Artful Living

first love

September 25, 2008
“Writing is easy: 
all you have to do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”
                                    – Gene Fowler

a blank moleskin journal for your thoughts and visions

Everyone knows the feelings of a “first love” – You begin with a vision of already loving, of yourself being in love and suddenly your every thought becomes consumed with that love til you meet it head on and realize how scary that is.  For me, it most certainly began with the love of imagination and the blank page.  My first love, a blank journal.

I have quite a collection of these journals with notes, thoughts and plans for my love.  It all began when I was a little girl growing up in a large family and feeling that this journal could take me to a private place, a diary of sorts.  Each and every time, I face the blank page with a bit of fear yet I am seduced by the potential to imagine and to execute my vision onto paper.

pve design, a “doodle” on a page in my journal
Do you remember learning to drive and the anticipation of the open road and going places.
That is exactly what art feels like to me.  The key is my pen or paint brush, the journal is my car and the gas is in my head.  I need to fuel my tank by looking out, thinking within and bringing the vision to paper.  Then there is a traffic jam, a red light, an accident or some sort of engine failure and I am suddenly stuck or on empty.   I forge ahead and soon things come back to me, and that of my first love which is the act of making art. 
This applies to each of you, ponder your fears and how to over-come what is stopping you and your great idea, and how to keep driving through the traffic in your head.  Do you realize the potential of your first love.  The answers you get, depend on the questions you ask.  That said, ask yourself, why not start with a blank journal and ask yourself about your first love. Memories will come flooding back and provide you with a map or directions, full of ideas and places and first loves.
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