Art. Journal.

I’ve been looking at a few art journals recently.  Wondering why I generally only work on a journal when I’m travelling?  Thinking that though I can do a pretty good job of assemblage, I’d quite like to get a bit more of actual art in there.

I’ve seen plenty of journals which really don’t float my boat.  I’m tired of seeing faces of moody women with long necks, scribbled in charcoal on a highly coloured background.  I’m bored with pointless doodles which mean nothing and are really just some instructor-led scribbles and encouragement to go out and buy more, expensive materials (or indeed, more expensive materials!) 

I’ve dabbled in digital journalling and learned a lot about Photoshop and what can be created without moving away from my computer.  I have folders of digital sellotape, ink blots and jpg lines of stitching.

I’ve played with hybrid methods; real cutting, sticking and gluing on top of printed out, digital images, because I recognised that getting my hands dirty and creating some dimension was all part of what I enjoy and that simply printing out didn’t quite do it for me.

I’ve followed online prompts and classes, which have inspired me to do something outside my normal comfort zone, to work in a different style or even to identify a way of applying my style to a different framework.  The envelope page above was part of Shimelle’s “Learn Something New Every Day” project and with September on the horizon, I think that it’s a good time to consider this year’s challenge.

I took a favourite book from my shelf and thought about how I’m going to approach this.  In particular, a paragraph on the page about collage leapt out and struck a chord:

“..collage makes use of appropriated images and words.  These will bring their own accumulated meanings and connotations with them into their new configurations on your pages.  These items are marks and as such should contribute to the overall meaning of the work and not dominate the piece. Work that is basically an enshrinement of an appropriated image fails on many levels”

Amen!  Here, in a couple of sentences, is what has been niggling me about so many of the journals I see here and there.  Exactly what I’ve been trying to avoid in my own work and I think, why I find it hard to do any kind of journalling unless I’m travelling.  Normal, everyday life doesn’t seem to produce the ephemera, the unusual situations or the interesting enough experiences which are worth recording* and using some commercial or product-driven theme: Put a bird on it or the current overused image (button? butterfly? pointy hat?) really doesn’t work for me.

an image from page 77 of “The Decorated Journal” which I particularly like

So, the challenge I’m setting myself this year is to create something more authentic.  I’m going to use the  Learn Something New Every Day prompts to try to bring a little more art into my 2012 journal; to leave the computer out of it and get the real colour flowing.  Not all pages will be masterpieces, I know.  Perhaps I won’t be able to do a whole page each day and some days will be a mere note or intention?  Maybe I’ll get into the habit and find that I can’t stop?  Perhaps I’ll fall at the first hurdle and discover that writing blogs, taking daily photos and creating an art journal doesn’t leave any time at all for actually living the life I’m trying to record?  Who knows?

But there.  I’ve said it here.  I’ve committed!  Anyone else playing along?

* You’re right, normal life does produce the most extraordinary situations and the most mundane and routine experience is well worth recording, of course!  But do I have the energy or the commitment to record it all?  Let’s see.

Journal bling

One of the first tasks on arriving home is to complete my journal, binding it properly and tieing off all the loose ends.  I know that, if I don’t get on with it right away, it will sit there until the memories have faded and I’ve forgotten the little details which bring it to life.

I like to gather a little bling along the way, so that when the finished book sits on my shelf, it’s easily recognisable.  Identifying the cheap geegaws in trashy souvenir shops is all part of the fun.

On here is a brass luggage tag from the railroad at Promontory.  When I caught sight of the name Thomas on it, I knew it had to be there.

I’d picked up a few rocks at Zion, which were so very fragile and which I felt sure would crumble to dust.  Well, so far, they have almost crumbled – but not quite!  There is still a little of that chocolate wafer biscuit formation in that Tim Holtz glass bottle we found to contain it. 

Sitting there alongside is a sweet  little yellow phone charm given to me by a group of young Korean women, to say thanks for taking their photo at Bryce Canyon.  I fixed it to my camera strap for a while, until I took a few photos which unintentionally featured it in the corner!

The two remaining trinkets are a luggage tag from Mount Rushmore and a steel bookmark from Taliesin West, featuring a quote from Frank Lloyd Wright in that unmistakeable font.

There was one further piece of bling in the form of a small dreamcatcher, from the Grand Canyon.  I thought it would work well on there with a couple of feathers, but sadly, it’s too big and elaborate. 

So that is that.  Another trip gathered in and finished.  Here’s to the next one!

Road Trip Journal ready

OK, I know, my sense of priorities isn’t quite the same as everyone else, but having spent the last couple of weeks thinking about getting my road trip journal together, I thought it was high time that I actually got on and did it.  (It’s ok, I can multi task…the washing machine was going full tilt as I worked.  I don’t need that long to prepare for a journey ;-)

Anyway, this was (sort of) packing…  I wanted to edit my art kit a little because over the last couple of trips, I’ve added things to it but not left anything else out.  So, time to throw out pens which don’t work any more, leave a few pencils behind and lighten the load.

My art kit is in a roll up bag which came free with Marie-Claire magazine years ago – I know that because the whole thing has “marieclaire” printed all over it.  It’s got four zip pockets and rolls up nicely – or rather, opens out flat so I can see what’s what.  It’s a well travelled bag and must have been around the world several times over.  As a result, it’s got lots of holes in it and from time to time things fall through them.  But I haven't found an idea replacement so far and until I do, those inktense watercolour crayons had better stay put.

The next pocket has pens and pencils in, and a small glue stick.  I’ve just weeded out all the blue pens, keeping one black ball point, a couple of drawing pencils and a handful of black waterproof pens in there, with a couple of paintbrushes and a waterbrush.  Oh, and a couple of white pens, for writing on coloured paper.

My Indian hole punch sits in the next pocket (read the story of how I bought that here) together with a small pair of scissors, a tiny stapler and a craft knife.  The little gin bottle is filled with Modpodge and there’s a small reel of sellotape and a small tin of paperclips and brads too.  I’ve got a small container of sewing needles there too, which would have come in useful if only I’d brought a reel of cotton :-)

The last pocket has two small bottles of PVA glue, a few sponges and rubber stamps and some glue dots.

I also have a tin which works as my worktable when we’re driving from one place to another.  I’ve got the smallest of cutting mats (4” square), a mini paper trimmer and  a set of alphabet stamps in here.  Oh and a few more rubber stamps I found in Singapore which are ridiculously large…they are going to have to earn their passage or they’re out!

Having got all that together, I needed to assemble the journal itself.  I’ve chosen paper from Heidi Swapp’s No Limits collection which happens to be in a good colour palette for our road trip, too.

Some is very heavily themed though, and I’ll probably end up cutting those bits up to use in a different way.

I also pulled in a few sheets of some paper left over from another project, which works well with a couple of the pages.  Anyway, if we’re in the USA on the 4th July, of course, I’m going to need some red, white and blue, yes?

I punched the pages with my Cinch but for the time being, will just hold them together with a couple of book rings, which will make it easy to add extra pages and rearrange those that are there already.

Great, neat holes, all well aligned and exactly where I wanted them.  Though I have a Bind-it-all machine too, I prefer the Cinch for this reason. (No, I don’t carry it around in a pink handbag…)

I cut the covers from heavy board which I’d saved for the purpose from our last purchase of bedlinen. 

For the record, Jordi, I threw these offcuts away ;-)

I covered the insides with a bright orangey red map print and the outer cover with the dark blue version of the same.

I sanded the edges and inked them with a turquoise chalk ink.

I took it to the daylight to photograph the finished journal, ready to go.  I attached a little paperclip there on the top, ready to hold any vital bits and pieces.  That little clip’s well travelled too – I bought it in Darwin!

And now, I suppose I’d better get on with the “real” packing?

Oh, one more thing

However convenient and pocketable the small Moleskine journals are for travelling, sadly the paper just isn’t up to it.  Wet media goes right through to the next page and though the binding is strong and robust enough to take quite a hard bashing about, the paper inside crinkles at the first encounter with anything slightly stronger.  Still, they are useful for taking out each day to capture a few thoughts and record a shorter jaunt or weekend away.

The paper in the small and well designed Semikolon notebooks is way better, though.  You’ll just have to get yourself to Montreal to pick up a few ;-))

Travel Journals continued: the pros and cons

I’m still dithering over the format of my Road Trip Journal.  Let me share some of my thoughts.

This is the default format, a conventional A5 landscape, spiral bound sketchbook with sturdy black covers.  It will withstand a fair bit of throwing around, pulling apart (and reassembly) and the paper quality is good enough to be used with both wet and dry media as well as holding up to having things stuck to it.

It’s this format that I used for our road trip through Oregon and Washington state last year.

There was enough room to pile in the ephemera and gather a few thoughts as well. 

Some years ago, I tried the same size but in portrait format.  We were driving from Toronto via Ottawa and on through Vermont and New Hampshire on that trip and visited the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory, as you can see.

It soon becomes clear that the portrait format doesn’t work and I switch the book around to use it landscape, instead.

A double page spread offers a great chance to capture almost anything.  This page tells the story of checking in for a flight in Wellington, NZ.

I began using this size having bought a kit from Studio Calico (I think), just before our South West Road Trip.

It had the advantage of a whole lot of coordinating stickers and words (some of which I’m still using!) and was the first time that I began using hotel feedback forms and suchlike as journal prompts.

I have tried other formats, including this small square sketchbook, which is about 6” square.

I liked the way that I could create pages from museum brochures and scribble notes on the back of postcards, which fitted neatly into the binding.

But ultimately, it was too small a page to capture everything I wanted to put in it and I felt restricted by the size.

So the following year, for our European trip, I tried the next size up.  This one is about 9” square, and yes, you’ve guessed, it was way too big!

I ended up placing wide margins around thing and using large letters to fill in the spaces.

It still ended up stuffed, too.

Once I got my Bind it All, I was keen to make my own journals, so I tried a different variation on the A4 and made this long thin book.

 Sometimes, it worked really well.  (Those are left over letters from that Studio Calico kit, by the way)

I especially liked the way I could catalogue things, like bike helmets in Saigon and our supper in Laos.

It was good for capturing scenes and the flavour of a day.  But actually, it’s very unstable and rather poorly balanced as a book to look at and flops about all over the place.  That short binding isn’t enough to support those big pages, so I’m afraid, that was a one-off.

 

My other favoured format is very suitable for cruises and was inspired by a book I bought in Japan, which has a pocket on each page.

The bottom half of each page is folded up, to create a pocket in which to tuck all kinds of bits and pieces.  Of course, there’s not much room for stories and so on!

But it was that format I recreated for our latest cruise and it worked really well once again.  This time, I used some clear plastic sheets and used my Cinch to bind the pages together. 

Each page is an A4 sheet with a fold in it.  On some pages, there are flaps and extra surfaces to contain drawings and stories.  Others are simply pockets of ephemera.

Whilst I enjoy the anticipation of creating something unique for this year’s trip, I’ll gather a few more ideas from here and there.  I’ve got a Pinterest board of Art Journals which are so inspiring, MaryAnn Moss puts together the most creative of travel journals for her trips and I drool over them, too.  I purchased ALi Edward’s Travel Journal class a couple of years ago, thinking that might make preparation a little easier, but you know what?  I need to do it my way. Other people’s methods don’t work for me any more than mine will work for you.

But it’s fun doing the research, isn’t it?