Welcome to TheJournalingMagazine!
Hello worldwide Journalers! Celesta here; also affectionately known as ‘mom of Rajacenna’ the quadridextrous artist whose talent probably defies several laws of physics.
Let’s rewind a bit: at age 12 (we’re talking 1978 here) I started my own newspaper for the local youth in my neighborhood and was I running a one-kid library empire out of my living room.
Not only did I publish the latest ‘news’ for the youth of my hometown, but I also curated a collection of comics and books, renting them out to my friends like a pint-sized publishing magnate.
Fast forward to my early career: after stints as an editorial secretary for a major Dutch publisher, I teamed up with an old classmate to launch a coffee import business in 1989.
After the disaster, absolute chaos of a circus birth and as such miracle birth of my daughter in 1993, which dragged me through hell and back; my body decided it had had enough and promptly fell apart. I walked out of that birth (barely alive) with a baby in one hand and a grab bag of 80+ mystery ailments in the other. And since I couldn’t exactly scream my way out of it, creativity became my survival mechanism, my way of making sense of the madness.
And, of course, as soon as I got my hands on an internet connection, CelestaMagazine burst onto the digital scene, where I spent the next era interviewing fascinating people and hanging out backstage at Dutch musical premieres.
By then, I’d accumulated enough ideas to make my own TV show. So, naturally, we bought a professional camera and launched Kinderjournaal/KidsnewsTV; landing press passes to every film and musical premiere in town, giving us prime access to the red carpet and celebrity interviews galore.
Apparently documenting life is more than a hobby for me; for some reason it seem to be in my DNA. Since childhood, I’ve been the one scribbling, cutting, pasting, and saving every little moment or celeb pics.
I singlehandedly created new editions of history books, rewrote Donald Duck storylines, re-archived celebrity facts, documented the entire Walt Disney story and transformed school agendas into novels of their own, jam-packed with everything remotely glueable.
In 2014, I brought this love of preserving life’s minutiae to Instagram with @artjournals, a growing community of art journalers who understand the irresistible pull of paper and pen.
During this time I already worked several years as graphic designer, cartoonist, webdesigner, owned 40+ websites myself and published and illustrated a children’s book.
And now? I’m bringing you TheJournalingMagazine, a space where my lifelong passion for capturing the uncapturable finds its ultimate home.
So welcome! Dive into a world where every page begs for ink or glue, every moment is ripe for preservation, and if it’s not nailed down, trust me, it’ll find its way onto paper.