I made a pledge to myself to try to make some form of art every day. With the stresses of work, it’s sometimes difficult to find time to do so. Keeping visual art journals has helped me keep my promise. Inside the pages of my journals, I have no rules. I try not to think about making ‘the perfect page’. I never remove pages, and sometimes I don’t finish pages. I may go back several times and rework pages. I may work on just a corner of a piece and then move onto something else. These pages are for testing techniques, recording ideas and thoughts and above all … playing. Any medium goes.
I am very inspired by music and especially song lyrics. I love those hidden gems of poetry that often go un-noticed within a song. I find myself making stories and images around a single line in a song frequently.
Altered Books:
An altered book is a form of artwork that changes a book from its original form into something else. Many altered books are used as a place to visual journal, or practice techniques. My altered book pages are another playground for me. I enjoy taking an old book and breathing life back into it. I collage, alter, rip pages, make new stories from the words within, experiment with a new medium … the possibilities are endless.
There is something very freeing in being able to scribble and draw inside a book. I remember as a child I’d wake up at 2am in the morning and secretly color the black and white illustrations in some of my books. They needed color! Sometimes, if there were no pictures, I’d draw them in the margins. Unfortunately, my mom did not think too much of me defacing perfectly good books. 😉
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