Ohhh, I’m so excited – The Sassy Minx is part of art-girl and general lady o’ fabness Violette’s blog tour  – woop, woop!

Violette is a huge helping of artistic awesome sauce, her work is bright, vibrant and full of fun, you only have to check out her incredz magic, colourful cottage to know what I mean, and now she’s now released Journal Bliss, a book of creative prompts that will help unleash our inner ecentric. Now, I’ve kept a journal since I was 8, but as a writer-girl, they’ve generally been filled with, well…y’know, words. I’ve often experimented with coloured pens – I know, crazy right? – but I’d never really got more creative than sticking in  cinema stubs from a date with a cute boy, that was until Journal Bliss.

It’s been a total journal-keeping revelation. If you’re a journal-girl or even if you’re not, actually…especially if you’re not, come meet Violette – she’s going to make you grab your colouring pens and want to get your creative on, pronto.

Violette – I am in a whole lotta heart with Journal Bliss – you’ve encouraged me to play with my journal entries instead of just documenting my life with words – can you tell us all about the book and why you created it?
I’m so glad you’re loving Journal Bliss!  Thanks.
Well, I’ve been a huge advocate of Visual Journaling for quite some time now.  The reason is that for years I would simply “write” in my Journal about being depressed, frustrated, sad, confused etc.  It would seem that I would be wallowing and stuck in those stages like a record with a scratch on it.

One day I drew a picture of my face – coloured it blue and added some words to the page.  What I noticed over the next couple of weeks when doing this is that I moved much more quickly through my “stuff” than ever before.  I found that creating visual journaling pages  helped me access my subconscious mind more readily.  Because I was so fanatical about how Visual Journaling had helped me grow and move forward as a person I simply HAD to share it with everyone I knew.  I began teaching it to  friends but also at Women’s Centers to marginalized women and troubled teens.  The next step I suppose was to get it out there even more by having a book published.

There were a few more steps in between however – such as having my visual journaling pages published in paper arts magazines and zines.   The book is broken down in chapters such as borders, backgrounds, doodling etc. to make it easier to put all of these elements together!  There’s lots of eye candy in it too!  By eye candy I mean my own Visual Journaling pages meant to inspire you to find your own stories and document them in this fashion.

What are the benefits of the journaling process?
Journaling is another method of being creative.  When you’re creative you give life to what’s inside of you.  Often we are not aware of what we are going through or what we are feeling.  Visual Journaling helps you access that Divine or intelligent part of yourself which at times seems hidden.  Your art has a message for you and you can’t know the message until you begin the process of creation.  I do feel that we are guided and if we just get out of our own way all kinds of magic happens!  I am often surprised and happy with the messages I am given……for example, I might collage and draw a journal page and notice that I am being told to spend more time in nature, or to meditate or to “screw the rules” and just be myself.

Journaling is also very therapeutic.  I think of feelings of having shape and substance living inside our bodies.  If we don’t give these feelings a voice by giving them a creative outlet then they fester inside.  Have you ever heard the saying “Don’t die with the music still inside you?” Well I think that the music can be something sad or happy.  Making it real by the act of creation whether it be through Visual Journaling or quilting or playing music gives it life and takes it outside of yourself!

What’s your motto for life?
My motto is “Follow your Bliss” – Joseph Campbell’s words to live by.  It would be silly to follow someone else’s bliss, wouldn’t it?  Yet….I think so many of us do because our parents, friends or society wants us to. The world would be a much happier place if we all followed our bliss.

What makes you jump-in-the-air happy?
ha ha……..that’s cute Lisa!  What makes me go YIPEE???!!!  When I see a piece of juicy-coloured art that I love…..or playing with a child totally lost in PLAY…….or the colours chartreuse, purple and juicy orange they all make me jump-in-the-air-happy!  Oh….and let’s not forget glitter……glitter makes me insanely happy too!

Who inspires you? Who are your fave creative types?
Nature, colour, patterns, art books, art magazines, children, laughter, fun and whimsical people like you LISA!

By fave creative types do you mean people?  Well I really love SARK….she was my first real inspiration about 15 years ago.  I love outside the box thinkers, people who are not afraid of being themselves and bucking the status quo.  Many years ago I was on the show Weird Homes – I really enjoyed that show because it highlighted lots of outside the box creative types (many who are unknown) who delight in creating a fun environment.  Watching those shows helped inspire me artistically but also encouraged me to create my own funky environment.  The offbeat creatives inspire me the most.

What tunes would be on a Violette soundtrack?
Hmmmm……..well………it would be a definite mix of things – The Gypsy Kings guitar music, Enya, Dido, Jesse Cooke Guitar, Jethro Tull, Vivaldi, Brown Eyed girl by Van Morrison.  Weird eh – quite the odd medley!

Quick fire round: What’s your favourite:
Food: Artichokes
Book: Inspiration Sandwich by Sark
Website: www.creativity-portal.com
City: I’m having troubles answering this one – it’s more of an island – one of the Gulf Islands in B.C., Canada
Shop: Thrift stores
Method of creating: Visual Journaling/mixed media

What’s next in the world o’ Violette?! More books? Please say more books!
Well I’m thinking there will be e-books, online art classes (so you can access them from all over the world), DVD’s and maybe a few more REAL books?!  Also, I plan on creating my own line of cards and prints to sell on my website – who knows….I’m open to what the Universe will offer me!  It’s one great big GRANDE ADVENTURE!

Vist Violette and her awesomeness at: www.violette.ca and buy her book, £11.49 from amazon