can learn to ignore it.

Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up. - Pablo Picasso