How I Started My Art/Journaling...
and how it continued

Late in 2001, my friend Erin asked me how I work on art/journals. The following notes are edited from my reply to her:

Generally, I have a couple of journals going. From 1999 - 2001, when I was approaching my divorce, I kept an angry one that no one will ever see. It's unattractive, but it kept me from venting too inappropriately sometimes. Pain and rage were scribbled on its pages. I was processing a lot of anguish.

If I see a time in my life that is unique or compartmentalized--a journey, or time alone, or a very intense teaching schedule or something like that--I'll create a journal just for that theme alone.

Then there's my everyday journal. It's at hand for my random thoughts, sketches, bits of paper & receipts, and collages. Sometimes it has a theme, but usually it's just my everyday journal. The theme may seem obvious later.

Generally, I start with standard sketchbooks. You know, the ring-binder kind that they sell at Michael's, and other art supply shops. I like the 5"x8" size. (For the following illustrations, I'm using my "Hogwarts" journal from late in 2001.)

If I'm going to use paint on the cover, or heavy embellishments--and I generally do--I gesso & paint and then collage the cover. (Gesso keeps the paint from seeping into the paper.) I use whatever gesso is cheap & available in bulk.

click to see larger (16k)
(full size is 5"x8")

Recently, I added a hemp/string & button closure to this journal, because the pages are too irregular for it to stay closed. I lace the string through two mini-grommets I've mounted in the back cover, and I wrap the hemp/string around the antique button loosely sewn on the front. (It's secured with a smaller antique button on the inside of the front cover.)

But, next in the process, I start the title page, which will evolve as the journal does.

Along the way, I'll alternately write and make art in my journal. (I like the phrase "make art" because it sounds like "make love," and it's an equally passionate expression.) I deliberately gesso ahead a few pages when I'm doing art, to make certain I keep punctuating my journal with art.

Here's another early page from this journal, with a magazine line "You are not alone":

click to see larger (39k)
(full size is 5"x8")

This entry was from the time when I deliberately dropped my boundaries and started accepting hugs from people again. (It's a long story...) And I discovered that some friends give fabulous hugs, while other acquaintances... well, my own journaling on that page says it:

"I need someone to hold. Someone who won't pull back at the first sign of release, and withdraw behind the mask as if the whole thing was a little distasteful. Someone who looks me in the eyes and smiles beyond his lips, with a knowledge of the ages and a sense of comfort like returning home to a place I never really left."

The tissue paper--like most of my images--was applied with Golden Gel Medium (soft, gloss). This leaves the tissue transparent enough to read the text through, while giving it the sense of layers that I value in my art.

Generally, my elements are antique paper (from flea markets), magazine images & text (W magazine and Nat'l Geographic), art & text that I create on the computer, and acrylic paint, glitter, and sometimes gold leaf. Surface embellishments include found feathers & other items, antique buttons, freshwater pearls, and... whatever else finds its way into my art supplies!

And yes, the pages do buckle and bubble beneath the gesso, paint, gel medium, and layers. That's why I use a string-and-button closure. And no, I don't mind that it's such an irregular and funky design. I'm very process oriented, and if the pages buckle and warp... so be it.

So anyway, that's today's art blurb. I teach journaling regularly. If you'd like me to teach in your area, contact me directly, or have your favorite store contact me.

Thanks!