I took a class a few years back at a really well known art college in the area, the sort filled with faculty who were showing in Boston and New York and Paris and all over the world.

I just wanted to take a moderately priced Continuing Education class in Figure Drawing.

I didn’t care about the professor credentials, hell, I didn’t even look them up.

Apparently he was something of a BIG DEAL.

I just wanted to draw naked people on all kinds of different kinds of paper and different sizes.

He was kind of stiff, really serious and totally had bromance for Jim Dine, which I totally get. He also did the en plein air classes in Paris for the school. 2 weeks in paris with this guy? NO THANKS.

However he let me look through his sketchbook and told me about his process. Which was totally fascinating. He worked in these small watercolor sketchbooks he picked up somewhere fascinating and his palette was a 2 part fly fishing fly box with all the foam ripped out, one side held his tubes of gouache and the other held the paint. He squeezed colors out into great gobs in the palette. Mixed in corners were various shades of greens, reds, blues and shades of white. In his sketchbook were lovely colored sketches of Paris in winter, spring and summer. There were quick studies of Boston at all times of the year. The paper was cockled and warped but this fastidious stiff old dude didn’t care.

It was all about the art.

When I took his class I was just starting out with bookbinding and I’d take a week’s worth of drawings stack them, pierce holes through them and then use a rivet to hold them all together. He was fascinated by this and how much easier it was to carry a stack of my loose drawings rolled up when secured in such a manner. He asked me a ton of questions about where I’d learned it and he seemed surprised when I said I’d just done it. We talked for a brief moment about my college sculpture professor who was into bookbinding and how I felt rivets were faster plus, I didn’t have any cord to bind the sheets.

Necessity.Mother.Invention

All that stuff.

This guy who thought nothing of buying $30 tubes of gouache painted with something I thought was a riot, those 50 to 99 cent Loew-Cornell brushes you used to be able to buy singly and now come in blister packs and multi packs for $10, you still get 15 to 20 of them but you can’t do what this guy used to do and buy 20 of the same size at a time.

I watched that professor paint the model once. He attacked the page- scrubbed the paint onto the pages of his small sketchbook, aggressively mixing colors, squinting his eyes at the model, capturing darks in deep purple tones and lights in swaths of golden yellow.

He did with that cheap brush everything I’d been taught NOT to do with a brush since kindergarten. He hardly ever rinsed colors from it; he simply dipped the dirty brush into whatever the next color he was interested in using. Then he applied it.

Watching him paint was mesmerizing and a study in focus and attention. What got me most was he was using those ultra cheap Chinese bristle brushes that no one would have dared to bring into one of my college painting classes. This guy created great stuff with them, all painted with 2 sizes; a #2 round and a #3 flat.

It was the second time I’d met a working artist that used what I’d been taught was a garbage tool, and used it well.

Hmm. Has to make you wonder if the pricey expensive tools are quite as wonderful as the companies making them would have you believe.

I've been debating taking the ads off my blog for awhile now, but I'm going to give them one more week. When there are no ads it simply looks horrible. Feel free to head over to Project Wonderful and search for Comfortable Shoes and bid on an ad. I moderate them so only ads go up from artfire/etsy sellers and bloggers.

One of the things that really gets me going in the online art world is the concept of the online art instructor saying things such as, “You’re an artist because I say so, “and the “I give you permission to create.” It’s patronizing, condescending, arrogant and downright self-absorbed.

I am an artist because I believe I am; I create because I must, not because someone on the internet says so or gives me permission to do so. I’ve voiced this opinion before and the major argument was that these statements are put out there to give others self confidence. I submit that the reason you are here (reading my blog or at aj ning) is at least partially because you have an interest in art, maybe you don’t call yourself an artist, and that’s fine. Maybe you are looking for inspiration, and that’s fine too. If you are looking for permission  you are looking in the wrong place.

I can’t give you permission to create or to call yourself an artist.
I can’t do that because the permission comes from within.
You have to give yourself the permission to create.

You have to make a conscious decision to call yourself an artist. Maybe you never will. Maybe your kids think you are. You could be like my Mom and call yourself a really good craftsperson.

Maybe if you are looking for me to call you an artist (or some other online art instructor) then maybe you aren’t ready to call yourself an artist? Maybe you don’t want to say it. Maybe you don’t want to be labeled. You could need more time. It’s not up to me or anyone else to slap a label or pigeonhole you into something you may not want.

You need to make that choice.

You need to grab permission and take it for yourself. If I give you permission to create you’ll always be looking for my approval. I don’t want that. I want you to create art because it is inherently wonderful for you. I want you to create because you love it, it relaxes you after a hard day and because you learn that you cannot live without creating.

You need to make your own permission.

I realize that the 5 days I spent away and being unable to work on the stuff I usually work on over my weekends has really thrown my old blog for a loop, I'm thinking I'll be back on track with my reviews and Art Journaling Essentials posts next week. We're supposed to get rain this weekend so I'm thinking that I'll have a lot of time to work on the blog.

Until I get caught up, here are some of my automatic coninuous line drawings:

I recently found a journal I’d forgotten about. It’s from the time when I’d moved home and was going through a painful break up. It was a tough time in my life but filled with lots of friends and family. It’s probably one of my more raw journals. I worked in ink, colored pencil, crayon, watercolor, glue, tape and ephemera. The drawings and doodles are not anything like the art I was doing at the time, which was mainly landscape done in watercolor, gouache and ink.

When I worked in that journal I had no notion of what my art journal SHOULD look like I simply worked in it. I wrote more than I drew and painted. I never took that journal with me places, unlike some of my other journals that I did during the same period.

Back then Flickr, Facebook, and Twitter did not exist. Loading an image from my dial up line took forever and was mostly reserved for my eBay sales. Sharing art was a commitment. Blogging was just starting out with services like LiveJournal and DiaryX.

It wasn’t until many years later that I’d make the commitment to sharing my art via the various photo sharing sites like PhotoBucket. It wasn’t until LiveJournal took off that I found many images of art journals being shared.

By that time my art journals had a look of my own, but still I felt I needed to add more stuff to make them more artsy.

Then I got over it and worked in my own style and used the materials that I liked, not what others dictated that I should like.

I like to use photos in my art journals. A few people might say that takes my art to the realm of scrapbook but I don’t think that is the case. I’ve been using polaroids, film prints and mini polaroids in my work for years. The only difference is that now I’ve got software that lets me adjust the images to what I want them to look like.

What I’m trying to say is that an art journal can have anything I want in it (or you.) It’s all based on how I best feel I can express myself. Let go of what you think your art journal should look like and what you feel others tell you it should look like.

When I travel I usually know I’ll be headed out weeks in advance. It’s rare that I take an improtu trip, so this past week when I got the call that I’d be headed to Buffalo, NY for a funeral I didn’t plan as usual. I decided to put into practice my goals for this week’s Cult of Stuff. I wanted to use tools I don’t always use to document the travel and occurrences.

So I packed the following:
travel watercolor set
Pogo Printer
Pocket Moleskine Sketchbook (purple label)
Assortment of Waterbrushes
3 Rolls of Washi Tape
Pen
Pencil
Eraser
Vial of Ink
Cutting Mat and Exacto

I never travel anywhere without my point and shoot Canon digital Elph aka Powershot SD1100 IS, which replaced my beloved SD110 which fell out of my pocket during a motored bike ride. I never go anywhere without it so I don’t list it as a “packed thing” but it was something I used for journaling as well as the camera on my cell. These combined with my pogo made for some great direct to page items that allowed me to capture ideas fast without having to do a lot of drawing or image making.

What I accomplished with the pogo could easily be done by taking your card into a walgreens or cvs and using one of their kiosks for photo printing, I enjoyed working with the odd format of the pogo. To each their own. I worked somewhat chronologically and printed images with the pogo and stuck them into my journal, I then used some washi tape to frame them and add more interest to the page.

On our trip out to Buffalo we made a few pit stops on the Thruway here I picked up a few brochures. I cut a map and an image of a state trooper out of this material. Since I forgot my glue I used washi tape to adhere them to the page. Later I added some watercolor around the whole page.

In addition to the pictures I took and the brochures I collected I had a few found objects and packaging from a few things. I taped these into the journal as well.

My goal in this was to create a few pages to journal on about specific things- the funeral, the traveling, conversations with my brother, long walks on train tracks, and other various things that come to mind.

These pages are extremely personal and I don’t know how personal they would be if I had not gathered each of these materials, even the trash that is on the page is personal to me, though it’s mass produced, it’s totally out of its original context and purpose. I think that adds meaning.

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 Also best piece of ephemra? A squished penny from a kiosk just over the Mass border, I paid 50 cents for it. I'll attach it to the bookmark of my moleskine ASAP. (My brother got one in NY but I had just dumped my pocket change and didn't have time/energy to go back to the car.) The back of it says "ActionJackson." Kick ass.

Another question I get a lot is “What books would you recommend for someone who wants to start making their own journals?”

There are a thousand books out there on making books. Some are more useful than others. For beginners I always say that people should look for a book with clear instructions and easy to read diagrams. Steer clear of overly complex diagrams and overly verbose instructions. Additionally start with simple styles- start with the baby step of pamphlet and figure-8 stitches. These single signature structures will keep you in journals until you make your way to more complex stitches. In fact in my book binding class I show you those stitches and show you how to make a multiple signature book with basic stitches. That wasn’t meant as a sales pitch but as a “THAT’S HOW MUCH I BELIEVE IN THIS” kinda declaration.

The book I started with and would suggest that you start with as well, is Alisa Golden’s Creating Handmade Books. She details a variety of structures from single sheets, single signatures to a very basic Coptic chain stitch. She has another book that is a great follow up if you are interested in more complex books as well. Her instructions are clear and concise and diagrams very easy to read.

The next is The Decorated Journal by Gwen Diehn. Again, simple easy to read instructions and clear diagrams. She combines her bookbinding instructions with journaling instructions.

And, well that’s it. Those are my 2 must have beginners book binding books, all of the others that I have to suggest are not for beginners, so they’ll have to wait for another post. Of course those 2 authors have other books that you should also read, they are somewhere between beginner and not beginner. All of their books are good.

Continue reading →

As many of you know I’m taking an impromptu trip to visit family due to a death. I’m taking a mini journal kit with me, much pared down from my usual supplies.

Here’s what I’m taking:

• My W&N Cotman field set
• A few water brushes
• Mini Spray Bottle
• A few regular brushes
• Mechanical Pencils
• 2 Fountain Pens, one with black ink and one with blue
• Tube of glue

• My Rhodia Webbie notebook and my Poppin notebook in red.

I’ll also have my laptop, camera and cell. C’mon did you really expect me to go unwired?

I hope to get some decent pictures and get some journaling in, but we’ll see, I expect that there will be a lot of work to be done.

“My art is better than your art.” My Art, Le Tigre

Flip that sentiment on its side and you’ve got what seems to be a popular sentiment (Your art is better than my art) in the art and craft community. The industry spends a lot of time making artists and crafts people feel that their art is inferior to what the industry is pumping out, leaving you with the feeling that you MUST have this new shiny tool.

I call it magic-bullet syndrome- you can’t conquer your inferior art without it and you are constantly on a search for it. You have no idea what your magic-bullet will be but you keep searching for it.

Here’s my take on it, tune the industry out.

All this stuff is perception. My art isn’t better than your art. Your art is just fine. Your art is a reflection of  you. You need to set goals for yourself and then strive to achieve them. I wanted to draw faces better, so I set a goal that by the end of the year I’d be able to draw and paint faces better. I set about doing this by practicing. (if you look at my flickr you can see my progression.) I put time in at my easel and with my art journal and I practiced. I enlisted people on FaceBook to send me images of their face. Then I drew them and I painted them.

In the end I didn’t need any fancy tools- simply paper and pencils, later gesso and acrylics and watercolors, and lots and lots of practice.

My point is that I didn’t need a magic-bullet and here’s a secret, neither do you. What you need to do is sit down with your materials and experiment, see what they can do, and what YOU can do with them.

You can make art with anything. Van Gogh cut his own pens out of reeds. Picasso and other artists drew by dipping a stick into ink. The truth is you don’t need all the fancy stuff, sometimes a stick will do.

There is no shortcut. The only way to get to your version of better is to practice and to experiment. Fill up art journals, draw, doodle, paint, and collage.

Enjoy the stuff you have.

I realized I promised you more cult of stuff ranting and raving… However I forgot that I had a family obligation to attend to and if I had bowed out by saying, "I have  ablog post burning my brain." I'd have been looked at dissapprovingly and told to get my ass in the car. So I give you, ART!