My (not so) love affair with Art Journaling

Once again, I'm faced with the fact that I love to look at artist's art journals but I do not love to create them. Let me be more specific. Pages with paint and collage and images and words do not come easily to me, nor do they particularly "speak" to me or "say" what I necessarily feel. I've done plenty of these pages, including several of Kelly Kilmer's classes. These pages take a lot of effort and rarely am I pleased with the outcome. These are not books I return to look through. Books I pull down from the shelf and look through are:

• Visual Journals (where I "record" my life)
• Doodle Journals - mandalas, creative doodles
• Travel Journals
• Art Journals that are more art-y than collage-y

So, with two recent books, I realize this isn't my thing. At least the Journaling by 5's book hasn't taken that much time due to the 15 minute sessions. And I have a full book (35 pages!) either finished or ready for the next stage. All done within a 2 week timeframe ... this would have taken months to do. So ...

What I like about this process: Working in one medium at a time ... paint, stamp/stencil, random collage, pen/marker work. Working on several pages at a time (although not in the same book unless I figure out what to put between the pages that won't stick). Timed sessions - gets you out of your head and into the process quickly.

What I don't like is: the timed sessions for "focal points" ... Actually I don't much like the focal points. I realize that I love to create backgrounds. That's what I really enjoy (backgrounds that I use to make scrappy journals). I also don't like ruining pens and markers trying to write on paint and medium. 

So, these pages are ready for me to do whatever is next. At this point, I have no idea where they will go (if anywhere). I will spend some time with this book, not considerable time. But there is the challenge of bringing it to a point where I feel good (or at least better) about it ... and feel a sense of completion (which is one of the BIGGEST challenges I have as an artist).

And I'll continue to enjoy looking at other artist's pages ... but I think I'll let this go. I'm ready to move on.

Final pages of Marvel: Your Precious Life

Final pages of Marvel: Your Precious Life

I am feeling a great sense of accomplishment. This is the first visual journal that I've actually completed. Other pages can be found here, and here, and here. I'll post the picture of the bound book in my next post.

I spend a lot of time trying to find the "right" image to match my "topic." And I become discouraged when I don't find it. The muse has typically moved on by the time I go through piles of images. Then, when I make a selection, the image shapes a message, perhaps very different from the original thought. What I originally planned doesn't emerge. I suppose that is all part of the "mystery" of this form of journaling. 

I had the same frustration in another class. At the beginning of the session, we were to pick an image that represented our week and write a few words about it. My problem is that I am too analytical ... I look for images that "literally" represent my feelings. That is not conceptual ... nor artistic ... nor using imagery in the way it is intended.

During that class I just had to go with it ... and usually the image ended up being just the right one. No matter which image I picked ... it somehow was able to portray my feelings. Very intuitive. Very mysterious.

I feel pages in this book are contrived. They are meant to be decorative, interesting, arty. They are meant to not only deal with images, but composition and design. Mixed media art with images as a focal point. The creation of the pages are meant to push me to create/design a well balanced page using color and texture and images and text.

So ... what if ...

What if I create pages using good design and composition - background, focal points, color ...

Create several pages ... create a signature of pages ... and then ...

Use the pre-decorated pages to journal. Either sequentially, or hop around to find the "right" page, a page that has a feel for what I want to express. It would be like journaling in a book created by someone else.

The advantage would be to continue to practice design and composition. Another advantage wold be to use my papers and images. It would be interesting to see if journaling on a "pre-decorated" page would be helpful to this self expression ... or not.

Hmmm ... I'll have to think about this.

More Marvel Your Precious Life Pages

I decided to keep on with another signature for this unbound book. Keeping with the theme with some new prompts, I continue exploring the use of background papers, focal imagery and embellishments to express myself. It is easier than the beginning. And definitely more fun. I still feel I'm "copying/channeling Kelly Kilmer" but each page does bring me closer to my own voice.


 

 

 

 

the rest of the Marvel Your Life pages

 

 

 

 

I really enjoyed doing this. Once I've create the cover and bind the two sections, I will have completed my very first visual journal!

Marvel Your Precious Life

I'm taking Kelly Kilmer's online class called Marvel: Your Precious Life. Really enjoying the templates/designs she provides. Enjoying creating these pages - some more than others. I find using magazine  models just doesn't represent me ... however I'm learning a lot about how to express my sentiment. Here are some of the pages I've created so far.