Caylee Grey - Get Messy Art: The No-Rules, No-Judgment, and No-Pressure Approach to Making Art - Create with Watercolor, Acrylic, Markers, Inks, and More

The No-Rules, No-Judgment, No-Pressure Approach to Making Art

CAYLEE GREY

Contents

Spark your creativity and launch your art journaling habit.

Grow as an artist by expanding your knowledge and skills.

Cultivate your artistic practice and take your creative life to the next level.

Connect with a community that gets you and your arty awesomeness.

Welcome to this book. Youre going to love it.

ButIll tell you this up frontyou need to do the work.

Reading these words might make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but once you turn them into action, they will light a fire inside you.

This book is the catalyst, but its up to you to turn that spark into a blazing flame.

I, along with the incredible artists in this book, have done a massive chunk of the work. Almost all of it. Weve learned the lessons, weve put in the time, weve articulated it all. Theres just a tiny bit of work left to do, and it is yours. It may feel big and insurmountable, but you can do big things.

Id like to introduce myself. Im Caylee Grey, and I hope you put on a thick South African accent as you read this. My favorite title ever given to me is Fairy Artmother. Other favorites include wife and mama. I facilitate the online Get Messy art journaling community. For the past seven years, Ive been happily swishing and flicking my artsy wand as I help fellow creative humans just like you embrace the mess and magic of a fulfilling, creative life.

Im a South African living out my dream on the edge of a forest in Germany. I have horrible taste in music but spectacular taste in humans, which is why Im so happy youre reading this. Youre clearly great.

My art journaling adventure began as a way for me to get messy, ditch perfectionism, stay accountable, and consistently create art. But, magically, it transformed into something so much more than that.

Years ago, a friend and I committed to making art journaling a habiteven though we had yet to create a page. And for some reason it worked. Others joined us, and the momentum built. This turned into Get Messy, the most amazing community with more than three thousand members making things every day.

The best part is that Im not finished. Doing things makes me want to do more.

Im overenthusiastic by nature, so Im incredibly excited to hand this over to you. Im keen to see you take the lessons and projects in this book and turn them into art. Your creative journey tickles me pink both the beautiful parts and the messy bits. Especially the messy bits. Please share your projects on Instagram so I can see them, and so others reading this book can be inspired by you. Just use the hashtag #getmessybook to join in.

Thats your first action step. Throughout this book, youll see that I quite like action steps. Im fond of practical, tangible things. Im also fond of sharing. Id love for you to do both at each step.

Now, lets get messy!

Before we get started on what a Messy Artist is, Id like to touch on just being an artist. My definition of an artist is someone who makes art.

You do not have to be good or prolific. You do not have to share or sell your work. Your art does not need to look like the stuff hanging in museums. Good or bad art, newly creating or fifty years into your creative journey, youre an artist. If you make art, youre an artist.

Do not dare doubt yourselfunless youre not making art, in which case, make some art and call yourself an artist.

The Messy Artist goes a step deeper, looking inside and questioning everything theyve been taught in exchange for freedom.

That might sound dramatic, but being a Messy Artist is not just something you do when you schedule your creative time. Being a Messy Artist is all-encompassing; being a Messy Artist is disagreeing with the worlds take on perfection.

Encouraging others to be messy is my lifes work.

THE MESSY MANIFESTO

At Get Messy, we have a manifesto made up of six pillars on which we build our creative lives. This manifesto is your official invitation to live as a Messy Artist.

As a community, we believe in:

• THE MESS: We believe that we grow through play, learn through practice, and that creation comes from embracing the beauty of the messy middle. The only thing not invited to this party? Perfectionism. Leave that guy at the gate.
• THE HABIT: We believe that the starving artist myth needs to die (kindly but quickly), and that quality comes through quantity. To do our best, we need to be willing to do the work, hustle, and turn dreams into habits that we engage in every single day.
• CONNECTION THROUGH COMMUNITY: We believe that being a creative soul can be lonely, which is why we believe in support, and in supporting you through every stage of your artistic journey. We know that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• ACTIONABLE INSPIRATION: We might believe in eating doughnuts as we dabble with paint palettes, but well only ever consume (and provide) the type of high-quality creative inspiration that feeds our motivation and fuels our art into actionor inspir-action.
• ENTHUSIASM: We believe that being creative is a gift. We are so grateful that we can make artits pretty darn cool, right? Were unapologetically enthusiasticand slightly nerdyabout learning and growing as artists.
• KINDNESS: We believe that this is a community genuinely and authentically rooted in kindness and compassion. We believe, first and foremost, in being a good human and in taking care of one another through the chaos and craziness of life.

You are officially invited to turn these pillars into something that you are a part of, and dance with us in the messy middle.