The move to Beijing has brought on a lot of changes in my life. Some are familiar to me, some are completely new. Familiar territory is returning to my stay-at-home-mom role, at least for the summer. Going to the pool, making lunches, exploring our new neighbourhood; these are some of what I’ll be doing with the kids during the summer break. New territory is learning to navigate the internet in a country where most websites are blocked. I use Blogger, Google and Facebook a lot. These pages are inaccessible to most Chinese residents. I have to use a VPN (virtual personal network) that makes me seem like I am in another, non-censored, location.  There will be moments when all of the internet is completely blocked. So if there is complete silence from me, you’ll know why!

One of the most positive aspects of my move is having the time to go back to my daily art practice. When I lived in Hong Kong, I journaled almost daily. I joined Get Messy in 2014, at the same time that I moved back to Canada. In Canada I had a full time job so I found myself with less time to make art. I mostly did the Get Messy prompts and my personal art journaling became less of a necessity. not only because of lack of time but also because I didn’t need it as much. Art journaling for me is a way to cope with stress and anxiety and to process my feelings. Being back home in Canada was not stressful in that sense so I din’t need to process through art.

But now, I once again overhauled my life to move somewhere else, left my career and all things familiar to find myself in a new place. Art is my saving grace. This is when I need it the most. So I’ve gone back to my art journal. I have a wonderful space, that will eventually be my studio once our shipment gets here. I have time to explore, try new things and make mistakes. So I will. Already I have been exploring and playing in my journal. I will be sharing these pages periodically here on the blog, with the tag art journal. I will also be sharing them on Instagram under a new hashtag: #Vsartjournal. 

I am still fully committed to Get Messy; those pages will still be shared on Fridays. I am still fully committed to the Awesome Ladies Project; those projects will be shared on Tuesdays from now on. And now there will be Recent Art Journal pages posts on here too! I hope you’ll come with me on this journey.