more from the scanner:

So after you throw some stuff on the scanner and make an image, then what?
I love to use photoshop to add things.
Vintage images, stamps and maps are three of my favorite collage items. You just can't go wrong with a piece of a map.
a torn map is really good, too.
Which makes me wonder if it is just my wanderlust at work, my need to explore and reach out and connect with the world?
We artists are often working alone in our studios, our communication can feel very one way.
I can think of no greater bliss than getting out in the world, wandering aimlessly in an interesting new place, taking pictures, gathering maps or menus or bits of the the place, then creating collages with these images and ephemera in my studio.
and then there is the way we can collage the ephemera of our minds and souls!
Because this really is what the art journal can do -- we use the bits and pieces from our subconscious to find our voice, to find what we need to say.
Art often is the attempt to find a voice to the voiceless longings we have, the deep inner convictions of love for beauty, love for form, love for images that inspire and move us.
Some artists can spend months carefully re-creating a still life or landscape or figure.
I can't.
But I can spend a few hours throwing images together in a modgepodge, then adding the words that that mess has inspired in me.
In my studio I have a box full of shells and sticks and rocks and even some bones. These items fill me with emotion, and a connection to nature. I love to play with these things - my recent work included shrines in cigar boxes using lots of these natural bits.
and they make great collages items to use on the scanner!
and for me, this process gets me somewhere.
It releases some inner need and helps me find what I am needing to say.
There is technique of careful painting and drawing, yes; but also using the scanner, my camera, the computer, and all the other tools available and are all good!



this page was torn bits on the scanner, then doubled and made into a pattern in photoshop - then I added some vintage images ghosted in.
I normally would write on top once added to my journal - I am showing you the pages before I put in the words.