TAKING YOUR FIRST STEPS INTO ART JOURNALING BY SASHA ZINEVYCH
YOU’VE ONLY BEEN ART JOURNALING A RELATIVELY SHORT TIME, TELL US HOW LONG IT HAS BEEN AND HOW YOU DISCOVERED THE CRAFT? I started art journaling in April 2016. I always loved drawing and painting as a kid. I could spend hours and hours drawing princesses, my family and nature. However, I didn’t consider myself particularly talented in this area. I got good grades for drawing lessons at middle school and that was it. Despite not having a habit for drawing in my daily life, I have always craved more creativity. This is when I discovered the world of decorated planners. It seemed reasonable to me – I was combining practical use of planning with creative embellishments. I bought a ring planner and decorated some inserts for a month. Still, something was off, so I kept looking.
INTRODUCING SASHA ZINEVYCH Sasha is a twenty-something freelancer. She works from home, so is free to choose where she lives. She is from Ukraine, but has been living in Poland for a year now. Sasha is inspired by European architecture on a daily basis. Her first hobby was photography and she still adores it. Fun fact: her full name is Aleksandra and nobody from non-Ukrainian and non-Russian speaking world can understand – why and how! But that’s really how you shorten her full name in her native language.
YOU CAN FIND SASHA: PROUDLY A
Website www.alek-z.com Instagram www.instagram.com/sasha_zeen
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One day, browsing Pinterest, like you normally do, I stumbled upon a beautiful mixed media page. I followed the link to the source to see the author of this beauty and ended up on Get Messy Art Journal Instagram page. To cut a long story short, I re-purposed my regular notebook to be my art journal and made my first art journal page that same day. And the rest, as they say, is history.
TELL US WHY YOU ART JOURNAL. DO YOU CREATE BECAUSE YOU LIKE ART, OR DO YOU LIKE TO TELL STORIES, OR EXPRESS YOURSELF? I don’t think I have one clear answer to this question. I create because I feel the need to. It’s like there are all these ideas, and inspiration, and images boiling inside me and I just need to give them life outside of my head. I would say I am still struggling with going deep in my art journal. For now, it’s just a visual and creative release. Although, I am striving to be more expressive and conscious with what I create. There are some great art journalers, such as Vanessa Oliver-Lloyd (@dansmoncrane) and Molly Anthony (@mkranthony) whom I admire for the stories and feelings they bottle up in their art.
