Discovering the hidden messages and truths in our intuitive, creative work

What is Intuitive Art Journaling, why you should add it to your therapy toolbox, and how I am able to begin trusting myself again after repeated trauma

Beginning with the fun stuff…

(then, we’ll get to what Intuitive Art Journaling is and why you might need this creative practice in your life)

You might look at this piece of art, and think the emotion behind it was sadness…

But after analyzing it (AFTER I created it…not at all DURING the creative process), I knew that the focal point, the large orange/green piece with a botanical “mask”¹ came from a Gelli plate print that I loved; it was one of my favorite papers pulled from the Gelli plate. The small beige-colored scrap of paper with the deep green plant was also a calming, favorite. Likewise with the tiny blue piece with a plant on it. I remember buying the white ridged piece of paper. I liked the texture and knew I’d use it in areas where I needed texture, margin, and clarity. The bold line, a scrap of a frame-border to a much more interesting picture, made its way in this piece. It reminds me of a bold, known path, but it’s crowded-over with other pieces. To analyze this deeper than merely with the found words included here, is to discover that I was (am) holding hope, expectancy, vision, purpose, excitement, grief and sadness all at the same time.

Let’s try another, shall we? Maybe one less obvious.

This pretty one here, with the butterfly…it has pink, and fun splatters. Yet, the message is slightly confusing as far as how it matches with the colors and butterfly.

I love butterflies and when they are available (already cut out and ready to go), I will often reach for them. For me and probably most people, they represent transformation in a positive way. I have raised butterflies. When one emerges from its chrysalis, like a human baby, drops of meconium are present. It looks like blood and always reminds me of the necessary pain in the process of transformation. I believe the yellow splatter represents pain in birthing something new, and necessary for transformation, yet, that pain is not permanent. None of our pain is permanent because this is not our final home. This is not the place where we will ever experience “no more tears, or death, or crying or pain”². Heaven is. So, this piece holds growth, hope, transformation, AND pain, grief, and sorrow.

(a few more analyzed pieces are included at the bottom, if you’re interested)

What is INTUITIVE ART JOURNALING?

It’s exactly what it sounds like - art journaling, intuitively.

Perhaps you are wondering if all art journaling is done intuitively. I’m here to tell you, that it’s not and there is a palpable difference between expressing yourself creatively, and intuitively vs. creating a pretty art journal page. Though they both require heart, but the intuitive journal requires TRUST (and obedience).

Most of us spend the majority of our days in our heads. We simply cannot stop THINKING. And for many of us (work in progress, over here), to the detriment of our FEELING. The amount of thoughts we think in a day is astounding. And just because we think it, doesn’t mean we get to put it down when we’re done. It’s the open laptop analogy with 25 different screens open at the top. Let’s be real, I think I’ve had up to 60 before. It’s hard to close one down unless I know I’m completely done with it. Even the thought of, ‘I may need to come back to this one someday’ is taking up too much space.

So when do we give our minds rest? It takes SUPER intentional effort, time, and practice.

Intuitive art journaling is a wonderful way to receive that ‘rest’ and as a necessary bonus, it’s also a release! Intuitive art journaling creates a margin in our minds - you know, so you can fill it right back up again. Ha!

My intuitive art journaling journey began with my daily creative process during #the100dayproject created and hosted by

Lindsay Jean Thomson

when I chose to make tiny collages for 100 days. Little did I know that project would rock my world and turn me onto something my body and mind needed desperately. I wrote about my experience in a previous Substack here but have continued to learn from this process as I recently worked through an entire journal. Now I’m excited to share a few tips in hopes that you, too, can benefit from intuitive art journaling.

But first - what I needed before I could tap into my intuition

First, I will preface my tips with this important point: I don’t know that I would have been able to approach this process wholly if it had not been for the work I’ve been doing in therapy. Slowly, as 2024 has progressed, I have been working on feeling again. Significant trauma has changed me and the way I process everything. When trauma happens to us, especially, in my case, when it happens over and over again, it’s like we put on a pair of trauma-tinted sunglasses and we see the world through our trauma. Everything we see, do, think, or say can be affected by our trauma.

My healing journey³ hasn’t been easy, quick, or pleasant. But what is happening for and to me is well worth what I’ve had to do to get here.

Friend, if this is you, if you are living in or with unresolved trauma, I pray you will take THIS ONE THING away from my post if nothing else:

You are worth the hard work of healing.

As I have shifted some of the weight my protector⁴ was carrying (in other words, this part of me that wanted to keep me in a safe place from trauma, which, in turn, was ultimately keeping me from feeling), I have been able to feel again.

Being able to feel again means I am more attuned to my body, my thoughts, the sensations in my body, and what I need.

Being more attuned to myself has allowed me to trust myself again and hear God with more clarity.

Hearing God with more clarity…well, we know there is a plethora of benefits this brings…but I am able to receive his love far more than I could when I was *not healing*.

So, that brings me to how that has shown up in my creative process.

Creating intuitively means FEELING something (and, simultaneously, TRUSTING it) and then DOING it.

Seems easy enough, right? Not necessarily when you’ve been blocked by your head (overthinking), or your trauma, or your perfectionism, or your _______________ (fill in the blank).

BUT! There is hope and like I tell my kids all the time, you get good at what you practice and an intuitive art journal is a perfect place to practice trusting yourself!

“Once you start approaching your body with curiosity rather than with fear, everything shifts.” - Bessel Van Der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score

Tips for beginning and working in an INTUITIVE ART JOURNAL

1. Ask the Holy Spirit to be present and guide your work. And then, trust that He will.

2. Trust yourself. Try to FEEL and not THINK. Then, act on what you’re feeling. We hold many truths at any one given time and what needs to come out, needs a space to do that. Believe that once you’ve invited the Holy Spirit to guide your creativity, He will. If there is a message the Holy Spirit wants you to hear, and you trust yourself (often, your intuition is the Holy Spirit) to create where it’s leading you, then believe you will receive it.

3. As you begin to trust your intuition and follow where it’s leading you, there will be themes and messages coming out through your art (though, don’t try to analyze them in the moment: remember FEEL, don’t think) that words may not be able to speak, and therefore,

4. This counts as a release! If the ‘body keeps the score’, your art doesn’t have to. 

5. Give yourself permission to make art you don’t love. This is a FEELING art. You are not thinking, ‘This is not pretty, this is not something I’d want to show to others…”

6. Give yourself permission to change directions at any point (remember #1)

7. Make your art for yourself and if you want to share, fine. If not, also fine.

8. Be honest with yourself. It will do you no good to hold back or put up boundaries. It will do you worlds of good to NOT do those things.

9. Oftentimes, your intuitive art won’t make sense at first. While you’re creating freely and intuitively, your brain feels safe to access parts that may sometimes be suppressed or not accessed in your typical daily comings and goings. This, too, is a subconscious release! Come back to what you’ve created later and listen for whispers or shouts of its meaning. Try praying about it and asking God to reveal to you what it is he wants you to see. I have analyzed a few of mine below for you to see what that process looks like. If you are judging what you are creating, while you are creating it, you are not being led by your intuition. You’ve let those pesky thoughts creep in.

10. Engaging in your regular creative practice, even for a few minutes a day, boosts your mood, calms your nervous system, awakens your senses, makes you more productive, and aware of beauty around you. It also helps me connect with Jesus and feel gratitude that he’s given me this gift. So therefore, engaging in a regular creative practice is worth taking the time to do daily. 

11. Creating intuitively and expressively is healing work. It’s a tool in your therapy toolbox. I mention mine below in footnotes.

12. I don’t have to tell you the science and facts behind the importance of play (look it up if you don’t know) but just know - playing is important work, a necessity, not a “nice to have”.

13. A feeling may arise that brings discomfort in your body, heart, or mind. Try to embrace it and go with where it’s taking you. I had several pages that were black and dark and confusing to make. But after analyzing them later, I saw there were undertones of hope and light. I had pages where I needed to be physical - rub my fingers across the page, or wrinkle the paper before I glued it down. This is all part of the process that we can trust and obey.

Gratitude

I’ve stated many positives that come out of intuitive art journaling. But one of the biggest positives I feel is an overwhelming gratitude - in my heart, my body, my mind, and my soul. It’s a worshipful gratitude toward God. It feels like an offering, like a sacrifice. He wants me to do this healing work because he has plans for me that require a better version of myself; a healed and whole version of myself. And this process is giving me that version. And my art is my thank you back to him.

What a gracious, good, good father he is.

One kind of weird thing that happens often when I approach making a new intuitive art journal page

It might be helpful to know that often, I found myself thinking, “I can’t do this again. I’ve been doing it, but I don’t think I can do it today. I don’t think I can tap into my intuition today.” I can’t explain why this happens - there could be many factors involved - but ultimately, it’s because I’m in my head again. I start thinking, “Where do I start? What should this page look like? What materials am I using?” instead of simply reaching for and creating with the item that is calling to me.

If this happens, take a moment to tune into yourself and do whatever that looks like for you. Maybe close your eyes and take a deep breath. Say a prayer. Get up and walk around or go outside for a few moments. Write morning pages and complete a brain dump so you’ll free up some emotional space.

Intuitive art journals come in all shapes, sizes, and formats

Your intuitive art journal pages can be filled with paint, collages, sketches, watercolors, textiles, found words, poetry, or any combination of these and a million other things. Your physical journal can be in an old, altered book, handmade, or store-bought. The only thing that matters is that you are working with the materials you are drawn to and want to use. Trust your intuition and like I mentioned in #6, feel free to change directions at any point in time, if that is what you’re feeling. If you need to, remind yourself that it’s your journal and you can do what you want.

My journal flip-through and some of my trusted materials

I posted on Instagram yesterday a quick flip-through of the entire journal (minus a few pages that weren’t seen). This will show you the neat trick I did on my pages:

kellybpittman

A post shared by @kellybpittman

I used a Soho Urban Artist Brick Mixed Media journal and cut the pages in half, down the middle length-wise, to have smaller and more pages to work on.

I also use a few trusted favorites including UHU permanent glue sticks (the chunky ones are, by far, my favorite to work with); used books and magazines for images, words*, phrases, numbers, and letters; a feelings wheel (this is helpful when I am analyzing my work, or after I’ve completed it and am feeling an emotion I need help naming; teeny tiny glitter stars because they are the best and I must exercise restraint not adding them to every page; and other collected, found, interesting, and colorful ephemera. A few of my favorites include music sheets (printed free off the internet), free amazing graphics from The Graphics Fairy (I have a premium membership), tinfoil, the inside of security envelopes, stamps ripped off of mail, or anything that speaks to you.

*it helps to have precut words that your eyes can scan when you are working intuitively so you can grab the one/s that stand out at the moment

Most of these items are included on my Amazon storefront for Sacred Art Journaling & Intuitive Art Journaling. If you choose to purchase any of them, I would appreciate if you did so through my link as I earn a teeny commission - which, of course, goes toward more art supplies. :)

A few more journaling pages I analyzed

This is a playful piece. I must have been feeling colorful and playful. I think I also thought it was high time I finally used up some of the names I had cut out and needed a way to do it. The colors chosen for the ‘moods’/artists speaks volumes, don’t you think?

You’d think this is a more obvious piece, I was feeling dark and moody. But it’s interesting to note that I included some of my favorite paper, this bronzy thick, textured paper and on top of that, I made a feather-like shape. The bronze paper is like a weight, an anchor, and the feather on top of it is light and ethereal. So, beside my darkness and inability to see, I have an anchor, a hope, and I can feel a lightness from that (the feather).

Another fun piece to analyze. I used my fingers to spread the oil pastels into a hazy, smoggy, moody atmosphere. There is absolutely a connection with using my fingers to blend the colors that feels like a physical release. I have to press really hard on the paper and get my fingers dirty. It feels like a necessary part of the release. Choosing dark colors for the grief I was/am feeling and perhaps rain coming down, yet, also a sparkly golden sun is rising shows the multitude of emotions without even considering the words. The words, of course, add to the layers. We don’t often associate mourning with something delicate or preciously beautiful. But just like all things, God is working them out for our good, including our losses and grief.

One final thought….

Not to get too dark here but

I truly feel that keeping creatives out of creative community is severely oppressive and straight from the enemy. That’s exactly what he wants to do because he knows the power we will have when we are in creative community and creating the work the Lord wants us to be creating, and HEALING. He wants us broken and defeated. For creatives who are not creating, that is exactly how we feel!

As I have mentioned numerous times here before, my desire is for all of us to be in creative community together, and often.

I am STILL PRAYING about this. I cannot seem to find the best way to do it that isn’t too expensive. One thing that frustrates me like no other is that many of these amazing creative communities and opportunities seem to be so inaccessible for the average person. I watched an entire webinar to learn more about an amazing creative retreat ‘that only cost $5,000’. Who has that? Ridiculous. I mean, it’s great if you do, but the average person just doesn’t right now. And I firmly believe a good creative community should be accessible and affordable to ANYONE and EVERYONE.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Would you want to be a part of it? And last question, will you please pray with me about this?

Thanks for reading!

1. masks are basically stencils when used in making Gelli plate prints but they are used to hide, to mask, the paper or paint under or above it

2. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” - Revelation 21:4

3. This is such a complicated topic for many, but the healing journey that I have been on has consisted of many tools in my therapy toolbox, such as: many different modalities of talk therapy, somatic therapy, body work such as chiropractic, sacred art journaling, intuitive art journaling, being in creative community, nature, and of course, spending time in the Word and with Jesus.

4. Protectors are a part of the Internal Family Systems therapy. I have been using this, along with other modalities, in my extensive healing journey