Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
L.K. Ludwig
Use serendipity. When something you read or experience dovetails with important things in your life,
use it as topic about which to create. Messages from the universe should not be overlooked!
Getting Started
Just as a blank canvas can be daunting to a painter, a blank sketchbook
or journal can cause a creative pause for many artists. Where to begin? What medium to
use? How to proceed? Questions seem to breed more questions. Beginning an art journal
requires simply that you begin. But how?
The best way to begin work in a way that is the pages of an art journal. Although an art
authentic and worthwhile is to consider content. journal can be used to explore themes and
Socrates said, “the unexamined life is not worth content for other works, such as paintings,
living.” Artists are complex beings, and even the mixed-media assemblages, fiber arts pieces,
most mundane of us can find sufficient content or sculptures, an art journal is also a work of
to fill hundreds of art journals. Our daily lives, art in itself, serving as an artist book, regardless
with its blessings and travails, our relationships of whether or not it is ever shown to another
to other individuals and to the larger world, our person. The chapters look at themes common to
hopes, our nightly dreams, and even our spiritual almost everyone, and within these thematic areas
faith provide rich content worth exploring in an offer Insight Activities to spark creativity and art
art journal. journal prompts. Visual Toolbox activities provide
Each chapter in this book examines a category techniques, and Taking a Closer Look interviews
of potential content for the artist to explore in give you insight into how other artists work.
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The as a sequence of individual works created over time. All have in common the spill-
ing of one’s self into the work in a way that chronicles or examines a part of the
journaler’s life. The definition of an art journal, then, is very flexible. Artists have
Basics a way of challenging boundaries and preconceived notions about both their art
making and their worlds.
of Art The basics of art journaling are about more than supplies—they’re about a desire
to examine, to challenge, to remember, to dream. For now, though, we’ll examine
Journaling the practical aspects of beginning an art journal, for there is a wealth of possibility
in structure and media.
Rituals for beginning work are often very important to artists. What things do
you typically do to begin work?
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WHEN we work is powerful. Time of day impacts mood, energy, and perhaps color
palette. At what time of day do you work most regularly and why?
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Your journal, which is housed in a large, old atlas, is so rich and There is no thought about an end result, because if I planned
layered and, at the same time, very intimate. Would you tell us a things out in advance, it [the art] would be coming from my head,
little bit about your process of approaching a page spread? Is there not my heart. I don’t feel compelled to even date or order my
a thought-out plan? Do you respond to the work as it unfolds? entries, although I usually do. I’m not journaling to have a physi-
The only thing in my journal that is planned and consistent is cal, calendar-type record of my days, I journal to connect with
gluing four or five pages together, so that I have a strong, solid the dynamic flow of the universe, to try and understand the life
surface to work on. Intuition is my guide, as I play and interact force, the energy with my particular fingerprints, that is streaming
with materials I have within arm’s reach. My studio is always in a through me every moment I’m alive. The process of creating,
state of orderly chaos; what I have surrounding me partly depends not the outcome, is what takes me to the source, although the
on what I’ve been doing that day, or where I am. An element, end result, like a mirror, does reflect that creative energy.
image, or color always leads me to the next step in the process.
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What six or seven symbols and four colors can you use to represent an area of fa
your life with which you are having difficulty working in your art journal? w
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Selecting a working with figures is illustrated using a collage technique involving tissue or deli paper.
Another artist might also work on loose sheets that are housed as a collection in a ring
binder, portfolio, or box.
Structure Some artists like to work in an old book, covering the pages with gesso or paper.
Often, several pages are glued together to create a sturdy ground. They might cover the
entire page and begin with a blank surface or use the book’s text and imagery to provide
a spark and a jumping-off point. This differs from an altered book, in that the artist uses
the book as a journal, instead of using the book’s content to alter it.
Some of the artists whose work you will see in this book journal directly onto paint-
ings and other single sheet works; often these pieces are independent structures in a
series that challenge the viewer to see the content as a revelation of something personal
or a glimpse into the life of the artist.
You may need to “try several structures on for size,” to find the one that fits your style
of working. Don’t be surprised to learn that your preferred structure varies with the topic
you are exploring. A structure can also communicate content. The windowlike structure
of an old Victorian album housing images of places and spaces that have moved the artist
further reveals the content to the viewer. A child’s board book can be altered to create a
travel journal, as well as to communicate the joy and wonder the trip brought to the artist.
It would be impossible in the course of this book to detail all the different art media
techniques that can be used to create a journal. Acrylic paint, watercolors, water-soluble
oil pastels, crayons, colored pencils, dyes, inks, markers, and more can be used to add
color and texture to pages. Various papers, both found and purchased, can create surface
grounds and collages. Photographs are a wonderful way to incorporate personal imagery
and can be manipulated in a variety of ways.
Whether or not you integrate written journal entries into the visual journal pages
depends on your desires and what the page content calls for. In this book, you will see
examples of both purely visual work and art journal pages that have so much written on
them that the writing itself forms a visual element. Candy Jernigan’s and Peter Beard’s
works contain unusual elements that spill across the pages chronicling their lives. If
there is a way to make use of something in an art journal, artists will find a way to do it.
If you are new to art journaling, you may find the bibliography, on page 141, to be a
helpful resource.
Look at the type of art journal you typically use. If you were to try other
book structures, what two would you try?
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001-031_01808.indd 19
writing into the surface
Bridgette Guerzon Mills
inscribes her journal by
(Ray) (Text)
get ting started
Empty an anxious heart onto your pages. Clip, paint, snip, scribble, splatter, write. Don’t consider the
appearance of your page, just release your burden onto the paper. If this isn’t a page you want to commit
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23/2/08 9:10:27 AM
Drawing outward from a
photograph of a section of
a tree, Katie Kendrick uses
the tree as a focal image
that provides content and
as a structural element, to
hold her written journaling.
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As an artist, what themes have you examined in your artwork and journals •
to date?
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insight activity: Unblanking the Blank Page 90 degrees and use it from that direction.
Materials 1 2 3 4
• journal, sketchbook, Tear the scrap paper into Using the gel medium, Using a wide paintbrush, Use the textured surface
pieces approximately 2 to adhere the scrap paper roughly apply a coat of as the ground for a journal
paper
3" (5 to 7.5 cm) by 3 to 5" pieces to your surface, gesso over the surface, page by adding more pa-
• acrylic gel medium (7.5 to 12.5 cm). Larger either randomly or in a allowing the texture of the per, photographs, maga-
• gesso is fine. You may wish to visually pleasing arrange- paper to remain visible. zine clippings, drawings,
crumple a few pieces, ment. Allow to dry. You can cover the scrap mark making, or paint.
• scrap paper—telephone before tearing them, for paper to create a uniform
book pages, newspaper, additional visual texture. color, or you can allow
scrap tissue paper, old some of the scrap paper’s
kraft paper or paper original color to remain
bags visible.
Content visual journal is personal. Filling blank pages with imagery laden with personal mean-
ing is what makes art journaling, journaling. What we choose to show or hide, reveal or
conceal, tells a story about our lives, our art, and yes, who we are inside. Each page in
and our journals, good or bad, is about something personal—the content our own. Pretty
pictures and decorative pages devoid of deliberate content may indeed be pretty, but, as
Meaning Rothko bluntly stated, “There is no such thing as a good painting about nothing.” Perfect
techniques give you the means to create marvelous work, but the techniques are not an
end in themselves.
What we bring to bear on each page is the sum of our experiences. If it sounds
daunting, it isn’t. Each technique you learn, each skill set you acquire for working with
an artistic medium becomes part of your repertoire. Think of these as building blocks,
as vocabulary—words for your unique visual language. The various activities and guides
you use to develop original content become conversations you have had, pathways of
exploration you follow in your creative process. This vocabulary, these words, this
language, these processes give you ways of expressing authentic content. No longer are
pages pretty for the sake of being pretty or mysterious to simply be clever; your pages are
now pretty because they communicate an experience of beauty or mystery, as you puzzle
your way into revealing even more of your inner self on your pages.
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What are the last six things you added to your stash? Where are they?
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anything else is hard to see, or so black that it could be a cave. Bigger, bolder, more volume!
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—Mark Rothko
Bee Shay’s Rothko journal conveys her side of a conversation My best work comes when I’m able to get out of my own way and
she had with her husband about his visit with friends to a Rothko just let it happen. o
exhibit. Expressed in visual terms, Her work deconstructs imag- c
Can you share with us your process? How do you begin? Do you
ery based on Rothko’s work, using Rothko’s deep commitment o
work in books topically, are they daily journals, or both?
to communicating human emotions in his work and, by doing so, E
affirms her husband’s right to his own opinion about Rothko and I have many journals running at the same time. Some are
deconstructs imagery based on the artist’s work, reconstructing topical, and some are daily types. I probably have ADD, although I
the images and demonstrating Rothko’s deep commitment to I’ve never been tested. My self-portrait journal is the only journal
communicating human emotions in his work. I ever started and finished in consecutive days. It took a month of
working nights, weekends, and whenever I could find a moment,
Your journals exude a feeling of connection with nature and a but I was driven to see it through, rather than following my usual,
calmness, even as they address challenging topics such as self- more casual, approach of not being concerned with the product
portraiture and relationships. Can you talk a little about how but more concerned about “the dance,” to quote my friend Shelley.
nature informs your work? Not controlling the outcome yields my best results, so I rarely
I’ve actually given a lot of thought lately as to why my work start with a planned result. I usually begin by laying down
tends to be so organic, and I think that the answer is relatively backgrounds on many pages, just to get my hands moving. The
simple. As a child, I was a relative loner, spending most of my things that are always right at hand are Rives BFK paper, gesso,
time entertaining myself in the woods behind my house (about inks, acrylic paints, and pastel pencils. I rarely cut, usually tear,
20 acres [8 hectares] worth) exploring, building fairy houses, and and I just love texture, so it almost always starts with texture and
collecting anything that wasn’t “nailed down,” as my father used moves on from there.
to say. The acreage was originally a bird sanctuary from the 1850s Color is important to the way you communicate, and I’ve noticed
until 1950, so it teemed with wildlife, as well. When I wasn’t in you work with dyes and paints in ways that communicate texture.
the woods, I was walking the shores of the Atlantic Ocean with Can you tell us more about your favorite ways to add color to
my grandfather or the beaches of Chesapeake Bay with my family. your pages?
I was always more comfortable with beaches, woods, birds, and Layers, layers, layers. That’s my rule. I painted with oils for
animals than people, and it’s a safe place for me to work from. fifteen years and learned that it was much easier to add than to
The calmness I feel when I’m “in the zone,” as my kids refer remove. Patience is the key. You can’t be in a hurry; you have to
to it, when I’m outside collecting, gardening, or photographing, wait for things to dry, or you’ll end up with brown everything.
happens for me when my hands begin to move, as well. They That’s probably why I work on several things at once, so while one
are the instruments, the tools, that my heart and head use. The is drying, I can still be working.
act of “making things” calms my spirit and lets the flow begin.
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y.
down ink. Hold the book by the cover boards to dip. Fan open to dry.
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Collectors, what appeals to us: old photographs, bits of tin, feathers, vintage textiles, and other
found and foraged treasures. We create a dragon’s hoard, a collection of fabulous
finds that we stash in our lairs and guard from harm.
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Thing-Finders, There is a certain excitement that is generated when we acquire a found-object
treasure. When we look at the found object, we think, “Oh, wow! That would be
and Treasure great in….” “That would work perfectly for….” “I could use this in a piece on….”
Excitedly, we snap up our find and carry it back to our studio, where we admire
it, perhaps turning it over in our hands, and then we place it carefully onto a shelf
Keepers or a tabletop or into a drawer. Unfortunately, the creative energy generated by
the found object, all the possibilities for its use, and the excitement surrounding
the found object go onto the shelf or into the drawer with the object. We give up
the creativity to preserve the object, even though we obtained the object with the
intent of using it.
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Make a list of all the media you use. Now list all the ways you use that media.
Pull out your list when you are stuck, to help you brainstorm how to begin.
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1 2 3
Head to your studio. Peer Choose four items to work Take a spare bit of paper Tip
into cupboards and poke with, either for a journal and jot down your ideas.
into drawers. or to incorporate into a Look them over. Choose This is an excellent activity to prac-
journal page. Be brave and the one that motivates you tice regularly. You can use variations
select items with which the most, and then begin. of this activity for any art journal
you feel an immediate or other project by perusing your
connection, things that stash with that project in mind and
make you think of pos- gathering a small collection of items
sibilities for use right away. in a basket or box. Add or subtract
objects as the project progresses.
Maintaining an interaction with
your collection of objects allows you
Melanie Komisarski’s jour- to keep fresh in your mind the cre-
nal spread uses a layered ative energy those objects generated.
paint background and
silhouetted plant images to
remind us all that nurturing
our souls allows us to grow.
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What are your four most amazing stash items? Where do you store them? What
keeps you from using them?
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List six words you can immediately add to your Vision Deck.
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Find one image or object that is the quintessential distillation of someone or some place you cherish and
Similar to automatic writing, the Musical Imaginary Alphabet activity is useful as
a creative warm-up and as a mark-making activity.
Materials 1 4 Tips
• bamboo calligraphy Select some music that Based on your emotional • Use colored paper or paper that
speaks to the mood of a response, use the cal-
brush has already been covered with a
topic on which you wish to ligraphy brush to make
• sheet of hot-press work in your art journal. alphabet-like marks,
wash of watercolor or ink.
watercolor, print- without actually using • If you want to make crisper marks
making, or quality 2 the alphabet. Allow your on the page, use an ink containing
drawing paper Cover your work area feelings to determine the a resin, such as Speedball Super
• music with newspaper, and lay faux alphabet shapes: Black India Ink.
your art paper flat. Place rounded, long, sharp,
• ink • These pages make gorgeous covers,
your ink in a container short, linear, wavy.
backgrounds, collage elements,
• newspaper that’s easily accessible
for dipping your brush. 5 and endpapers for journals. And
Cover your page with
because they bear a relationship
3 these marks. Think to your content, they add a layer
Start your music, and cuneiform writing, runes, of meaning to your work.
allow the feelings that the ancient messages, or
music evokes to deter- Asian syllabaries, as you
mine what comes next. allow your creative spirit
to work with the music
to fill the paper with this
mysterious text.
Relationships
A well-used axiom states that no one exists in a vacuum; we are
connected to others through a series of relationships and have been since birth.
Simple biology dictates many of these built around the nature of relationships between
relationships, because we were each born with people. It is no wonder then, that the dynamic
two biological parents. Family, friends, teachers, nature of our interactions and connections to
neighbors, roommates, love interests, and life other people creates the most often explored
partners have intersected our lives and affected area in our art journals. We examine, explore,
our futures. The examination of relationships commemorate, and, yes, sometimes eviscerate
has provided inspiration for artwork throughout our relationships with parents, siblings, child-
history—art journaling is no exception. ren, neighbors, and lovers. We address failures,
Dozens of psychological theories and count- express fears and hopes, and record the very
less schools of philosophical thought have been nature of love in our lives.
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Friends thoughts, but when the relationship we are addressing is difficult or painful, we can
find it difficult to bare ourselves in our artwork.
List the layers you’ve added to your inner child as you’ve become a grown-up.
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rel ationships 35
Friendship can provide a lifeline when you’re treading through rough waters.
List a friend who has been there for you.
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rel ationships 37
For Traditional
Stenciling: To Create the Stencil: S
• stencil brushes
1 2 3 4 1
• acrylic paint Examine your printed Before you cut away all In the event that you Test your stencil by giving A
image. You might need the white areas from your make a cutting error, it a spray with your spray o
For Spray Painting: to print more than one printed image, you will fit the piece back into paint. Do not use the v
• repositionable version and combine the need to be aware of how place. Glue on a piece of repositionable adhesive w
adhesive spray, two to obtain the level of the black-and-white areas discarded card stock—on on the reverse side at this s
such as Easy Tack detail you want for your join, so that you do not the top of the stencil, not time. Compare the results D
stencil. Use a sharp craft cut loose an entire area of the bottom—so that it to your reference print. If a
• spray paint knife to cut the parts you the face from the image. overlaps the stencil and you missed an area, it will
like from one card stock Be sure to look over the the accidentally removed be apparent. You may 2
print; using a glue stick, image and determine piece. Flip the stencil over have to go back and cut G
add them onto the other whether you have a to trim away the excess more from your stencil. If s
variation card stock print. section that must remain card stock from your the paint has obscured the r
You can create untouched, to hold the patch. cutting area, print another s
custom stencils for stencil together. Mark that copy onto card stock, cut e
area with a crayon, so you the missing section from n
text easily, without don’t forget. this new print, and, using u
all the craft-knife your reference print as y
work, by using a set a guide, glue this into s
of alphabet punches. place using the technique j
described in step 3.
Examine the relationships you have with four people; what symbols or metaphors
can you use to symbolize these people and your relationships with them?
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create a page about what your palm has to say. Are secrets there?
Spray Painting
1 3
Always work outdoors Shake the paint can
or in an extremely well- sufficiently, and, using
ventilated studio and a light hand, spray paint
wear the appropriate your stencil. A light hand
safety equipment. ensures that you will not
Disposable latex gloves have drips and globs of
are also helpful. paint. Spray in short
bursts and review your
2 work after each spray,
Give the back side of your continuing until you feel
stencil a healthy coat of it is sufficiently painted.
e repositionable adhesive
spray. This affixes the 4
edges, so that you do Allow the piece to dry
not have paint bleeding thoroughly in a well-
under your stencil. Place ventilated area. Lift
your stencil, adhesive stencil from image.
side down, onto your
journal page.
rel ationships 39
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Describe an ordinary summer day from your childhood. What games did you play? t
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What did you eat? Who were your friends?
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Two weeks before the baby arrived, this beauty of an art journal The amount of detail in the book is astonishing; one must
arrived at my door. I took it with me to the hospital, and in those explore these complex, layered pages, by opening envelopes and
wee hours, holding that wee bundle on my lap, I turned those peering into pockets. These journal pages were thoughtfully
pages and felt we were loved. Each page is filled to the brim with created to communicate a sense of warmth and tenderness. The
touching, gorgeous, baby-and-mama artwork. In fact, Nina had to vintage paper ephemera, combined with the delicate, antique,
rebind it, because the book had become too large for the original floral shank buttons running down the vintage barkcloth spine,
spine. More than 3" (7.5 cm) thick, the book is so full, Nina added the vintage charms, the incredibly tiny text hammered into copper
a tiny blank book to the interior back cover for recording Maggie’s strips, and Nina’s tender writings, clearly communicate the
babyhood memories. artist’s thoughts.
rel ationships 41
Childhood with a special power to generate the same feelings we had when the original
event took place. We can remember sounds, images, emotions, scents, even
physical touch.
Exploring our personal childhood can be a roller coaster ride of both joy and
sorrow, but it is also an infinitely rich subject to examine in our art journals. Actor
Woody Harrelson is quoted as having said, “A grown-up is a child with layers on.”
Memories take us under the layers, back to places we have long forgotten or to
places we remember often. An art journal can serve as a place in which to work
without ramifications, to explore or exorcise difficult experiences, and enable us
to visually express feelings that no one need ever see or understand. Remember
that many treasured fairy tales, for all the sugar coating, were once scary and dark
tales. On a difficult day, we can travel in our art journal down the softly lit path of
nostalgic summer evenings spent catching fireflies and linger a while.
Childhood is an area for which few of us need prompts to generate topics; mostly,
we seem to simply need permission. Symbols and metaphors can provide a means of
entering topics we feel are difficult or that we are embarrassed to approach because
of their sweet tenderness. Problems with getting started often stem from a flood of
memories or feelings—by using your Vision Deck, you can narrow your focus to a
specific instance or thought.
Often, we are able to broach childhood in our art journaling after becoming
parents ourselves. Suddenly, we find that having children leads us to understand our
own parents more and, at the same time, understand them less. We are unabashedly
sentimental about, unstoppably tender toward, and unashamedly frustrated with
our offspring, as they grow from infancy to adulthood. Libraries and galleries could
be filled with art journals that examine childhood. From the worlds of dream and
imagination and the fiercely intense peer-group explorations to our interactions as
parent and child, there is much in the realm of childhood to explore.
“So, like a forgotten fire, a childhood can always flare up again within us.”
—Gaston Bachelard
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Tips
• Ephemera related to children, • Childhood mementoes and
toys, storybooks, reading primers, treasured teddy bears can be
and vintage textiles can serve as incorporated into pages! Objects
jumping-off points to explore any that won’t fit between pages
approach to childhood. can be photographed, and the
• Fairy tales and nursery rhymes photographs can be further
offer potent symbolism and manipulated or used as is.
metaphor for approaching work. • A favorite childhood book can be
• Music lyrics and verses from altered to create a potent journal
children’s songs and poems can structure, or the cover boards
offer structure, by exploring a removed and used to bind a new
verse per page. blank journal. Try eBay and online
used book dealers for a spare copy.
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rel ationships 45
Remembrances remembrance. The timing must be right for this work. Fevered journal
pages upon which you pour your sadness and pain give way to more
introspective pages, as you work through your loss. While these pages are
often difficult to look at, even years later, the power they have to evoke this
visceral response tells you the work you have done in your art journal was
valuable for you.
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nonpermanent
use of keepsakes
There may be times you want to use precious
mementoes but hesitate to risk them by
attaching them permanently to a journal page.
• Use quality photocopies of letters and images.
• Consider using tea-stained or vintage paper
for copies of written documents.
• Take antique and vintage photographs to a
photo developing shop to have quality copies
made that look like the originals.
• Create pockets and sleeves in which to slide
mementoes.
• Use library pockets, page protectors sheets,
manila folders, or glassine envelopes to hold
treasures.
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Draw a spider web and place yourself at the center. Make a list of your close
family members, friends, and colleagues. Place them on the web according to
where they are in terms of impact on your life.
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Tear a piece of newspaper or tissue into rectangles and strips. Adhere these pieces to your page with acrylic
The Written Word
medium. For additional texture, crumple the pieces before attaching them.
Art journaling allows us to fluidly move between art that is strictly
visual to art that combines visual elements and text.
Whether the text is incorporated into the Artists have often incorporated favorite quotes
background or used a focal point, text is a and words of power, poetry, and prose into their
powerful element, packing visual, as well as art journal pages. Personal writings, chronicled
narrative, content. events, and storytelling often find their way
Text can be applied to pages as a design out of our fevered imaginations and onto our
element, through the use of the letters as visual art-filled pages. Even imaginary alphabets place a
texture, not legible words—letters scattered visual rhythm on a page, and in turn, the rhythm
across a back-ground, for example, or sheets can tell a story. Sharp slashing marks speak
of grade-school cursive hand-writing practice. tersely of tension. Fluid strokes share a sense of
grace and ease.
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Text as a Legible text is also a visual design element, as any graphic designer will tell
you. While art journal pages are not constructed to advertise a product, you are
communicating content to a target audience, even if the target audience is just you.
Design How your text is used to create visual impact is something to consider. You may wish
to consciously place and use your text in a way that deliberately creates impact and
Element communicates something visually, not just literally. Balance or lack of balance on
a page communicates different things visually—harmony versus chaos or discord,
for example. Proximity of letters to each other and to other visual elements on a
page can be used to reveal our feelings. Tightly spaced text may speak to anxiety
or intensity, while loosely spaced text can slow down a visual reading.
Alignment, or the placement of text on your page, can lead the eye across visual
elements, creating a visual sentence to be read diagonally, from top to bottom, or
from left to right. Repetition creates emphasis, although this is true not just for
text but for any visual element. Contrast, or the lack thereof, can speak volumes
“Words, like Nature, half reveal or speak softly. These design elements can be added to your visual repertoire and
And half conceal the Soul within.” used to communicate content as yet another layer of meaning in your work.
—Alfred, Lord Tennyson,
“Im memoriam A.H.H.,” 1850
List two books you’ve read that you’ll never forget and your favorite passages.
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Favorite cellophane tape and snippets from magazine readings, hastily written excerpts
on napkins, airline boarding passes, and the occasional chocolate bar wrapper.
s
Quotes, Shelves of books can be stored inside the packsack, paper flags poking up
from the spines, each a reminder that some arrangement of words on that page
whispered something to the soul.
Poems, Art journals are marvelous repositories for treasured writings; quotes, poetry,
and prose can all can find their way onto the pages, marrying the visual elements
and Prose and speaking, whispering, and shouting the myriad things you work so hard
to say.
“P
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Folding pages adds new perspectives. Fold before starting, to create separate spaces. Fold after, to
s
The two most frequent ways I add text to a journal page: I use these two
methods of applying that text:
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There are two easy methods for applying text to metal mesh. Method one—Stencils and Masks on
Mesh—makes use of vinyl press-on letters, alphabet stickers, and alphabet scrapbooking masks. Method
two—Stamping a Resist on Mesh—uses alphabet rubber stamps and a Versamark watermark stamp pad.
Both methods can be manipulated to apply images to mesh, as well as to text.
Save your doodles. You can enlarge and copy them to create interesting backgrounds.
Novacan Black for at hand. and spray the surface of is dry, remove the materi-
Solder and Lead, liver the mesh with the patina als you have attached to
of sulfur, Modern 2 solution. When you see the mesh. The patina will
Options Patina in Tear down your mesh to sufficient color change on continue to develop over
green or blue, or JAX the size you require. Mesh the mesh, rinse the mesh the next hour or so. Once
will tear, just like fabric. in your bucket or with the it has developed, spray
patina solutions
hose. both sides of the mesh
• spray bottle 3 with a clear spray paint.
• rubber gloves Apply the stickers, letters,
or masks to the mesh,
• water supply, such as burnishing them down
a filled bucket, garden firmly.
hose, or utility sink
• plastic tray, box, or
grassy area
• clear spray paint
For Method One,
Stencils and Masks
on Mesh, you’ll need:
• vinyl stick-on letters, variations
alphabet stickers, or
alphabet scrapbooking Commercial Stencils glue them onto the contact paper, and then
masks You can use all sorts of stencils and masks cut them out again. Adhere the cutouts to the
with this technique. Plastic commercial mesh and proceed as previously described.
For Method Two,
Stamping a Resist on stencils sprayed on the reverse side with
Magazine Images
Mesh, you’ll need: repositionable adhesive can be adhered to
Anything you can clip from a magazine—a
• rubber alphabet stamps the mesh and then sprayed with patina
person, a tree, a dog—can be adhered to the
solution. These make gorgeous backgrounds.
• Versamark watermark mesh with regular spray adhesive. Add text
stamp pad You can combine small stencils and text to
or other elements, spray with patina solution,
create a page or focal piece.
and follow the instructions described above.
Contact Paper
Leaves, Ferns, and Other
Contact paper can be used to cut custom
Natural Items:
stencils and masks. Think of masks as
Adhere relatively flat natural materials to the
silhouettes. You can draw your own shapes
mesh, using regular spray adhesive. Apply the
onto the contact paper and then cut them out.
patina solution and follow the instructions
Or, use a photocopier to enlarge shapes from
described above.
books or drawings, cut them out of the paper,
2
Wearing rubber gloves, spray
the mesh with patina solution.
3
Once the desired level of
color change has been
reached, rinse the mesh
with water from a bucket or
garden hose. Allow to dry.
4
After an hour or so, treat
both sides of mesh with clear
spray paint.
variations
Rubber Stamps
You are obviously not limited to alphabet
rubber stamps. Most stamps will work for
this process, although extremely detailed
stamps will lose some detail.
Printing Blocks
Hand-carved printing blocks, made from
linoleum block or the new, easier-to-use
carving materials, can be used to create your
In this journal page, I used a own designs for application to mesh and
magazine image as a silhouette,
vinyl text, and natural items other printing processes.
from my yard as masks.
Make a list of your favorite quotes. Consider what they are attached to, as
journal page topics.
58 true vision
Writings writing with our art, or juxtaposing our art with our written thoughts, somehow the
work becomes something more, something larger, as if a collaboration has happened.
Anaïs Nin wrote, “The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are
and unable to say.” Our written words allow us to say what we are unable to say with our
artwork, and our art communicates where words fail.
Storytelling Storytelling with text and art on our journal pages is an inventive way of approach-
ing content. Storytelling also allows for a bit of detachment, because the story we
have to tell can be told in the third person or as if it happened “long ago and far away.”
Creating characters to represent persons we do not wish to identify allows us to exag-
gerate, highlight, or eliminate to enhance our story. The richness and depth of the
story is in the presence of art and writing.
What do you look at every day? Is any of it written words? List the reading
materials you peruse daily.
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Make up a fairy tale right now. Don’t think too much! Who are the characters?
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If your pages are typically neat or open looking, assign yourself the task of creating five messy pages.
Sometimes startling in their beauty and insight, found poems are relaxing to create.
Two ways of creating a found poem follow.
Materials Version One: The Paper Bag Poem Version Two: One Line at a Time
• newspaper or magazine Clip apart the words from a brief magazine or Choose an article from a newspaper or magazine that
article newspaper article and toss them into a paper bag. has as many lines as you wish to have words in your
• paper lunch bag Pull the words from the bag one at a time and lay them poem—a ten-line article, for example, to give you a
out on a table. Rearrange them at will, and then paste ten-word poem. To really enjoy the process, try for a
• scissors your found poem into your journal. twenty- to thirty-line article. Clip the text into individual
• glue stick lines. Working one line at a time, consider the words
in each line and snip one of the words of that line. Glue
• journal spread
them onto your journal page, in order of discovery.
If your style is typically loose, assign yourself five cleanly designed pages.
Materials 1 3 4 5
• fluid acrylics Squeeze some fluid Using scrap paper, test Once you have the paint Write onto your painted
acrylic onto a dish. the diluted acrylic. If it suitably diluted, load the surface using the ruling
• cup of water Dilute slightly with water. doesn’t flow, add a few pen again. Practice writing pen. You may find you
• small dish more drops of water to on some scrap paper. need to begin on scrap
• paintbrush 2 your paint mixture. If it paper and then write on
Dip the paintbrush into flows out quickly, add your painted surface to
• ruling pen the diluted fluid acrylic a bit more paint. prevent puddling on the
• scrap paper and apply the paint to the initial strokes.
opening of the ruling pen
What fonts do you prefer to use? List them and why you like them.
64 true vision
work were they exposed to? What poetry was written then? What were the current events? What were the
Pick an artist in whom you are interested. Research the time period in which they lived. What other
Create an antitravel journal. Create pages for places you NEVER want to go to again.
Current Events
The phrase “current events” might remind us of school days when
we reported on the happenings from the daily newspaper and the nightly news. However,
journaling about the current events in our lives can provide the most constant source of
rich, personal content.
Think of current events on three levels—the produce at the market—are the fabric of your
Everyday Events, the Personal Life-Changing life and are worthy material for art journaling.
Events, and Events with Global Impact. Everyday Personal life-changing events don’t need to be
events are the stuff life is made of: sipping tea defined; we know what those are. Delving into
in the mornings at the kitchen table, commuting the joys and sorrows that make up the rhythm of
to the office, driving the children to school, life provides a way of honoring those times and
stargazing at night, and everything in between. a way of making art with deep personal meaning.
Everyday events include spying the red-tailed Use your art journal to explore your reactions
hawk on his tree perch on the interstate roadside and emotions regarding the birth of a child or
and wondering if he is hunting the ubiquitous grandchild, the loss of a loved one, a change in
rabbits and chipmunks or the ubiquitous auto- careers, or a move across the country.
mobiles wending their way north and south Events of global impact include our responses
each day, like beads on a string. Everyday events to things that touch us from the news. Whether
include the gratitude you feel for the safety of we are responding to the daily newspaper,
your own life when you drop coins into a hat evening news, twenty-four hour news channel,
of a homeless person on your way to the subway. or news bites from the Web, we can describe our
The mundane everyday events—the arguments feelings about what is happening in the larger
or lovely dinners with your spouse, the worries world in our art journals.
and joys of parenting, even the colors of the
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Events We spy leaves swirling up from the ground in the wind of an autumn day, follow the
stark lines of a tree divested of leaves in the winter, peer into the face of the woman
who rings up our groceries, smile along with the toothless grin of a baby who loves us,
or vent our frustration at collecting yet another set of socks from the living room floor.
Art journals can chronicle the ordinary, or they can explore the moments when the
ordinary seems to transcend.
What everyday events do you visually record in your journals? Which ones do
you always record?
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current events 69
Make a list of the ways you can reflect the seasons in your journals.
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current events 71
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current events 73
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Leighanna Light created this calendar
journal. In this spread, she deals on
one page with new growth and future
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work environment. v
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What two things can you do to prepare, so that you can journal more
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current events 75
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Embed a fragment of a past work into something you are working on now.
my work. I’m an old-school photographer—meaning I shoot on limiting what you use. I also have some of those little organizer
film, and I do it with old, funky cameras! I use the actual prints in totes to put my supplies in. They work great for working in bed,
my journals. I figure better to have them in my journals than just and they help stop the horizontal spread that always happens
sitting in boxes. when you work.
current events 77
Life-Changing a new arrival with great joy. Thomas La Mance is credited with the famous quote,
“Life is what happens when we are making other plans.” None of us would choose
the difficult times, and even a planned-for, long-awaited birth of a baby can still
Events take us by surprise with the wonder and amazement the event brings.
What are the three largest inhibitors to your working in your art journal?
78 true vision
“There’s a bit of magic in everything, and some loss to even things out.”
—Lou Reed, “Magic and Loss”
current events 79
Materials 1 2 3 4
• Delta Texture Magic Apply the mask to your Knead the tube of Texture Using a palette knife, Slowly lift the mask off
page, and smooth it Magic and squeeze a little spread a thick layer of your page. Allow the page
• acrylic craft paint down. Leave a tiny part onto a shallow dish. Mix the Texture Magic paint to dry overnight.
• masks of the mask hanging paint directly into the Tex- mixture over the mask and
over an edge, or plan to ture Magic in a 1:1 ratio. the area you wish to cover.
• palette knife leave a small corner of it Wash your palette knife.
• previously prepared clean—you will need to
page (collaged, painted, use a clean section to lift
drawn on, or other) the mask off your page.
Right now, in our world, the following is happening that reaches right in and
gets me in my gut:
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r.
current events 81
Global Impact earthquakes, drought, famine: these human tragedies of the largest scale find
their way onto our pages, as we try to find ways to express our grief and sorrow,
our outrage, and our hope for the future.
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List two global events from the past five years that you followed in the news.
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Pull the covers off of magazines from each month of the year. Back each with sturdy paper and visually
Originally intended to be a resource sketchbook for paintings for a commute. No one knew what would happen or if we were safe.
course I was taking, this sketchbook ended up as a visual reaction Billboards suggested that residents store bottled water, canned
to my fears and worries as a person and as a mother in the days food, and duct tape to seal our windows. We were frightened. I
immediately following the tragic events of September 11, 2001. had to travel to Amherst, Massachusetts, by plane three weeks
My instructor suggested that I submit the sketchbook as part of after this infamous day, and I was both comforted and unnerved
my final portfolio for the class. Where we lived, we regularly saw by the armed soldiers in the airports, something we are rather
large army helicopters and planes patrolling the sky, and, sud- accustomed to now.
denly, army vehicles were visible on the highways during my daily
journal on the blank paper side. Bind a year’s worth into a yearbook.
For these journal pages,
I used newspapers from the
days immediately following
September 11, 2001. I applied
the papers to the surface
before beginning work and
used the papers again to
create collage elements.
The stark colors were applied
using acrylic paint, tinted
gesso, and Speedball Super
Black India Ink.
current events 83
3
Now, using your scrap paper,
tear approximate versions of
the dominant shapes in your
image.
4
Using acrylic medium, paste
these shapes down in an ap-
proximation of the dominant
images. Perfection is not
key—communication of the
sense of the original image is
the goal.
5
Continue to work the image
with other media, as needed.
What was the last global news event you followed? Why?
84 true vision
Create an abstract or nonrepresentational image of yourself. Create you, in code, perhaps, or from clipped
Working with figures is often integral to communicating what we have in mind. However, many of
us haven’t yet developed the drawing skills to render a figure in a way that says what we need to say.
One way to incorporate figure is by using silhouettes.
Materials 1 2 3
• figures clipped from Choose figures with If you want to use the If you want to use the Insert into your page as
clean lines, until you feel figure in the direction it figure in the opposite appropriate to your art.
magazines or news-
comfortable clipping the is positioned, cover the direction from which it is Continue to work with
papers
figure down to the lines back of the image with currently positioned, first images as desired.
• scrap or decorative of human proportions on your chosen papers. Turn clip out the figure. Glue Alternatively, you can use
paper your own. it back to the front and the paper to the front of freezer paper, shiny side
• glue stick trim the excess paper the figure, then flip and up, to cover your work
from around the figure. trim around the silhouette. surface and a sheet of
deli paper as a ground.
Paint, stamp, and collage
onto the deli paper and
integrate your figure into
this piece. Then glue the
finished sheet into your
journal using gel medium.
current events 85
Add history to your travel journals by purchasing vintage souvenirs, postcards, photographs, and books from
your journey’s location. Antique shops and eBay are the best sources for these kinds of ephemera.
Places and Spaces
Location is everything, the adage states, and, as artists, we take
notice of our location—its light, color, texture, and shape.
We travel to places near and far, spend time memories, and dreams all surface in response
absorbing the beauty of nature, and ponder the to location. In turn, they can become content
implications of house and home. Our art journals for our art and ripe for exploring in the pages
become a record of our explorations, a repository of a journal. More than simple geography,
of our musings about the places and spaces in places and spaces can be thought of in terms
which we spend our time. We are often chased of travel, nature, nostalgia, and memory—of
by memories and inquire about history. We things that we may have lost or things we may
feel our surroundings, as much as we see them. have found.
Thoughts, feelings, sketches, imaginings, hopes,
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Journals and get a vicarious thrill. Travel journals are charged with the energy of discovery
and are often created with the idea that they will be looked at again and again.
What place holds the most memories, history, and power for you?
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List all the places to which you have traveled in your life. s
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If you have no plans to travel to a distant land full of exotic color kit: watercolors or water-soluble crayons, a brush, a small bottle
and sound, yet your fingers itch to record an adventure, do not of water, a permanent extra-fine-point marker, a glue stick, some
despair! Become a traveler to your hometown. Pull out the map. scissors, and your camera. Now, spend the day eating, looking,
Have a good look. What’s within a two-hour drive? What is right shopping, laughing, and admiring. Be surprised by doorways,
where you live? Are there small towns with quaint shops nearby? columns, steam grates, and manhole covers. Slip menus and
Country roads with old barns painted with Mail Pouch Chewing business cards into your traveling bag or pockets. Surreptitiously
Tobacco signs and fields full of dairy cows? Does your park boast photograph the locals, yourself in front of landmarks, and even
sculpture or monuments? Is there a city with a museum within your lunch.
driving distance? Are there weird or hokey displays that certain At the end of your long day, head back to your lodgings. Put
businesses hope will be tourist attractions? Interesting skylines your feet up. Sift through your ephemera. Peek at your photos.
of tall buildings and millions of lights? Billboards and marquee Spread everything out on your luxurious bed, and, with glue stick
signs? Strange shop signs or street graffiti? and scissors in hand, water glass and watercolors at the ready,
Your assignment is to spend a Saturday being a tourist right begin a few pages. Then, just like those who have traveled far from
where you live. Although, like many travelers, you won’t complete home, go back home to your studio, print out some photos, and
the pages until you are back in your room, pack a traveling art make use of your supply stash to make some more pages.
and that it truly is or as the home you try to make it. Although it seems slightly schizophrenic and
even more than a little confusing, generally speaking, we carry a lot of thoughts
about house and home with us.
Home House and home imagery is extremely enchanting.
Think of the antique postcards created by itinerant
photographers who traveled through towns, photo-
graphing people standing on their front porches or
seated in their yards, often with chickens running
around. Picture the mothers, still in aprons, with
their babies in their arms, standing out in front of
their domains. There is something romantic about the
apron-clad, baby-on-the-hip lifestyle, with clotheslines
and chickens. However, the practical person remembers
the way chicken coops smell and the wonders immuni-
zation has done for infant mortality. (I wear aprons, and
I certainly have a baby on the hip, but, alas, no chickens,
and I buy prepared mashed potatoes to serve with my pot
roast. Don’t tell.)
What does the home inside yourself look like? What does it look like inside?
Outside?
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If you were a tourist in your town or area, what should you see?
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We have habits in our art. Take a look at your last journal. What did you do a lot of? What do you wish
On a piece of scrap paper or on a page in your journal or sketch Develop a color palette for each room. What colors suit your
book, draw a loose house shape: two straight lines topped by the memories, your emotions? What was the quality of the light? List
roofline. Then divide your house in half crosswise and then in half two colors for each room.
down the middle, so your house has four rooms. Add one last line You now have sufficient material with which to make an art
across to form an attic. journal around the concept of home. You may find that your
In the bottom left room, list things you remember from your collection of objects in your studio or home fits neatly into your
childhood home. On the top left, list what you wished your “rooms.” Look through your decorative papers and ephemera, and
childhood home had been—the dreams and imaginings you had you’ll undoubtedly find pieces that speak to the colors and feelings
as a child. On the bottom right, describe your current home, the you described.
colors, feelings, and favorite things that say home to you. On the Consider moving forward to make a book. A child’s board
top right, describe your dreams about the home you wish it might book can be cut or an old book altered into a house shape. Listen
be, not just physically but emotionally. In the attic, where old to your inner voice telling you about other things as you work:
memories typically go, describe any nostalgic thoughts or ideas sibling and parental relationships, family secrets, quirky stories,
about a home you had, one you might have imagined from long humorous anecdotes. Jot them down for safekeeping or include
ago, or one that belonged to a grandparent. them in your art journal.
Spaces as if we were born to be here. We return as often as we are able, and we spend the time in
between visits planning how to get back there. Perhaps we even consider relocating
to this place.
Invariably, being the magpie collectors that we are, we bring back trinkets and
mementos—sticks, stones, shells, photographs, souvenirs—and keep them like talis-
mans we hope will transport us back to this place once more. Often, art journals about
these places will span time, sometimes chronicling decades of travel to and from them.
If visited frequently enough, they appear regularly in our art journal pages. Across these
pages, we watch children grow up and friendships mature into deeper things or pass by,
as some friendships must.
These places vary as widely as people do; they are beaches, mountains, farms, resorts,
coastal villages, and metropolitan meccas. Sometimes, our place only exists during a
brief period of time—a retreat or a conference, perhaps—where the people present create
an atmosphere that feels like home. A place this special need not be thousands of miles
A triptych, done by Bridgette away; it can be a local park, a favorite camping spot, a place you have visited since child-
Guerzon Mills in encaustic, has
writing embedded in the wax
hood. What matters is the sense of belonging, the feeling of having arrived home. As
surface of the painting. David Whyte said, “There is no house like the house of belonging.”
96 true vision
stem of your wristwatch, the knob of a door, and re-create it visually in your journal.
Zoom in on something—an object in your house, perhaps. Select just a part of it: the
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Attach a strip of fabric along the edge of a page by running it through your sewing machine set to
Materials 1 2 3 4
• quality ink-jet print of Glue the ink-jet print to Using a paintbrush that Using a palette knife, While this gel is still wet,
a landscape your book cover or other is as soft and as wide as apply the acrylic gel use your palette knives,
surface using acrylic gel possible, apply a coat of medium to the photo. rubber color shapers,
• book board, Davey medium. Cover it with Golden GAC 500 across Use a heavy hand and polymer clay tools, and
board, or mat board waxed paper or plastic the surface, to seal the apply a relatively thick paint brushes to create
• flat paintbrush that is wrap and weigh the print ink. Be gentle, and do coat. The coating will be your faux painted surface.
very soft and wide down as it dries. Allow it not press the paintbrush white but will be clear Work with the content
to dry completely before into the surface. You do when completely dry. of your landscape, and
• glossy acrylic gel proceeding. not want the ink to smear. create knife and brush
medium Resist the urge to work strokes, swipes, and
• Golden GAC 500 this coating. Allow it to dry shaped marks, as if
(acrylic polymer) completely. you were painting the
landscape.
• palette knives, paint-
brushes, rubber color 5
shapers, polymer clay When satisfied, allow the
tools piece to dry completely.
This could take as long as
48 hours, 72 hours if the
humidity level is high. Do
not disturb the surface
during this time.
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Self-Explorations
To infuse your journal with scent, scorch some pages with your favorite incense.
A line of thinking suggests that each and every piece of art an artist
makes is self-portraiture, because the artist is sharing her unique perspective or, more
romantically expressed, a piece of her artistic soul. Some would argue this is merely the
nature of art.
Self-portraiture, then, is the process in which treatment of the work, the setting, or the media
the artist sets about rendering an image of used. These are choices ultimately made by the
herself. In the process of creating a self-portrait, artist, to express something the artist wishes
the artist becomes also the subject, collapsing to express. Self-portraits become exceptionally
the distance between artist and model, between interesting, because the way in which the subject
creator and creation. When an artist creates a wishes to be viewed becomes part and parcel of
portrait of a person, the artist has a vision in the artistic process. Self-portraits can be fascinat-
mind for that portrait. The person may or may ing and often extremely revealing.
not have any direct input on the context or
101
Portraiture clearly at that moment; only when we look back at our art are we able to see what
was going on. Images of ourselves advance this process.
Another reason for considering self-portraiture is that we are frequently not
happy with our appearance, even when others tell us we are beautiful. Being able to
make images of ourselves that feel strong, real, or attractive, is important. Knowing
how to make an image of ourselves gives us more freedom to make images of others.
Having been on the other side of the camera lens or
canvas, we are better able to encourage our subjects
to speak visually.
There is a power in self-portraits that all artists
should own for themselves. You needn’t share
your self-portrait work, unless you feel so moved.
Sometimes, I have found my most powerful
self-portraits to be the riskiest and not attractive,
but nonetheless, the power in them is important
because of the honesty involved. If I am working
on self-portraits during a difficult time in my life
and I look “picture perfect” (although I never do),
the meat of what I am exploring is missing.
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Juliana Coles creates
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a personal tarot card a
on this journal page.
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We all suffer the slings and arrows of life, and sometimes we get bruised and
wounded. List these times. What did you avoid adding to your list?
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It is said that “the eyes are the windows to the soul.” List four to six ways
you can work your art journal pages to examine this idea. Try to range from
direct interpretation to subtle interpretation.
Make a photocopy of a photograph of yourself and, using pastels, paints, chalks, or colored pencils, make
phy of art journaling? questions are, but my book always knows, and I must be patient
Whether we admit it or not, in all of us lies a deep pain—some and have faith in the process.
disturbance, loneliness, heartache, grief, memory, remorse; some The extreme journal is the container, soul home, or witness-
weight, fear, or feelings of unworthiness, unloveability, emptiness, protection program and not some proving ground. There is no
fakeness … you get it. My extreme visual journaling practice is a place here to show the world what a great artist I am or how nice
desire to know these deep and tender shadow places, to give them and pretty I can make everything, so everyone else can feel fine.
voice, and to heal and transform them. In these dark recesses lie I am what I am, when I am. Silly, cute, raw, angry, frustrated, sad,
my greatest gifts. I don’t want to hide them; I want to reveal them! fierce, frightened, drowning, and rising—all just pieces of me, no
The extreme journalism process I have developed combines better or worse than any other part. I won’t leave behind or reject
words and images for self-dialogue and enables me to create what is integral to my being. This is how I got here. My pages are
communication with my higher self, to access healing. This is a place of safekeeping and honor, in which I transform my inner
deep and challenging work: I am crying, gluing, painting, furi- enemies into allies. What seemed to be my weaknesses are really
ously writing, tearing things off, rewriting, all in an explosion my strengths. Like a soul map, my pages allow me to see more
of emotion and expression, so I don’t have time to judge it or clearly and more deeply the path to the real me. I have been
hold it back. This tangible act of revelation has had a powerfully saving my life in extreme journals since 1987, page after page,
transformative effect on my life. The ancient Greeks said it is our book after book.
Portraiture for exploration. You can use the mirror phenomenon to your advantage
for your art most easily through photographic self-portraits.
Describe the photo of yourself you like the most and why:
Melanie Komisarski
examines parts of
herself, both literally
and figuratively,
through self-portraiture.
Feeling shy?
Try
• wearing hats and
sunglasses
• photographing the
back of your head
• looking off to the side
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You are the sum of your life experiences. Create a timeline of your life across
a journal spread. List at least one event for each five-year span.
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A fun way to ease into self-portraiture is to take photographs of manipulate further with mark-making media, acrylic paint, and
your “parts”—your hands covered in paint, smiling eyes, an ear rubber alphabet stamps.
dangling a favorite earring, the curve of your neck, a close-up of Make a list of ideas for parts to photograph. This process is easier
the back of your head, or your bare feet. If you feel intimidated if you keep your camera handy in your bag. Eventually, if you desire,
by even that much self-scrutiny, opt for photographing things you can compile these pieces into a self-portrait journal. In this
that are with you daily or often: a favorite bag or purse on your instance, you would vary the way you use them: ink-jet transfers,
shoulder or with the contents on display; your favorite cowboy for example, transparencies, or printing on rice paper. You can
boots; your dresser top; or objects you treasure. Work with further manipulate the pages in your journal with mark-making,
straight photographs, or try using ink-jet image transfers that you automatic writing (see pg 29), collage, and text.
Materials 1
• camera Print an image of your
choice onto JetPrint
• ink-jet printer Multiproject paper or
by cutting a photocopy into strips and gluing the strips with varied spacing across the page.
• JetPrint Multiproject other inexpensive glossy
paper ink-jet photo paper. Trim
any excess paper, leaving
• water approximately ½" (1.25
• wooden spoon cm) around the image.
• printmaking paper Set aside.
3
Using the fine spray
setting on the spray
bottle, spray the paper
lightly. There should be
no puddles, only a fine,
even coating of spray on
the surface. Place your
image face down on the
receptor surface. Hold it
in place with the fingertips
of one hand and use the
other hand to rub the back
of the image firmly with
the bottom of a wooden
spoon or with a bone
er folder. Work across the
e, entire surface of the back
of the image.
4
Work quickly, because if
the paper dries, the image
transfer paper will adhere
to your receptor surface.
Check the work by lifting
a corner of the image,
while continuing to hold
it in place. Once satisfied
with the transfer, remove
the ink-jet photo paper.
Continue to work the
image using pencils, a
china marker, or acrylic
paints. Add text, if desired,
using alphabet stamps.
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Examine two or three recent pieces of work. How do they overlap? (For example, •
is it the medium used, the color palette, the collage elements?) •
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taking a closer look: Melanie Sage
Another way to ease into self-portraiture is to make use of significant images of ourselves from childhood
and work them into a journal page about ourselves. Like many artists, Melanie Sage has made use of child-
hood photos to help her explore childhood experiences and, by doing so, she creates a revealing self-portrait.
I loved seeing your journals in a stack, the covers similar yet differ- The books aren’t limited by theme; they hit whatever is going
ent. The repetition emphasized your commitment to art journaling. on for me at that place in time. I always do a table of contents
Could you tell us about your working style? Are you a daily art in my books when I am finished. I think this is another way of
journaler? Are your books limited to an area of exploration, or deepening my personal understanding of my experience, and
are the topics in your books those that are simply current for you? doing it at the end allows me some distance. I might have been
All my books start out with the same base. I bought a stack of very confused while working on a page, but I go back and label
these books at the dollar store, shiny Back Street Boys books, a the page “growing” when I revisit it. I have new insight.
pop band from the 1990s. After rebinding each of the books with These books are personal dialogues for me; they help me work
heavier paper and covering them, I created a starting place. I love through a thing. I usually spend about four hours on a spread, so
that all the books are the same size, each book like a volume in a it is meditative. I am thinking about something that is going on
series. I also keep the books purposefully short, about forty pages. for me, and focus playfully on that topic for hours. When I say
I like the books to cover a short period of time, a snippet of my playfully, I don’t mean the topics are light—they are often intense.
life. This is especially helpful when I am going through a difficult But art creates brain connections for me, I think, that allow me to
time, because finishing a book can feel like closure—I can “put consider a problem in ways I haven’t thought about before, and I
away” that experience (literally and figuratively). I also tend to can make better sense of it all. And it’s cathartic, too. If I can get
look back at my past journals, basing them on what I was going it all out on paper, it helps me to make better decisions.
through at the time; “this is my ‘choosing a job’ journal, this is my
‘relocation’ journal.”
Talismans are powerful, but many of us have ordinary objects in our pockets
and bags that are always with us. List three objects that are nearly always
with you. What’s the story behind these objects?
Use masking tape to tape off a grid on a journal page. Place the tape at odd angles. Use the sections of
I never really preplan a page or have a vision for what it will be. done, it often needs a unifying force to hold it all together. So,
But I often start with getting color on the page. I love Peerless I will use one or two colors of paint around the page, to create
watercolors. The colors are so bold and so easy to use. I often put some balance. I am working toward balance in art and in life.
different blocks of color on my page, and that gives me an oppor- I try hard not to censor my journaling, but I do still have
tunity to organize my thoughts into the different blocks later, internal sensors. There are things I am not ready to put onto
if I choose. Sometimes, they disappear with the next layer. paper, even for myself. In one of my books, I wrote, “once you say
When I sit down to journal, I often have something going on the words out loud you have to do something about it.” Some-
in my head, something I know I want to journal about. If I don’t times I am not yet ready for action; I can’t put the words on paper.
know what I am going to write about, I will often start with child- But I have a philosophy about sharing my pages and the struggles.
hood photos of myself. I think this helps me meditate on who I I want other women to know that we all struggle, we deal with
am, get in touch with the child in me, think about my most basic similar hurts and crises. Maybe it’s a bit of a reaction to the
needs, and consider the process of growing up. If I am stuck, I’ll “scrapbook happy” pages, the ones that highlight the trips to
go through words from junk mail and scraps. When I find some Disneyland, where everyone is happy all the time. Don’t misun-
words that appeal to me, I cut them out and glue them down. derstand, I love happy family scrapbooks, but I think it shields
Everything else just comes one layer after another. I keep a scrap/ part of the picture. I hope that, through sharing my pages, other
collage box (OK, lots of them!), and I’ll pull one of those out when women might feel more whole and less alone in the world.
“Anyone who says you can’t see a thought simply doesn’t know art.”
—Wynetka Ann Reynolds
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Draw or collage a silhouette to represent yourself. Then create imaginary w
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organs to represent your inner life. Brainstorm a list of those organs. th
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Turn photos of people and pets into paper dolls for in your journal. Use catalogs and clip art to redo
their wardrobes.
1
To begin, place a mirror in
front of you, so that you can
see your face.
2
Place your paper or sketch-
book on the table. Because
you are not to look at your
paper as you draw, you
might need to place your
sketchbook on your lap
or even under the table to
avoid cheating.
3
Fix your eyes on your image
in the mirror. Choose a point
to begin your drawing and
place your pencil or pen on
the paper. Without looking
down, begin to draw the
outline of your face, very
slowly, in a steady, continuous
line without lifting the pencil
or looking at the paper.
4
Think of your line as a lasso,
as you begin to work inside
the outline of your face, and
lasso in your eyes, mouth,
and nose. You may look at
the paper to place an internal
feature, but once you begin
to draw it, don’t look at
the paper.
4
When you are finished
with your carving block,
print a test image. To do
this, squeeze a line of
paint onto a glass plate
and roll a brayer across
the paint until the roller on
the brayer is coated with
an even layer of paint (not
too thick).
5
Roll this paint onto your
carved image. Place a
piece of paper over the
Joe Ludwig carved coated carved image and
his self-portrait onto
this linoleum block.
burnish. Lift the paper
off the image to view
your print.
Even when we are unhappy with our appearance, we have aspects we like. List
your three best body parts.
rue Vision
Page:120
Found throughout history in literature and mythology, archetypes
are an idealized model of a person. The Hero, the Warrior, the Mystic, and the
Personal Monster are examples of archetypes commonly seen in mythology and literature.
Carl Jung developed a psychological theory involving a framework of archetypes,
Archetypes such as the mother, the child, the self, the shadow, and the hero.
Artists often have a pantheon of personal archetypes they use, sometimes
unknowingly, to represent themselves in their artwork. Sometimes, the archetype
is a particular self-portrait image. Other times, it involves a particular image that
repeats itself in the artist’s work. Think about your art journals. Are there images
that repeat themselves? Eyes? Wings? Birds? Hands?
Interestingly, Gestalt psychological theory offers up the idea that, in interpreting
dreams, we are everything present in our dreams. If we dream we are lost in a forest
and attacked by a bear, we are the forest, the bear, and ourselves. Examining the
dream from these various perspectives gives us insight into our dream. The same
might be applied to the images and content that artists repeat.
If we examine the objects that appear in our work repeatedly, and look at their
symbolism, we may begin to see connections between those objects and ourselves.
For example, I am drawn to birds, wings, feathers, and nests. When I look at the
symbolism of birds, wings, and feathers I find flight, freedom, escape, soaring, and
perhaps even, by the use of a single feather or found feathers, the loss of flight and,
therefore, freedom. When I look at birds and nests, I find that the symbolism of
home and family applies directly to where I am in my life. When we know why we
Nell Morningstar created a are drawn to particular imagery, we can begin to use these images with intention
series of personal tarot cards
around specific archetypes. and give our work greater meaning.
Label an envelope with the words “visual feast”, and adhere the envelope in your journal. Fill it.
a tarot of archetypes
inside an art journal.
The self-portrait image
in the right-hand card
is an image that she
uses repeatedly.
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to the thick layers of gel medium, will be slightly stretchy, allowing you to distort the image, if you wish.
between coats. Once dry, wet the back and rub the paper off with your fingers. The image, which has adhered
Apply five to eight coats of acrylic medium to a toner-based or magazine image and allow the image to dry
Spirituality and Dreams
Many artists explore in their art journals concepts that escape
concrete definition.
Spirituality and faith—subjects that are topic to mine in an art journal. Fantastical,
difficult to articulate with just words and that disturbing, odd or sensuous, our dreams are
are often a minefield when discussing them with image-dense and loaded with content. Examin-
friends—are wonderful topics to explore in the ing our dreams visually, responding to feelings
pages of an art journal. Provocative questions, and content, can reveal a great deal about
controversial thoughts, and deeply held beliefs situations in our waking lives.
can be explored and expounded upon. Tenets of Our art journal becomes a place in which we
faith can be honored or challenged in the relative can mine our subconscious for answers, speak
privacy of journal pages. with God, connect to the universe, send prayers
Dreams, their ephemeral or mystical nature, aloft, or manifest abundance into our lives.
and their hidden meanings are also an interesting
125
Spirituality symbolism to connect their work to ideas they feel others will understand, without
necessarily having an allegiance to a particular religion. One example of this is
the use of Madonna imagery. While the Madonna has a particular significance in
Christianity and in Catholicism, it has also been used to represent the Mother
aspect of the goddess (Maiden, Mother, Crone), to connect a work with the spiritual
nature of motherhood itself, or to draw attention to one of the common aspects
of womanhood.
Many of us were raised in a household that followed a particular religious faith.
Some faiths encompass so much of daily life, determining holidays, foods served,
schools attended, customs practiced, or modes of dress, that they move beyond
religion to culture.
In these cases, family history is intensely intertwined with the religion of our
childhood, and faith becomes part of our past, our memories, and our present life.
How is your life touched by your faith or spirituality? Does this appear in
your art journal?
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Create a page to be touched. Use fabric, textured gesso, or interesting handmade paper. Maybe fun fur is
Having known you for a few years, I am aware that faith is an in my art, in the natural world, and in the strong matriarchal
integral part of your life. Your faith seems to also be an integral legacy of my family that has me believe that all the rich, potent
part of both your culture and your personal history. I was personalities that have gone before me still linger somewhere,
wondering if you might tell us a little bit about the significance, somehow, waiting for me to catch up with them.
for you, of the title of your Los Dias del Milagro journal? I credit my Catholic-school upbringing with giving me a rich
My faith is woven through every page of this book, stitch love of ritual and liturgical ceremony. The relics of the saints,
by stitch. Or rather, my continuing pilgrimage towards faith is the blessed medals, the novenas, the rosaries, the scapulars,
stitched on every page. I don’t think faith is a static thing that you the little white First Communion prayer book, the drawing of
either have or you don’t. I was very heartened to read that even the heavy folds of the velvet drapes that left me in the darkness
Mother Theresa had droughts of faith and persisted in her good of the confessional and my sins, and the lighting of the Easter
works despite them. I have felt at times like that lizard on the fire are all symbols that reverberated the mystery of faith. The
first spread, scrambling on my belly through the desert, in search majesty of faith is found both in the first breaths of my new-
of my soul. I have envied those who are like the big, fat, lazy borns and as witness to my mother cradling my father’s head
bumbles, sipping faith from every flower. as he took his last breath.
My formal religious education is as a cradle Catholic raised in I found the humanity of faith when I was a eucharistic
a conservative and traditional Italian American family. I don’t minister, standing on the side of the altar, facing my friends
think my parents ever missed church on Sunday unless they were and fellow parishioners, the host in my hand and placing it
ill. After pulling away from the church as a teen, I returned to a in wave after wave of hands, old, young, slender, fat, graceful,
formal, active church-going parish life over the course of raising gnarled, calloused, and gentle, with the words, “The body of
a family. My husband converted to Catholicism on our fifteenth Christ” meaning, to me, both the host and the hands waiting
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Create a list of names for the major arcane of your personal tarot. Be as s
funny or as serious as you desire.
Have you a recurring dream? Describe this dream. Does this dream appear in
conjunction with events in your life?
Gravity. Use it. Spill coffee or paint onto a page, even one in progress.
In her art journal, Michelle
Remy chronicles the mes-
sage found within a dream.
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don’t say it in daytime language.” s
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—Gail Godwin to
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What is the weirdest dream you can recall? •
•
•
Create a visual joke, something that makes you smile each time you see it.
visual toolbox: Altered Scrapbooking Papers Tips
• Experiment with working
This technique gives you a head start in creating layered backgrounds. Using some of the amazing from light colors to dark
scrapbooking papers available at local craft stores and scrapbooking specialty stores, and working and the reverse.
with the wide range of spray paint colors and stencils that are commercially available, it is possible • Experiment with metallic
to create a layered background that can communicate mystery, opulence, and even gothic horror. paint on dark backgrounds
and black paint on metallic
Materials 1 2 3 papers.
• spray paint in several Working outdoors, place Select a stencil with Allow to dry a little, and • Use colors similar to, but
colors your box on the ground which to begin. Spray remove the stencil. slightly darker than, the
or on an old table. Place the reverse side of the color palette of the paper.
• repositionable a small piece of masking stencil with reposition- 4
adhesive tape along the white edge able adhesive and place Allow to paint to dry
• Look in craft stores for
of your scrapbooking the stencil across your completely, and add a spray paint in a wider
• several stencils range of colors than what
paper, and tape the paper paper. Place scrap paper new stencil. Repeat from
• scrapbooking papers to the bottom of your box. around the edges of the step 2 with another color might be available at
• respirator (mask, Wear a mask to avoid stencil, where the paper is of paint. hardware stores.
available at hard- breathing in spray paint. exposed. Tape the paper
ware stores) into place, so that only
the paper to be sprayed is
• large cardboard box visible through the stencil
• scrap paper openings. Choose a paint
• masking tape color, and spray. Spray
in short bursts—think
• latex gloves puffs of paint, not lavish
coatings.
137
appendix 139
141
143
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without
written permission of the copyright owners. All images in this book have been
reproduced with the knowledge and prior consent of the artists concerned, and no
responsibility is accepted by the producer, publisher, or printer for any infringement
of copyright or otherwise, arising from the contents of this publication. Every effort
has been made to ensure that credits accurately comply with information supplied.
We apologize for any inaccuracies that may have occurred and will resolve inaccurate
or missing information in a subsequent reprinting of the book.
Ludwig, L. K.
True vision : authentic art journaling / L.K. Ludwig.
p. cm.
ISBN 1-59253-426-0
1. Photographs--Conservation and restoration. 2. Scrapbook journaling. 3. Photograph
albums. I. Title.
TR465.L93 2008
745.593--dc22
2007048948
CIP
ISBN-13: 978-1-59253-426-5
ISBN-10: 1-59253-426-0
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Printed in Singapore