By Gillianne Nugent

Bullet journaling has really helped me out a lot, especially since it is so customizable. I am a type A person who loves to keep organized, so the blank pages of my bullet journal really help me keep myself scheduled and on track while still being creative.

The colors and designs in my monthly mood trackers made me think about colors corresponding to moods and emotions in other contexts. That same day, I took notes on the six basic emotions by psychological standards: anger, disgust, fear, surprise, sadness, and happiness. All of a sudden, I’d found my inspiration.

What I created from “nothing” was a thin gouache spread of some of the colors I use in my bullet journal’s mood tracker. Over the top of that, I included some rough sketches of my own facial expressions to represent some of the basic emotions I had learned about through my psychology course. During this process, I tried not to correct or adjust myself and simply let the lines and colors flow out, as emotions do in real life. I am ultimately pretty happy with the result, and I would like to even make a gouache addition to my bullet journal in the future, so I can look back on it and remember this project.

Looking at the mundane through a new lens is something we have discussed a lot in this class, so it made sense that my final object followed this thematically. I journal daily without even thinking about it, so it feels very authentic and true to my own self to create something from this thing that I might otherwise take for granted.