Why Art Journaling is Good When You Are Grieving

Art Journaling for Grief

A friend of mine is grieving. So when I saw this post, 25 ideas for art journaling, I thought of her. It’s a nice, all on one page list of ideas, here.

And that’s not all. Sometimes when a person is grieving, it can feel like there’s no point to making art. I have felt like that in the past. “Why bother?”

I found some interesting science on why we should consider making art, even, or especially, at the times when it seems the most pointless, when we are at our lowest, our saddest or most stressed out.

It turns out that making art for 45 minutes reduces your cortisol, which is the stress hormone. You know how salmon swim upstream in order to mate and then they die? You know what they actually die of? A build up of cortisol.

Shrine Making for Grief

“Shrine for Joe Luther” Copyright Elaine Luther. All rights reserved.

“An ordinary set of objects becomes a shrine when it is arranged and given a special significance. Anything displayed or arranged with reverence or evoking mystery can become a shrine. Shrine making is a form of art making that reflects the human urge to assemble and arrange things in a meaningful way.”

from The Soul’s Palette by Cathy A. Molchiodi

It’s August, and even though I don’t want to believe it, fall is coming. Which means Day of the Dead, El Dia de los Muertos, is coming. It’s a perfect time to think about shrine making, for those who have lost someone recently, or not recently. (You can see some of my shrines here.)

You can set up a shrine anywhere in your house, or make a smaller, more personal, pocket shrine, inside of a mint tin or match box.  Something you can take out and look at whenever you want, but put away when you need to.

Where to Find More

My favorite sketchbook for art journaling/creative sketchbooking is the Canson Mix Media, because the pages don’t warp and most permanent markers do not bleed through to the other side of the paper.

You can find more details and links on how to get started in art journaling, here.

and I wrote about grief, or Passage Quilts, by Sherri Lynn Wood, here.

and that’s Creativity Tip #23.