Journals – Page 11 – red paper boat

Sunset and Journaling

July 28, 2005October 1, 2015 Shelly

Last night’s sunset was spectacularly vivid. The sky was an intense cerulean and the clouds were neon pink. I managed to get some pictures before it had faded too much.

The weather did, indeed, turn lovely, just as our trusty weatherdude promised. With lows in the crispy upper 50sF, it was perfect for sleeping. I was so comfortable when my alarm went off this morning that I didn’t want to get out of bed. Sleeping all day was, alas, not on my To Do list, though.

Now, on to journaling. I belong to a few art journaling mail lists. I enjoy discussing materials, motivation, inspiration, etc., and these lists are a good place to do that. Probably the most frequent topic of discussion is “journaler’s block.” Folks post, asking for help with visual how-to guides and idea prompts, because they’re drawing a blank or, worse, they are intimidated by their journals. I think everyone who expresses themselves creatively has experienced the former. In my experience, there is an ebb and flow to creativity. Some days the muse dogs your every move, bullying you until you pay attention to her and other days she can’t be coaxed into coming to the party. As an artist, you learn to deal with her fickleness in your own way.

The latter problem is a whole ‘nother kettle of fishes. I really feel for people who are intimidated by their own journals. I don’t know how you help someone in that position. To me a journal is just an extension of my own mental space; a sort of back-up drive for my brain, where I can dump the stuff that swirls around in my head. Otherwise, it will drive me to distraction. And, we don’t want that, do we?

Hemp Bound Journal: Spine

I think this is why it’s difficult for me to understand or offer advice to someone who is intimidated by their journal. To me, that means that what they really fear is the stuff that swirls around in their heads. Or, perhaps they just don’t have the skills to access the swirly stuff? I’m not sure it matters either way, as all the encouragement and journaling tips in the world are unlikely to help the person because the real problem isn’t just your garden variety Mental Block.

Maybe what the intimidated person needs to do is offer a formal invitation to her muse. Ask her over for a cocktail or a cup of coffee and have a little chat with her. Maybe the two of you can come to a mutually beneficial agreement?

Now, if I can just stay connected long enough to upload this. I swear, if the digital divide were any larger, I’d be back in the Stone Age. Apparently, us rural folks don’t merit either a stable dial-up connection, much less any kind of broadband option. I’d be happy with a 14.4kbs transfer rate. I just want to be able to get on-line.

Art, Crankypantsing, Journals, Meta

More Dada Journal

April 3, 2005January 16, 2016 Shelly

Dada Journal, entries from February-March 2005

I was asked how I journaled in a book made from magazine pages, so I thought I’d post more examples from my Dada Journal. Sometimes a visual aid works better than an explanation. These entries were from February-March, during the time when the MoonPie of Delight was in the shop (timing belt and cam shaft bolt/pin). There’s also a rant about new “ergonomic” office furniture (any day now!) and a tangent about the original Star Trek series. I’ve now rewatched every episode and I swear William Shatner flashed his breasts more than any other man in the history of teevee. My theory is that the series ended because they ran out of ways for Captain Kirk to lose his shirt.

Dada Journal, Front Cover

Dada Journal, Foredge Open

I thought I’d add some overall photos of the book. For some reason, Hello is acting cranky. It will only upload uncropped versions of the photos, even though they’ve been cropped, resized, rotated, and saved to an entirely different file. Hrmph. So, we’re going with Flickr. I still don’t like the image sizes Flickr provides. The thumbnails are too small and at 240 pixels, the “small” images are too large. Or, maybe I’m just cranky and need to go take a nap in Baby Bear’s bed?

Art, Journals

Sharpies: a cautionary tale

March 2, 2005September 28, 2015 Shelly

Well, several words, in fact. In my various art- and journaling-related fora, the subject of Sharpies regularly rears its ugly head. I can understand their appeal: they’re cheap, ubiquitous, and come in a wide variety of sizes and colors. However, it makes me wince whenever I hear someone say they use Sharpies, or worse, when someone recommends their use to another person. The former I usually ignore, but the latter, I think, requires a response.

The problem is that Sharpies are not archival. I realize archivalness isn’t always a primary concern when journaling. It certainly isn’t for me. That’s okay, I think, because journaling is as much about the here-and-now as it is about preserving one’s thoughts for the future. So, I include ephemera that will deteriorate over time, and in some cases I journal on papers that are bound to be full of all sorts of acidic chemicals. I know those things won’t last forever, and I’m okay with that. I’d like them to last a reasonable length of time, though.

Sharpies, unfortunately, do not even begin to pass muster on that front. The ink starts to break down almost immediately, migrating and haloing, and the acids in the inks discolor even archival paper. This example is from 12 years ago, which really isn’t that long. The inks began breaking down within just a couple of years. Somewhere, I have examples of black Sharpie, which have yellow haloing and the same pinkish-brown discoloration along the borders.

Please, please, please, think twice about using “permanent markers” in your journals. It’s just not worth it when there are so many alternatives out there. Faber-Castell Pitt Pens are wonderful, as they’re waterproof, light-fast, and archival (recent example in composition book journal). They’re widely available at big box craft stores, as well as at most mom-and-pop art supply shops. I’m especially fond of old fashioned dip pens and India ink. Aside from being archival, light-fast, and waterproof, the variety of affordable nibs and ink colors makes them quite flexible. I enjoy writing even with a super cheap nib and pen holder (example from 1989). Most larger department stores now have crafting sections, where you can find good, affordable acid free pens, e.g. Zig, which makes several roller ball and felt tip pens and markers (example of Zig pens). The school supply department can also yield good results, though there are so many products it can be a little overwhelming. Pilot Precise roller ball gel pens are pretty decent (example from 1993). RoseArt has even come out with some cheap, fun gel markers that come in a variety of colors and tips (example of RoseArt metallic gel markers). And then there are good old Crayola markers (example from 1990).

Art, Journals

El Papa

February 24, 2005December 23, 2015 Shelly

El Papa
acrylic, Faber-Castell Pitt pen, and gold leaf in composition book journal

There was a segment on the evening news about the Pope. He’s been hospitalized again, so I thought I’d do a little drawing in his honor.

Art, Bookarts, Journals

Dada Book

February 16, 2005September 28, 2015 Shelly

These are a few pages from the Dada book I’ve been working on. It’s made of pages from Real Simple magazine. Some of the images in the magazine are great for collage, but I find the overall tone is pretty insufferable. What better use to put the left-overs to than to rip them up and turn them into a Dada-esque journal?

I had intended to use it mostly for collage, but I’ve ended up using it for “evening pages.” Some of the folks in one of my art groups are working through The Artist’s Way. I had planned on working on it with them, but I decided that waking up any earlier than I already do–just to journal–would be cruel and unusual punishment–4am is plenty early enough, thankyouverymuch! So, I’ve been doing some very quick pages right before I go to bed. I’m finding that it’s a nice way to cap off the day–sort of like getting in the last word.

This is a crappy picture, taken with my ubercheap digital camera. The book is small and chunky: 5.5 x 4.5″ and about 1″ thick. I used a coptic stitch to bind it, which was a bit of a challenge. The clay-coated magazine pages are weak and brittle, so they crack easily. I had to remove a couple of signatures because the holes ripped open as I was sewing the binding. I ended up with 13 signatures of 20 pages each.

Art, Collage, Journals

The Rain Boat & My Favorite Old Jeans

February 9, 2005 Shelly

Top: The Rain Boat
Bottom: My Favorite Jeans
acrylic, Faber-Castell Pit pens, and collage in composition book journal

It’s been raining for days, so I’ve been thinking of boats again. Taking my cue from the weather, I came home from work yesterday and painted the background a muddy navy color. It reminded me of stormy seas and old denim, so I made another paper boat. This morning I added a doodle of my favorite blue jeans. I got a little over-zealous trying to blend the ink (Pitt pens are permanent, dummy). I managed to tone down the pen strokes a bit, but in the process I nearly rubbed a hole in the paper. Oh serendipity! It looks all the more like worn denim.

And, of course, the rain has now turned to a lovely “wintry mix.” Winter in Indiana is so, well, Winter in Indiana.

(Ha! After checking to make sure this entry was displaying correctly, I was reminded of the Dr. Seuss story What Was I Scared Of?)

Art, Journals

Spring Flowers

February 6, 2005March 24, 2015 Shelly

Spring Flowers
composition book journal

I went shopping yesterday morning and picked up some new cheap, metallic gel markers (RoseArt). They show up nicely against dark colored backgrounds. They also blend well if you work quickly. Inspired by the warm sunny day and by the memory of drawing with similar markers when I was young, I decided to draw a bright, childish landscape.

I had pre-painted the paper the night before with metallic blue and periwinkle paint. The left-hand page stretched slightly, causing minor wrinkling. In person the wrinkles are minimal, but because the page is painted with metallic paint, it is extremely reflective; the scanner accentuated the wrinkles.

Art, Journals

Storm of Words

February 4, 2005 Shelly

Storm of Words
composition book journal

I didn’t intend for the background to look like camouflage; that was a happy accident. I grabbed the ugliest, dirtiest green and brown paint I had and smeared them all over the page. Then, I washed off as much as I could with a baby wipe. I wrote down all the words that had been stalking me over the past few days, using the paint swirls as a guide. The actual words have been pixilated, since y’all don’t need to know exactly what crazy rantings have been flying around in my head. Besides, it was mostly an exorcism. I’d had more input than I’m used to and needed a place to dump the overflow.

Red Letter Day
composition book journal

Ugh. Sometimes, having a red letter day is not a good thing.

On the bright side, last night I finally got my car back from the shop. I’m $250 poorer, but it was money well spent. Not having a car for three weeks reminded me of how attached I am to my own mobility. It’s frustrating not to be able to hop in the car and run to the grocery store when I want, or go play in the pen aisle at Walmart because I “need” a toy fix, or get Kleenex and cough syrup when I was sick. Yeah, I’ve got wonderful friends next door who were great about making sure I had what I needed, but it’s not the same as being able to go get it myself.

Art, Journals

Snow

January 29, 2005 Shelly

Snow
composition book journal

It snowed again today, though it wasn’t very cold. The temperature hovered around freezing this morning then rose over the day. I can hear melted snow dripping on the metal awnings over the living room windows. Tap, tap-tap, tap, tap-tap. The dogs had a blast playing bitey-face and digging for moles. They came inside with snow on their backs, mud caked on their paws and noses, and happy smiles on their faces.

Early in the morning, the heavy, swirling snow turned the trees a ghostly grey. The low contrast between the two was beautiful, so I thought I’d try to capture it. Naturally, I took some pictures, but I decided to try a spread in my composition book journal. I painted the pages bright white. It took several coats and dried to a super high gloss finish. Nothing would stick to it, so I sanded it. Then I got out my grey, brush-tip Pitt pens and doodled a tree. It was a little too flat, so I rubbed the ink around with a Q-tip. That worked pretty well. The rough texture left by the sandpaper works nicely against the soft shading made by the Q-tip.

Because of the glossiness of the paint, I had trouble scanning the image. I ended up scanning it in grey-scale. I increased the contrast. The original is much more subtle, but I just couldn’t duplicate that subtlety on-screen.

On another technical note, I’ve been toying around with applying paint in different ways, trying to minimise the stretching and buckling that frequently happens when working with such thin, cheap paper. Despite what looks like large waves in the paper, especially on the right-hand page, the paper stayed almost completely flat. I’m quite pleased with the way it turned out. Once the journal has been shut and weighted overnight, this spread should be nice and flat. To achieve that, I applied a very thin coat of paint with a credit card, gently squeegeeing the paint across the paper. I was careful not to over-work the paper, though, which made a huge difference in how much it stretched. I also waited for it to dry completely before I put subsequent coats on, which is something I haven’t done in the past. Allowing the first coat to dry and seal the page makes a huge difference. There is almost no stretching along the spine edge, which is something I’ve been struggling with.

Now that I’ve done my arting for the day, I’m off to vegetate in front of some bad television and drink a cup of Breathe Easy tea.

Art, Journals

Glue!

January 25, 2005 Shelly

I’ve been preoccupied the past few days with transcribing old letters. I’ve made good progress on that front and am happy with the work rhythm that’s emerging. Two to three letters a day is doable, even for an a-motivated, essentially lazy person like me.

I’ve also been arting, but not anything that’s fit to upload. At least, not yet. I got a few backgrounds painted in my composition book journal. One of them is especially peachy. As the An Art a Day theme for this week is the Arts & Crafts movement, I think I’ll do a viney, Art Nouveau-ish type design on the boarder. The background itself was sponged, so the finished product is a lovely mottled beige. Yes, I said beige. No, really, it is lovely. It’s somewhat like an earlier background I did, only a bit darker.

I’ll upload a scan of the new spread as soon as I finish it.

And now for the glue. I finished my glue book last night. The final entry wasn’t anything special and I probably won’t upload it, but it’s done, done, done. Now, I need to think about the next glue book. I liked working in composition books. The size is perfect. But, I found that they bulk up very quickly, even when half the pages are removed. The spine on the one I just finished is way too tight. It’s about to split. I could remove even more pages, I suppose, but since a thin strip needs to be left along the spine edge (to keep the opposite page from falling out), that still leaves an awful lot of bulk at the spine. I think this is due in large part to the way I work. I almost always do a two-page spread with paper–sometimes multiple layers of paper–glued across the gutter. So, no matter how many pages I remove, it won’t cut down on the bulk along the spine.

I’m thinking I may take an entirely different approach to my next glue book. Instead of using a book or journal, I think I’ll use paper, chip board, or whatever ends up working best and bind my own book. If I do the spreads before I bind the book, then bind single-spread signatures with spacers between each one, that should fix the problem. It will also create a problem, though, as I will only be able to do a two-page spread on the interior of each signature. The exterior of each signature will have to be made up of two one-page pieces. If I use chip board or heavy water color paper, I could use the single pages for drawing (mmm, cray pas) and the interiors for gluing. I just got some yummy paper, so I’m going to spend the weekend playing around with options.