Here’s a sneak peak at the January 2016 Mobile Art Challenge from the Art Journal Emporium. My intention was to create some sparkly fairy magic to sprinkle over the new year. This month’s tutorial focused on the Repix app. I also used Mextures, Snapseed and ShockmyPic.

Now, I want to disclose something. I wandered around in the iPhone app desert with this piece for a long time. I really struggled. Didn’t like this. Didn’t like that. That didn’t work. No, not that. That’s not right. Blah, blah, blah.

I’m not disclosing this to get sympathy or to beg for compliments. I’m sharing because I think it’s valuable to be honest about the process of creating. Not just the step by step, but also the stuff that circles around in our brains when we’re making choices.

For me, there’s always a fine line between making choices and triggering the dreaded “Inner Critic” or ‘Oscar’ as I like to call him. Oscar and I went round and round on this one. And, guess what? That’s okay. Because I’ve learned something incredibly valuable from Tangie and all the members of the Art Journal Emporium.

Watching Tangie’s videos and seeing her change directions, make different choices and hearing her say things like, “Yeah. I like that.” or “I’m not thrilled with that. Let me try this. Oh! That’s better. That’s what I want. Yeah, I like that.” is so helpful.

She shares her process and by doing that she’s shown all of us how to create a safe space for our own creative process. And being part of that safe space has helped me embrace curiosity and create a safe space within myself. So it’s okay for Oscar and me to duke it out because I know that, if we keep going, we’ll arrive at a happy place eventually.

A supportive, encouraging, and honest community has made all the difference for me. If you’re like me, and you prowl artist’s blogs and enjoy looking at creative magazines, you may think to yourself that making art is for other special creative people. I loved looking at the work created by so many mixed media and mobile artists and I wanted so badly to create something ‘like that’, but I never tried. I didn’t know where to begin. Finally, I was brave enough to take the leap and in 2012, I joined the Art Journal Caravan, and last year, the Art Journal Emporium. There’s been no looking back since. I truly can’t express how valuable this community has been to me and how grateful I am to be a part of it. I hope 2016 is the year, you’ll take the leap and join us.