Katelyn Brooke

designer, developer, collaborator

Sketchbook Catharsis

Last week I was feeling kind of insecure for a few days.  I woke up in the middle of the night one night feeling totally anxious, and I couldn’t shake it for a few days.  I finally sat down with my sketchbook, and I can’t remember a time when sketching was more cathartic for me.  I was able to scribble out all of the not so nice things I was feeling, and then scratch them out (or not) and layer on top of them.  It felt awesome.

I started with this sketchbook page that I had half-heartedly “finished,” took my pen, watercolor crayons, and a wet brush, and went at it.

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the moon and the stars

I’m using this month’s Art to Inspiration post for a little bit of my own storytelling purposes.  Bear with me Art to Inspiration friends!

When I launched my blog last week, Kristin commented “you can never have enough stars!”  I realized that I kinda have this whole star motif going on here, but I never really explained the backstory behind it.  So here it is!

My mom has a knack for coming up with little poems.  Ever since I can remember, we’ve had our poem.  She used to say it to me every night before I went to bed.  My brothers had their own poems, and sometimes my mom would even make up poems for my friends who were sleeping over.  Until I went to college, we pretty much said it every night, even when it meant that I was the one tucking her in.

The first line of the poem is “I love you more than the moon and the stars.”  I won’t go into the rest, because that’s the most important part.  I mean, what’s bigger than that?

I’ve always had a special thing for celestial themes- the first time I decorated my room in elementary school, there were stars.  The star room was always my favorite room in the Pottery Barn Kids catalogue (I know, I was a freak.)  The moon and the stars are part of me.  And when I went to rebrand and redo my blog, well- it just made sense to go with the stars.  But I think it all pretty much goes back to the poem.

If you’d like to join in Art to Inspiration, just sign up here!  It’s so much fun!  Here is the information regarding the photograph at the top:

Title : Hello Blue Moon
Name of Artist : Lani Trock
URL : http://lanitrock.com/

Credits and Links: Lani Trock, J.Crew, Fraser Gunn, Favim,  Anna Rose Photography on Ruffled (seriously, one of my favorite wedding dresses of all time!), lyrics from this song in my sketchbook