My husband has been worried because I am not getting out of the house so in an effort to make him happy, I took my black journal to Starbucks. I got my favorite coffee, nonfat vanilla latte, and settled into a corner to work. Before leaving home, I had randomly glued the eyes and dots. I was have a good time when the woman next to me said, "You know you're doing that all wrong." I did not know what to say which I guess looked like an opening to this woman. She had taken a class from a "big name art journaling teacher." When I tried to explain that I felt there was no right or wrong to keeping a journal, her voice got louder. I tried to explain that I am more of the philosophy of Eric Scott and David Modler of
Journal Fodder 365. She informed me that she had no idea who these people were, I suggested that she check them out. Then I promptly excused myself and came home. I think the universe is telling me that it's okay to stay home.
I started making quilts in the mid1970s. My first quilt was a baby quilt. I did not have a clue as to what I was doing but that did not stop me. I created simple drawings with fabric crayons and alternated the blocks with solid yellow. My niece (she wasn't my niece when I made it) still sleeps with it (she hates that I share this). She has always called it "my sunshine quilt" because of the sun in the center. Once I started being around other quiltmakers that the multitude of rules came out and a lot of the joy of creating quilts went away. When I finally decided that "rules" were meant to be broken, I became happier with quiltmaking. So I wonder what in the woman's life made it so important for her to inject rules into my journaling, try to make me feel bad and not even attempt to listen to my point of view. I wish I could have figured out a way to ask. How would you have handled this situation?
