I
finished a few books from some covers I’d made years ago. I had
forgotten how much I like bookbinding. It’s really relaxing. Anyway,
these books feature a sturdy soft cover made from an old advertising
sign. The cover is vinyl. The paper is a heavy duty cover stock, almost
cardstock weight but slightly lighter. Each book has a pocket in the
front and the back of the book. The pockets are stitched in place with
quilting thread. The books are bound with super sturdy and tough hemp
cord.

This
style of journal is one of my favorites. I’ve used them extensively to
take notes at my old DayJob, creating tough notebooks of reference
information. I have one that is over 7 years old, and the cover has only
gotten better looking with age. Bumper stickers stick to these
notebooks incredibly well.

Anyway find them on my etsy shop here.

Oh yeah, this paper? Great with fountain pens.

Today
starts my self-employment. I’m forcing  myself to take a week to relax
before I dive head long into the work of the site and writing. I know
that by the end of the week I’ll be working hence the forced relaxation
period. This weekend C and I watched some crap TV shows and cooked. It
was great.

I
started some random art journaling last night by culling through my pile
of personal ephemera. I picked stuff out and glued it to the page. No
rhyme or reason, but where it called to be glued. Where it looked good
to me. A simple concept but one where I had to let myself be random and
not plan out the page.

After
that I wanted to clean off one of my watercolor palettes so I wet the
colors and used a big brush to slather colors onto my pages. Again I
wasn’t calculated or planned about where and what colors I used. I
simply looked at what colors I had and what looked good on a page, then
slathered the colors onto the page. I mixed colors on the page, worked
wet-into-wet, and layered the color on top of the ephemera. Some of the
ephemera resisted the watercolor, some absorbed it like a sponge.

I’ll write on these pages and then add more color and collage over my words. It’s all process.

Man,
I’ve had a few weeks. Even without an adjective in that sentence you
know what I mean. Part 3 of the big thing is coming to a close, I’ve got
14 days (10 shifts) until I’m no longer employed by the large multi-national
corporation where I’ve been working of the last 10 years. As the day
approaches I’m getting nervous, but in that excited kind of way. As with
any amount of change things are weird at work, and  I’ve used my
journal to think things out and well, I’ll leave it in the journal.

I’ve
got over 10,000 words written in “My Headlines and Stories,” and I’m
super excited in how it’s shaping up. I’ve started to flesh out areas
that need more explanation and I’ve even started some of the
demonstration images in my Stillman & Birn beta spiral bound
sketchbook. The paper in it is just right for some of the techniques. I
can’t wait to really get into shooting pictures and videos for each of
the techniques. It's going to be kinda awesome.

I’ve
started the required reading for my first class, and I’ve got 7 books I
have to read between now and August 19th. Holy wow. The great thing
about this required reading? It’s completely validating and backing up
everything I’ve ever thought about art journaling and my personal art
journaling practice. I can’t wait to share all the stuff I’m learning
here on the blog.

Exciting times ahead, that’s for sure.

Sheep.

I
have used them symbolically in my art dating back to 1999. Somewhere in
the nether reaches of my studio I have a set of small hand carved
stamps, one is a small fluffy sheep the other is a small carver BAA that
fits perfectly inside the sheep. They measure less than one inch in any
direction. I need to find them.

The
sheep symbolize a couple of things in my art. First and foremost they
symbolize my own herd-like tendencies, the go with the flow laziness. A
tendency toward not asking questions which leads to the eventual
slaughter. Secondly they symbolize herd like people. Yes I know the
whole “sheeple” thing is a tired cliche that’s been overdone, but damn
it, I’ve been over doing it since 1999!

Generally,
when you see the sheep directed at myself it’s generally a directive
for me to go against the grain and think about what is going on around
me. When it’s directed towards others it’s with disgust at deeds or
inaction.

Lately
I’ve been dealing with some herd like thinking, that includes some
flack and stupidity. It’s caused me some stress and the inevitability of
some distance. I’d go into it more but you know, I can’t not yet. So in
my art journal it stays, eventually you’ll see more of these pages.
Lots more.

A few days ago I wrote a little post called “What is it?”
Basically asking what is art journaling. I’ve been asking this question on my
FB as well. I wrote it because I like the fact that my idea of art journaling
is constantly being challenged. I’m open to the challenges and thinking about
the different ideas others have about art journaling.

I know that what I do is a little different from what
many of the people on my ning site do as their art journaling, and I’m okay
with that. In fact, I think it’s what makes the site so great. We’ve got people
just jumping off the scrapping ship and into the messy creative world of art
journaling. I like to see them have their creative muscles awakened and their
brains made active with art.

Part of the reason I’m so open to the challenges and ideas
of so many different types of art journaling is that I think that the more
people who are creative and enjoy creativity the more likely we’ll see an
opening for creativity to become more valued in our society. Because, let’s
face it, outside of a few isolated pockets of art communities, most people will
tell you they don’t get art. Or worse yet, that they see no value in art. Which
makes me sad. What gives me hope is to see so many people (over 4600 as of this
writing) engaged in a practice that is about pure creativity.

Sure, I’d like to see more people doing the hard work of
journaling in their journal, asking themselves tough questions and then
striving to answer them no matter the answer, but for now I’ll take the win of
more people being creative with art.