Some collages

“The whole culture is telling you to hurry, while the art tells you to take your time. Always listen to the art.” ~Junot Diaz

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart…” ~William Wordsworth

Go have some fun in your visual journal.

Two collages done today in my journal.

Just because they were fun, no deep meaning.
(and those images are photos run through a very fun app called "Dreamscope" on my iphone.)





“Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”
--Khalil Gibran

Fast Speed Collage

Sometimes it's fun to watch things get made.

Here is a time lapse of a collage page in my Midori Art Journal - (sorry it's a bit blurry, and maybe too fast to really see much . . . )

I started with the blank pages in my Midori insert made from a calendar, and a Buddhist tapestry. I had some images pre-cut, and others I cut and tear in the video. (Unicycle rider, jellyfishes, artichokes). I glue those things down, add some dots and words and swirls.  and there's an outline in Copic marker. I play around with a stamp and fortune cookie fortune, the fortune never finds a place.

Some notes on materials:
I use a tear bar to make straight tears on pictures, and scissors to cut them out, and I also tear with my fingers.
I use spray mount (spraying in a glue box) to make the pictures stick nicely to the paper.
I use copic markers, and a tul black gel pen for the words.
I held the pages flat with large paper clips in the upper corners.

and some composition theory - not thought of while working, it just sort of happens from experience: I used lots of red and green, compliments which make a strong compostion, lots of repeating circles, and a balance of empty and filled space. You can see me moving things around until my eye is pleased with the placement. I find it better not to "figure it out" but just to do what feels and looks good.

here goes:

and the final page:

"The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance."
--Aristotle

Blogging with my buddy, Anais Nin

I love the diaries of Anais Nin, the original blogger when spilling one's ideas was a much more private affair. She wrote with such honesty and fierceness, at a time when the things she was saying could get her put into jail. And she did intend much of these words to be published, sort of like us bloggers today. I don't think we ever again will understand how oppressive that time was (the 30's and 40's). Most of her work could not even be put into print until the 70's, when she herself was approaching her 70's. She paved the way for feminism and freedom of expression and candidness for women in their both their sexuality and creativity.

I have all the volumes of her dairies, and recently, Volume 4 fell apart at the seams, pages came tumbling out all over my desk. So I, of course, took my scissors and got to it. I found it really great to cut out passages I wanted to respond to, and write out my answers in my own journal, Anais and I, chatting away!

and I also sent some of the pages through my printer, and printed some of my watercolor sketches on them. That also, was really pleasing to do, and makes a great start for a collage on a page in my journal, or as a card to put in the mail.

Anais Nin, one of my heroes, now is in my own journal for ever, connecting me to her wisdom.
I, we all, owe her a big debt for her pioneering work.

“Throw your dreams into space like a kite, and you do not know what it will bring back, a new life, a new friend, a new love, a new country.” —Anais Nin

How I use my Midori

I have been loving the heavy duty leather and nice durability of my Midori notebook. It is so nice to change the inserts, I have sections for written journaling, visual journaling, and record keeping Here's a little video showing how it works.

Those big fat paperclips are from Target -- pretty great for keeping it open while I work.