JG: I am excited to be featuring stargardener as Be You’s Artist of the Week. When I first discovered Teresa’s work I was immediately draw in by all of her colors and textures, both on the page as well as within her words. With every post on her social media and with every journal page, I found myself inspired. Teresa invites us all to abandon any perceived perfection in expressing our inner most feelings and to boldly color outside the lines. I welcome you to the wonderful world of the Right Brain Planner and The Art Journaler. I guarantee you’ll be inspired too!
stargardener: Since I was a young girl, I saved trinkets and bits of paper and ephemera. These collections of meaning and memory came to be kept in a small cedar box. In college, I filled vintage scrapbooks with notes, matchbooks, Lifesaver wrappers, bottle caps, stickers, ribbons and a widely-random range of items to commemorate my adventures; and to remember.
I journaled hand-written entries and schedules on the pages of old textbooks, adding in mementos and stickers. I discovered color-coding my course notes and collaging themes allowed me to retain what I was studying. My planners and study guides became weekly collections of layered notes and color.
Some 20+ years later I came to learn terminology for these creations: art journals and altered books. It felt like validation of something I rarely shared but held so very dear. My planners became known to me as “right brain planners” liberating me from lines and boxes, and allowing the mundane to become art. Each altered planning page, “documentation” — proof that living a linear life was not required.
My first custom right-brain planner was created with folded 8×11” sheets of printer paper and junk mail letters — covered with doodles and collages of colorful, cancelled postage stamps and Post-it® notes. My first intentional, creative planning-journaling days began in 2007 when I began to blog about my creative planning, as well as rekindling my business career while considering the option of a PhD in or a law degree to work as a social entrepreneur.
In the midst of so many details and decisions, I utilized social media and right brain planning techniques as a system of collaboration and to piece together the necessary details as I learned them. Ultimately, my planner-journals guided me away from traditional business goals and into that of a creative consultant. I knew I was precisely where I supposed to be; not “behind” or in need of “catching up” or “figuring out” Next.
What is ours cannot be taken, lost or otherwise missed, Braveheart.
Altered books and found papers also became my “planners” — more about an assemblage of torn paper and miscellany, less about detailed plans. Created as I allowed space to ponder my to-be’s and to-do’s. Right brain planning is a promise to my-self to dedicate time and space for personal discovery and creative noting of what is life-giving. It is a promise to honor rhythms of energy, and note what inspires + guides — not what “should” or “must” be accomplished.
Doodles, collage-visuals, and hand-lettered declarations and quotations eventually found space on my right brain planning pages. I added to these pages throughout each day as a practice; this form of journal-planning came to be my version of morning pages — and my therapy. Guiding me in-Spirit and allowing focus to be on creating, instead of controlling the outcomes of my {living}. I also learned another new term for these types of booklets made from pages of no-rules collage: glue-booking.
Right brain planning is abiding in-pause as you listen to the beat of your heart and the whispers of your soul; intuitively allowing for ease and choosing what feels natural. Opting for the easy choice — the reoccurring choice gently inviting you onward. A choice that will be like the tide, gently carrying you to your personal Next. Weekly and monthly notations of which activities and relationships are energy-giving — what you want to see more of — and not giving up until you live what you love! ♥
Each month I create art and content for right brain planning pages — visual prompts, hand-lettered and hand-crafted to spark thought, and to inspire your own jots and notations. If you would like to experiment with right brain planning yourself, click here to download a free guide.
Teresa aka stargardener believes in the healing properties of found text, black-ink doodles and tearing bits of paper by hand; her right brain planners are her way of living free from lines and boxes. Her life has been an adventure of: legislative affairs, rural community development, small business consulting — and her current favorite, creative planning. Her freelance career began cleaning homes + creating custom greeting cards and invitations. She would be delighted to connect with you via her web sites, {Right Brain Planner and The Art Journaler} Instagram or Twitter.
Jenn Grosso hails from a far and distant land impervious to the mundane and the conventional. Her eclectic interests always begin with an overwhelming curiosity, which catapults her into fanatical investigations and explorations. With a penchant for all things beautifully extraordinary, Jenn recognizes the importance of honoring her shadow self and the medicine of everything around her. Embracing her inner sacred creative, Jenn plays host to the dance of shadow and light, while smiling at the fleeting nature of it all.
Shamelessly wearing her heart on her sleeve, Jenn can typically be found with a book in hand, mala around her neck, and skipping to the beat of her own drum. Connect with Jenn on her blog Perilsoftheliving, Facebook, Instagram and on Twitter.