P R O J E C T : J o u r n a l 1 0 1
The Blank Page!
Opening a new journal and staring at the pristine, perfect, blank pages can scare the hell out of even the most seasoned visual journalist. The inner critic rears his or her ugly head and tells us that we're going to mess it up. The problem is that we start focusing on what we want that page to look like when we are finished. We focus on the end product not the process. It is good at times to not think much at all - at least at first. So, by just getting some color down, we can take the blankness away and not worry about the end result. Our habit of working is to work in a nonlinear fashion. We end up starting a lot of pages in some way and then going back and adding more and more things later. There's a lot randomness to this, but it keeps us from thinking about what it will end up like.. One way to begin is with one of the simplest media - watercolor. Below is a list of quick and easy ways to begin pages with out much thought. Experiment and have fun. Watercolor 1. Paint a page a single color.
2. Paint a page with more than one color.
3. Paint random shapes on a page.
4. Apply the paint with a sponge
5. Use a toothbrush to flick and stipple the paint on a page.
6. Paint a page with a color or two and sprinkle the wet paint with salt. Let the paint dry and brush the salt off to reveal a texture.
7. Paint objects like bubble wrap, plastic mesh, bottle caps, and cup bottoms and stamp the objects on a page.
8. Paint a page with watercolor and press a piece of wrinkled plastic wrap or a flat piece of bubble wrap into the wet paint, allow the paint to dry, and then remove the plastic or bubble wrap.
9. Paint the watercolor through a stencil - if there's a lot of water, it will bleed giving some unpredictable but interesting results. Use plastic or metal mesh as a stencil.
10. Splatter a page with paint Additional techniques: 11. Cut notches and 'waves' into a piece of cardboard box and use it to paint on random shapes. 12. Peel off the cardboard top later and use the wavy bit to stamp on your page (thicker paint gives interesting effects here) 13. Use resist techniques like a crayon or candle (great use for reusing birthday candles). Draw with the wax and then paint over it for a fun effect 14. You can lay random stuff into the paint and pick it up after its dry (just like your plastic wrap etc) 15. Finger paint! 16. Dragging a feather through paint is super cool. 17. Dip some string in paint and drag it over your page. If you lay the paint covered string in random shapes and leave a bit hanging out at the top and bottom of your page you can shut the book and weight it down with someone's hand or another book and pull the opposite ends of string till you feel it get taught - when you open your book you get a VERY cool effect. These techniques and combinations of these techniques can keep you busy for quite some time. In a short time, you could have quite a few pages started. And I'm sure there are other techniques. If you can think of other
ways to use and apply watercolor paint, please leave a comment and I'll add it to the list. The Challenges:
Challenge #1: I am
Who are you? This seems like a very easy and straight-forward question, but when was the last time that you really tried to articulate an answer. You may have thought that you figured that out a long time ago, or perhaps you feel like you are still figuring it out. What better way to start this Challenge. No matter what type of art you make it is always a reflection of you. The journal is no different. Heck, it might even be more true of the journal. Take some time to ponder and journal about all the aspects of your “self,” and create a response that introduces you to the world. Who are you? What is important to you? Where do you come from? How does your inner identity compare to your outer identity? Do you have a hidden identity? If you are not who you want to be, what is stopping you?
Challenge #2: Personal Mythologies
myth – n: 1. a legendary narrative that presents the beliefs of a people 2. an imaginary or unverifiable person or thing. mythology – n: a body of myths. We have all created myths about ourselves – stories that are imaginary and unverifiable. We have puffed ourselves up with stories of accomplishment and tore ourselves down with stories of lack. We have scripts and dialogues running through our heads reinforcing those myths. What are your personal myths? What is your personal mythology? What are the stories that you have told yourself over and over to the point that you believe them and accept them? Question your own mythology, and see if you can verify them.
Challenge #3: Steppingstones
We have all grown, evolved, and changed. At times the movement of our lives has changed direction because of the choices we have made, and at other times it has changed because the choices that others have made.
What have been your steppingstones – those significant moments of your life? What have been the moments when significant change or growth has occurred? What have these shifts meant for you and the direction of your life?
Challenge #4: Pivotal People
We all have people who have profoundly affected us, mentored us, or inspired us. There are those people who have challenged us and pushed us. This may have been in a positive or negative way, but their influence has been key in steering us in our lives. Who in your life has influenced you strongly? What did they say to you? What do they represent? What has been the impact in your life, and how did the direction of your life path change?
Challenge #5: Random Words
Part of our approach at times is to let randomness and happenstance to enter our process. Open yourself to chance by picking a random word to use as a source of inspiration. Grab a book or dictionary that you have close at hand, and open to a random page and point to a random word. Don’t like that word? Pick another. Not ready to be completely random? Pick a random page, and choose a word to which you are drawn. Just don’t do this repeatedly in order to pick that word you already have in mind or one that fits your mode of thinking. Let chance take you in a direction that you are not ready to go. If you find the word challenging, let it challenge you and see if you can respond to that word even if it’s the silliest most unusual word.
Challenge #6: Operative Words
Operative words are the essential words in a sentence, story, poem or script. Performers and spoken word poets often stress or emphasize these words in some way when performing. We often look for operative words in our writing and highlight or visually emphasize them so they stand out. That way we can come back later and quickly find and use these words as sources for further investigation and exploration.
Look over some writing that you have done. If you don’t have any, take about 10 minutes to do some writing – perhaps use a random word as a prompt or perhaps something a bit more meaningful. Look over your writing and chose important words or phrases and highlight them in some way. These are words and phrases that you are drawn to so trust your gut reaction. Circle them. Make them bold. Use a different color. Try to find at least three operative words or phrases in your writing, but feel free to find as many as you’d like.
Challenge #6: Operative Words
Operative words are the essential words in a sentence, story, poem or script. Performers and spoken word poets often stress or emphasize these words in some way when performing. We often look for operative words in our writing and highlight or visually emphasize them so they stand out. That way we can come back later and quickly find and use these words as sources for further investigation and exploration. Look over some writing that you have done. If you don’t have any, take about 10 minutes to do some writing – perhaps use a random word as a prompt or perhaps something a bit more meaningful. Look over your writing and chose important words or phrases and highlight them in some
way. These are words and phrases that you are drawn to so trust your gut reaction. Circle them. Make them bold. Use a different color. Try to find at least three operative words or phrases in your writing, but feel free to find as many as you’d like.
Challenge #8: Organized and Disorganized
Contemporary life is hectic, and keeping up with the household chores, the responsibilities of work, the emails, the social networks, the text messages, and the phone calls can quickly bury you under a pile of to-dos and mustdos. Take time to reflect on the organization of your life. Think about everything from your mundane, daily routines to you big, special hopes and dreams. How do you get things done? In what ways do you keep yourself organized (or even disorganized) physically, socially, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? What routines and rituals do you use in your daily life to make certain that everything that needs to get done does get done? How do you tackle your daily tasks and plan for those rare and special occasions? When do you throw your plans out the window, and when do you stick steadfast to them? Reflect on one specific aspect or think about it all in general terms.
Challenge #9: Perfectionism
In our quest to do anything, whether it is art, relationships, or cleaning the house, a sense of perfectionism can hold us back, cause us anxiety, and consume a lot of time as we work to get things just right. Fear can grip any of us. We worry what others will think, fear that we will not be good enough, compare ourselves to others, and doubt our own skills. The pressure to be perfect in art and in life can stop us before we ever begin or sidetrack us as we go along. What grip, if any, does perfectionism have on your life? How does it affect you, your art, and your life? Why does it matter what others think? Why is it that you at times feel that you are not enough? Why is it that you can only see your faults and not your accomplishments? What would truly happen if your were not perfect in your art or in your life?
Challenge #10: Personal Tragedy
I originally posted this last Thursday, but Blogger had some issues, and it looks like this post was lost. We get set into our routines and find comfort in our everyday rituals. Days, weeks, months, and years pass as we live out our lives. Every once in a while, though, we are jolted out our comfortable lives when tragedy strikes.
Personal tragedies can be huge, life altering events, or they can be minor inconveniences. Either way, they are a disruption to the flow and movement of our lives having the power to alter the direction we are moving. Reflect this week on your personal tragedies – big or small, and see how they have shaped and changed your life. What are some of your personal tragedies? How did you cope? How did you get through it or are you still going through it? How do these tragedies still ripple through your life? What strengths did you find that you did not know you possessed? What lingering fears and doubts still pop up in your life? How do you respond when tragedy strikes?
Challenge #11: Change
Everything changes. It’s a natural law that objects, people, situations are impermanent and are always in a state of flux and change. At times, change is lightning quick and takes place in a flash. Other times, change is continental drift slow and seems to not be happening at all. How do you react to change in your life? How have you changed over the course of your life? Do you anticipate change and actively participate in the changing world and your changing self? Or do you deny change and passively ride along as things change around you? How open or closed are you to change? Reflect on the role of change in your life and how you react to it.
Challenge #12: Embracing Imperfections
Many of us exert a lot of energy in our quest for perfection, but accidents, change, and imperfection are a part of our lives. These things that are beyond our control can bother and stress us. They can gnaw at us and nag at us. Learning to accept and embrace these imperfections can be quite a challenge. How do you embrace imperfection in your life? If it’s difficult for you, what is behind the difficulty? If it’s easy for you, why is it so? In what small ways have you or can you accept the accidental, the imperfect, and the impermanent?
Challenge #13: Making Personal Space
We all need a bit of personal space – a place that is just for us – a place that we can call our own. It might be a lavish studio or a cabin in the woods. It might be the kitchen table or a big, comfy chair. It might be the backyard or a place in our bag for a journal or book. Whether it is a space with walls or not, whether it is large or small, it is ours – our own little corner of the world.
How do you carve out a chunk of personal space? Where do you go to find space for yourself and your thoughts? How do you recharge and reenergize? What gets in your way of being there? How do you make your personal space? If you haven’t, why not?
Challenge #14: Wants and Needs
We all have our wants and our needs. To many, they seem to be the same thing, but what we want is not always what we need. We often want things that are not good for us and that are sometimes outright harmful. Those wants can be influenced by so many factors. Friends, family, and the media all can put direct and indirect pressure on us to buy the latest gizmos, gadgets and stuff, to make unhealthy eating choices, and to zone out in front of TVs and computer screens. Reflect on what you want and what you need. See where you want and need the same thing. See where you want much more than you need. See where you deprive yourself of things that you desperately need. What do you want? Why do you want those things? What do you need? Why do you need those things? Do you want more than you need? Why or why not? What are things that you need, but do not give yourself? What if you only wanted what you needed? How would your life be different?
Challenge #15: My Sanctuary
We all need a place to go when the world seems to be too much where we can get away for a while and reconnect with ourselves. We need a cave, an island getaway, or a mountaintop retreat where we can go, be by ourselves, and gain some perspective. Sometimes these are literal caves, islands, and mountains, but very often they are closer than that – the studio, the gym, the garage, or the library – ordinary places where we can get away and be with ourselves. What is your sanctuary? Where do you go when the world becomes too much or when you just need to be by yourself? Where is that place of solace and comfort or that place where you can reconnect with yourself? What gets in your way of being there? How does it feel when you are kept from your sanctuary? If you do not have an actual sanctuary, where would it be? Where would you like to go?
Links: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tracibunkers/collections/721576000 00649901/ http://www.theoneminutemuse.com/archives/41 http://www.youtube.com/theoneminutemuse http://www.artistsjournals.com/instruction.htm http://daisyyellow.squarespace.com/abstract/art-journaling101.html http://journalfodderjunkies.blogspot.com/p/jfj-challenge.html http://www.daneldon.org/site/ (ed links and example pages) http://www.createmixedmedia.com/category/make/journaling
http://www.1000journals.com/index.php?view=Journals%2FIndex http://pamcarriker.com/ http://www.sabrinawardharrison.com/ee/index.php http://onedrawingaday.com/ http://www.studio1482.com/veronica/work.html Draw something you bought today Patterns: http://www.book-by-itscover.com/sketchbooks/sketchbook-series-lou-medel sketchbook in schools: http://www.accessart.org.uk/sketchbook/ http://quinncreative.wordpress.com/2007/08/26/journal-diarywhats-the-difference/