 Hi guys, we're here for Explorations of Me for August 2019, so this month our discussion is around. Let me grab my clipboard so I can read this and I don't screw it up somehow. Do something you don't enjoy. Can you find benefit from the act? Does it give you a different view? So we've all in life done things that we knew we had to but we didn't really enjoy or we felt we needed to at least give a try and then when we realized we really didn't like that we, you know, it was a learning experience, right? Am I wrong? So if nothing else when you have to do something you know you're not going to really like or try something new that you're really unsettled about, you know if nothing else even if it doesn't work it's a learning experience and you know for sure you don't like that thing. For me my journals over the years they're one of those things and I need to go get one more example so hang on I'll be right back. Okay, I can't even get this one on camera. I have actually two of these because I didn't learn the first time, I did it twice. When I first started art journaling I was taking a few different classes and life book being one of them and I did a couple of these big journals. These are Kansan XL Mixed Media Journals 11 by 14 inches and what I learned from doing these big journals, I really hate big journals, really they are not my thing. This is some of my early work and I just like them intensely. So then I just started going progressively smaller and what I discovered was I like a medium to smallish journal. This is just way too big for me but I did try it and it got me into art journaling which I discovered I loved. I just didn't love doing a journal this big. This is my current stack of journals, let's get these out of the way. This is my current stack of journals that I work on. This is my favorite size so this is a moleskin weekly notebook and this is one that I was just showing and filming in another video. This is a moleskin cahier, they're about the same size. This one's just thicker because it's got more pages and they are, where's my ruler? The pages are five by eight and a half. So that's really one of my favorite sizes. I love journals that are about this big. That's what I've learned over the years. I also when I'm doing mixed media work I kind of like this thinner paper even though in some respects it can be more challenging. I also like the delusions journal in the smaller size which is about ironically about the same size. I like this size journal. I do occasionally work on some smaller ones and these are both moleskins also and they're just little tiny pocket size. These are some homemade junk journals that I also enjoy working in. Again, you can see a theme. I like the smaller size. In the junk journals I like the variety of paper and materials and this one actually has some really interesting fabrics and papers and things in it. You'll notice I also put these plastic like page protectors when I'm working on a page that way I don't get, I'm messy. So that way I don't get too much paint on the back page. I learned that early on too. What I don't like, I don't like this journal. So this is one of the bigger ones as you can see. This is the Dina Wakeley media journal. I just like this journal intensely. I kept working in it. I've been trying. I just don't like it. It's not my thing and we are going to do something about that today. I tried it because I thought it would be interesting. It had this watercolor paper in it. It had burlap in it. It has canvas in it. Ironically it's not the burlap and canvas I hate. It's the watercolor paper. I really dislike this watercolor paper. I don't like fighting with it. I don't like working in it and we're going to just do something about that today. So take all this stuff out of the back. This is all empty. And it looks like if I go to here, I can take out two signatures out of this book. So let's try to do that first and let's try to take the signatures out. So in art and life, just because you need to or have decided to try something new, if you decide you don't like it, it doesn't mean you have to continue with it. It doesn't mean it matters if it's art or something else in life. If it doesn't make you happy, don't do it. Don't keep with it. We buy art supplies or we try new techniques and we decide we don't like them but then we feel like we have to hold on to them for eternity because we paid money for them. So you don't have to hold on to them. Donate them. Sell them. You've tried something and you don't like it. Like for instance, back in the day, I used to do a lot of floral crafts when I was in the artist cooperative store. Okay, I hate floral crafts. First thing I did when I stopped selling over there was get rid of it. All of it. Okay, that looks like I have to cut that. So when I moved into the new house, I was complaining about this journal and that I didn't like it. I had to pack it. I needed to try to finish it. My friend Cindy Utter said, you need to just rip those blank pages out of it or ripped out the work that you like out of it and get rid of the rest. She tried to tell me to do this months ago and I was too stressed out to listen. Cindy, you were right. I was wrong. Now the canvas could be used to make tags. This paper can just be used for scrap paper. The rest of it can just go away. That's kind of the last one there and what I can do is glue this down. Just cut it out. Let me get some tape. Hang on. So there's always a solution and when you're trying something new and you feel it's just not working, you've learned the lesson in it that you needed to move on. You don't need to keep beating yourself up about it. Move on and go forward. It may be hard. It's not always easy, especially if the thing is a relationship. But in the long run, it'll be better for everyone involved. In this case, it'll be better for the journal on me if we just let it go and I get it out of my workspace because I am done with this journal in a major way. I probably won't sell it because I do have trouble letting go of some of my work and there is that page in here from when Bandit passed away. But this way, I've taken the blank pages out and I can feel like it's finished. I'm going to put some tape over these strings and I can feel like it's finished. I can let it go and release the stress from having it hanging around my space, taking up room in here and making me feel guilty about the fact that I just like it. Yeah, that's a thing for me and I can be one and done. So I just like this journal so much I'm not even going to, as I said before, wax the pages. It's just not even a thing I'm going to be bothered doing. So what I am going to do is I'm going to take some wax paper, tear off sheets of wax paper, cut right wax paper is really the best one. This is actually a dollar store brand, it works fine. But cut rate is the best one, but use what you have and then take tear off a bunch of sheets, just like I did with the big journal, put them in between. That way your pages don't stick and then put it on a bookshelf and let it live out of your space and out of your way. Let it go. Like I said, this is the only page in here I like and move forward. So just because it's in your space and in your way, whether it's a relationship, a person, place or thing, learn the lesson from it and let it go and move forward. Negative things aren't pleasant to be around and I have better things to do than deal with negative. Life is short enough so I'm going to let this go and I'm going to move forward in a positive light. How about you? Check out the description below for links to what the other teachers are doing this month and how they're taking the prompt. I'm sure they're probably doing something more traditional with it rather than a journal page but I really wanted to show you this. It's very different and yet it's something that I think we all contemplate and need to think about. So anyway, check out what they're doing in the description below with all the links. Don't forget and show them some love, like, share and subscribe. If you want to see what I'm doing every day in an art realm or you want to support the free content here on YouTube or over in the Facebook art groups, click on the link tree list of links and you'll find all my social media links along with a bunch of different places. You can support the free content. Also the most important thing, go out and have a great day. Do something nice for yourself because you deserve it. Take away an old journal you're not happy with, old art supplies you're not happy with. Let them go. Move forward in what you do like, what you do love, what you do enjoy. Let the other go and call it a learning experience. That's it for right now. I'll see you later. Bye guys.