When Words Hesitate – Get Messy with Paint, Scissors, Glue

By Brenda Riojas, I Start Wondering Columnist

When was the last time you took a creative pause?

As much as I like to journal, some days the words hesitate. I simply don’t have the energy to get any sentences down on paper. Imagine my delight when I discovered that the pages of a journal can be more than words on paper. They can be a place for art and collage, for random thoughts, photos and ephemera, a place to get messy.

Mixed-media – the use of one or more art mediums – opens the door for creative exploration, inviting us to layer words and emotions with texture, color, and play. In the midst of it all, mixed-media journaling serves as a form of meditation, making it a place where you can linger, muse, breathe as you work with your hands to paint, glue in collage pieces, or add stickers or stenciled images. Not only does it create a space for mindfulness, but it can also reduce stress and spark joy.

A Healing Pause

When my mother-in-law lived with us, she asked me how I had time for art when I obviously had so much more to do – house upkeep, work deadlines, nana duties. I did not have an immediate response, I just knew it was something that gave me peace and joy. Later after considering her question further, I explained it was a form of therapy, a way to restore my creative energy. I came to see it and defend it as a healing pause. It is unfortunate that we can feel as if we are stealing moments from our responsibilities, when in reality it is a gift that nourishes and gives us balance. Our creative souls need these moments of pause and play.

Mixed-media journaling gives me space to nurture my inner artist. Too often we don’t give ourselves space and time to create simply for the fun it brings. How many of us hesitate because at some point in our lives like in the story of The Little Prince* by Antoine de Saint Exupéry, we were advised to lay aside our drawings?

“The grown-ups' response, this time, was to advise me to lay aside my drawings … and devote myself instead to geography, history, arithmetic, and grammar. That is why, at the age of six, I gave up what might have been a magnificent career as a painter.”

In my journals I get to use my art supplies and experiment. I like discovering how different elements work on the page as I juxtapose scraps of papers with photos and words.

Working with diverse materials such as watercolors, magazine cutouts, and fabric scraps encourages experimentation. It helps ignite our creativity. Studies have shown that multisensory activities and the tactile process of layering stimulates the brain’s reward centers, fostering

“flow” states where new ideas emerge.

We spend so much time in front of a screen these days, we take for granted the value of the work we do with our hands. Our hands that prepare meals for those we love, hands that prune away weeds and overgrown bushes, hands that hold another’s when they are ill.

“Discovering what we can create with our hands is pure joy; they are God-given gifts,” said Sister Rose Carmel Garay, 85, a Sister of the Missionary Catechists of Divine Providence, who likes to make jewelry when she’s not leading a tour.

In my spiritual journaling workshops, I share that mixed media allows us to pray with our hands. And as we let go of our need to be perfect, we recognize we are each a work in progress.

Get Messy

There is a benefit as well to getting messy, and that may take different forms depending on your comfort level.

Our inner critic, which aims for order and perfection, hates the messy – paint smears and splatters, glitter glue and random marks. But when you start by scribbling with a crayon on a blank page, you allow perfectionism to clock out and clear the way to explore what comes next.

I like to think of mixed-media journaling like a creative field trip on the page, or a playground for your hands and art supplies, one where you are open to new discoveries.

A workshop participant shared with me that she came with a friend to a session I was leading out of curiosity, not knowing what to expect. She questioned the relevance of mixed media to journaling. By the end she spoke about the ideas it sparked, about the way cutting and gluing put her at ease. And then she asked, “When’s the next one?”

Experiment, Explore, Enjoy

Where to start? Work with what you have available. Open a drawer where you store your scissors, dig out some glue or tape. Gather up some old magazines, greeting cards, wrapping paper. In mixed-media journaling, anything goes. Consider all the ephemera you don’t know what to do with – an old playbill, ticket stubs, receipts.

Next, open you journal. Make some random marks or paint a few swooshes of color. Write out a question or a quote you’ve been carrying in your mind. There is no right or wrong here. This is your page to experiment with different art mediums, explore how colors and ideas collaborate. It is a place for freedom, a place to put away your inner censors and judges. Let perfectionism take a break. I find I enjoy incorporating torn pieces of paper as a first layer, or painting over a private prayer.

I have come to see how the different layers on the page can serve as a metaphor for the strata of our own lives. Childhood memories and wounds covered over with new roles and experiences. All of them in conversation with each other. You might be surprised by the silent dialogue that emerges between the cutting and gluing, the layering of paint and torn paper, the insights that emerge from the process. From the scribbled words on the margins to the blending of art mediums, we start to see how art helps us process emotions and reflect on the occurrences in our lives.

There are countless resources to dive deeper into mixed-media journaling and the interplay of life and art. A good place to begin is with the starter kit I’ve prepared for I Start Wondering. (You can get that here.)

Also, each year getmessyart.com hosts a Messy May challenge, where participants are encouraged “to show up imperfectly” and “embrace the messy middle.” It served as inspiration for me to learn new techniques and approaches. But you don’t need to wait until May to get started! Have yourself a messy December or messy January or any other month of the year.

While there are days when mental fatigue or other life realities may hold back the words and thoughts you want to record, in the interim it is helpful to have diverse approaches to journaling as we accommodate our changing rhythms. Get your journal and give this “scissors, glue, paint therapy” a try.

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