Journaling on The Go

One of my favorite things to do is to journal when I am on the road. I especially love journaling on the plane (if space allows) to kill time and fill the otherwise empty space with creativity. I travel a lot for my work, and I always take a little art kit with me. If you ask my family, they would say it’s not so little (I am a chronic over-packer), but to me it’s perfect!

It contains just enough to get my juices flowing, and not enough to be totally overwhelming or messy. My favorite art supplies for travel are small journals, pens of all kinds, woodless colored pencils, tape, glue stick, a white out pen, small scissors, Portfolio oil pastels, pencils, small sticky notes, a pack of baby wipes, some stamp pads, gesso, matte medium and a few small bottles of acrylic paint. I process just the same as if I were in my studio, but on a smaller (and usually much cleaner) scale. I don’t really keep a travel journal per se, even though it certainly can contain ephemera or memories from my trip. Its mainly a way for me to keep my practice flowing while I am gone, and also to keep me centered and grounded while working away from home. It’s a true pleasure to come back to a hotel room or guest room and see my little art space all set up. It can be as small as a space on the floor, or as luxurious as a whole desk or table. If I am really lucky like I was on my last trip to my Dad’s, I am able to set up a huge space and spread out. I could steal water bottles, paper towels and jars to make my space feel more like my studio. In other cases, I might use hotel plastic cups and toilet paper as my clean up rags.