How Visiting STRAAT Museum With My Son Inspired Me to Create a Digital Art Journal

A few months ago, I visited the STRAAT Museum in Amsterdam with my five-year-old son.

STRAAT is a museum dedicated to street art and graffiti. The works are large, bold and impossible to ignore. My son walked through the space without analysis or hesitation. He did not try to understand the art. He reacted to it.

He stood in front of a mural and said, "It feels loud." Another piece made him quiet. "This one is sad," he whispered.

I recorded him on my phone. Not posing. Not performing. Just experiencing art in the purest way.

That moment stayed with me.

I Realized I Had Always Kept an Art Journal

On the way home, I remembered something from my teenage years.

I used to collect exhibition flyers and concert tickets. I would glue them into notebooks and write my impressions around them. What the music felt like. What stayed with me days later. Which artwork I kept thinking about.

I did not call it art journaling. But that is exactly what it was.

A personal art journal diary. A record of how art shaped me.

Over time, I stopped. Experiences became digital. Photos lived in my camera roll. Reflections stayed in my head.

Until that day at STRAAT.

What Is an Art Journal Today

When people search for "art journal" or "art journaling," they often find sketchbooks, mixed media pages and creative prompts.

That is one side of art journaling.

But there is another.

An art journal can also be a way to document your relationship with art. The exhibitions you visit. The concerts that move you. The work you create yourself. The emotions you want to remember.

It becomes an art journal diary - a timeline of your creative life.

And in a digital world, it does not have to live on paper.

Why I Needed a Digital Art Journal

That day I had:

• A video of my son reacting to art
• Photos of murals
• My own thoughts forming

But nowhere to keep it all together in a meaningful way.

The camera roll felt chaotic.
The notes app felt disconnected.
Social media felt too public.

I wanted a digital art journal. A place to:

• Add a photo or video
• Write a short reflection
• Save artist or venue details
• See everything in a timeline

Something personal. Searchable. Calm.

So I decided to build it.

How to Start Your Own Art Journal

You do not need a perfect system to begin art journaling.

After your next exhibition, concert or creative session:

Take one photo.
Write three sentences about how it made you feel.
Note where you were.
Save it intentionally.

Over time, these small entries become a story.

You start to see patterns in what moves you. You see how your taste evolves. You remember moments that would otherwise fade.

That is the power of an art journal.

What My Son Taught Me

Watching my son at STRAAT reminded me of something simple.

Art is not just something we look at. It shapes us. And maybe the question of what art even is matters less than the question of what it does to us.

Art journaling is a way of noticing that. Of preserving it. Of building a record of your creative life, one moment at a time.

That is how Art Journal began.