Fan Books

The name of this project is "I Am My Biggest Fan." Students create a fun book that expresses different aspects of their personality.

Here is a brief synopsis of the project....

An 18 x 24 piece of tagboard is painted freely with acrylic paints in a variety of colors. When dry, contrasting colors of paint are applied using bubble wrap, plastic screen, and other found objects to stamp with. Templates are then used to draw body shapes on the back. These are cut out and become the pages.

A list of 15 to 18 words and descriptive phrases is generated and printed. Each word and phrase must tell some aspect of your personality. These are cut out and applied to the pages. Faces must be found or drawn and applied to each page.
When additional embellishment is completed, everything is held together at the bottom with buttons and cord. The book fans open to reveal the contents.

Spring

In spite of the snow this weekend, I am hopeful.

Altered Book Journals

Books have always been important to me on many levels. Reading books, making books and altering books are among my favorite things to do.

When I find vintage books that have structural issues, they come home with me and receive new spines and bindings. The old text pages are replaced with a variety of papers for mixed media art or writing. The books then begin their reincarnation as visual journals or sketchbooks and since I can't keep them all, they are posted on my Etsy site and sent out into the world.

Just in Time

It appears I'm still fascinated with that old lock from the antique show as well as the 'time' theme so might as well get it out of my system. Here you can also see another version the young man from the previous post.

One of the things I love about working on a digital canvas is that almost anything can be scanned into your work, replicated, resized, repositioned, and placed wherever it wants to be. This opens new doors for the creative experience and has changed the way I now look at everyday items.

Locked

This weekend we went to an antique show in town. There I found an old lock mechanism that wanted to come home with me, and a photograph of a young man. Today I scanned both of these into my computer to see how they might play together. Additional items are from a Dover collection of scientific images.

The Beginning of Time

This was my second journal page for the "Time" theme. Created in digital collage form, it was composed in layers on Photoshop. The lovely jellyfish came from "The Vintage Moth" a wonderful blog dedicated to image sharing.

Here is a link if you want to visit.

The idea of time in the organic form of eggs seemed interesting and yet silly enough to appeal to my sense of humor.

I'll have mine "over easy" please.

Vincent in the Morning

The latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors magazine features a little portrait of Vincent Van Gogh and this quote: "If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means, paint, and that voice will be silenced." I loved the quote and the self portrait so out came the markers for a little early morning drawing exercise.

Vincent Van Gogh was born March 30, 1853.

Journal Page / Text and Image

In this exercise the text becomes an important compositional element. The written word becomes design.

"My Work is giving space to the creative spirit, learning to get out of it's way and be in service at the same time. We each have responsibility to express ourselves and in this expression is the key to our healing."
-Gabrielle Roth

Journal Pages / Nature

These pages were done in class along with my students. The exercise was to place a 'found' image on a painted background, expand the image beyond it's existing borders, embellish and then add text. These pages face each other in the journal. I loved the playful attitude of this bear..... Apparently he has a magic foot.

"For the animal shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours, they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not bretheren; they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendour and travail of the Earth." -Henry Beston

The Liquidity of Time

Where does it come from? Where does it go? (especially on weekends)

Today's playful exercise involved a vintage photograph, scanned collage images and excessive fun with the "Liquify" tool on photoshop. I discovered it by accident and lost all sense of time thereafter.

March Hare x 2

The shadow rabbit illustrations I used are from the front and back pages in a book titled "The Rabbit Box" by Joseph Pintauro. A beautiful little book, now quite rare, it begins like this:

"Soft about the moss the wild fern uncurls ever so gently where a rabbit is born king of nervous things..."

Saturday Calling......... It's For You

What can be better than a saturday morning with the anticipation of an unstructured day ahead! I love the early hours of the day, rich with possibilities, but free from expectations. No agenda.

This collage from the journal page exchange was my response to the theme of "Odd Machine." The lady appears to be calling someone (or something), and she is about to receive an answer.......

Visual Journals

In the drawing and painting classes I teach, all students get to make visual journals. We use simple materials to construct the books since we are on a budget, but the end results are quite nice. Out of mat board, heavy papers, fabrics, adhesives, cording, acrylic paints and whatever else we care to add to the mix, students create this basic form and then embellish and fill it in their own way. Each semester I make one along with the students. Pictured here is one embellished with copper stars.
Pictured below is another journal showing a different treatment of the spine. On this one, threads were woven into the exposed binding.
Here is a view of the pages in the journal above. You can see more of this journal in the post below. It's almost full, so time to start on the new one!
I would encourage anyone who is interested to begin a visual journal. There are many great resources on the internet to get you started and inspire your creativity. Just have fun with it, there are no rules.

Visual Journal Pages

Here are some pages from one of my visual journals.