Pages

I just wanted to share a couple more two page spreads today, and let people ask questions about them or about anything else. So, leave a comment and ask away.

Disconnected

The above two page spread is from my current journal. I recently set up a makeshift photo studio and shot many of my journal pages from my last two journals. I am hoping to share more of them over the weeks to come.

This spread began with the large stylized self-portrait in the center, and I soon after added the web-like, black ink lines and blue watercolor pencil on the right-hand side. It remained in that state for quite some time, months in fact, as I began and worked on other pages. I just was at a loss. I couldn't think of what to add next, and it lacked direction. Finally, after looking back over these pages time and time again, something needed to happen, so I just started adding random things to the pages - the collage elements, the blue watercolor on the left hand side, the random rectangles, and the green watercolor pencil. I added the word "disconnected" and the writing after feeling very much disconnected from my art and my journal. I finished off the spread with the yellow, acrylic spheres floating.

When I began this spread, I had no idea where it was going to end. And my approach reflected those feelings of stagnation and disconnection. The art flows much more easily when I am in the middle of it - when I get a head of steam and am constantly working. But if I get torn away for a while with work, family, or sheer laziness, it is difficult to get back in the groove and allow things to flow. Sometimes I just have to dive head first into a page and just do something even if it has no rhyme or reason. Art is risky.

This spread evolved over months, and it took a while for it to find it's voice. My pages seem to do that a lot. I can't force something, and so the pages evolve. I have even done a little more to this spread since taking the photo a couple of weeks ago.

Art like life is always in a state of becoming.

Win a Copy of The Journal Junkies Workshop

Memory Makers - part of F+W Media, Inc., our publisher's parent company - is running a contest to give away a copy of our book. Simply follow this link and leave a comment about your favorite mixed-media technique. The contest closes at 11:59 PM July 30. They will pick a random winner and announce the winner on August 2.

Good Luck.

A Walk in the World

The weather today was absolutely perfect, and I couldn't bare to be inside, so I decided to take my journal and my camera for a walk around town. I walked slowly and intentionally with camera in hand carefully observing the small world that is Purcellville, VA. I intentionally walked without distractions such as my iPod, and I silenced my phone. I wanted to soak up the beautiful sun shine, the drier air, and cooler temperatures, and I wanted to observe my world deliberately.
I began in my own front yard, and snapped the above photo of the echinacea in wife's flower garden.
I always pass this grassy lane on my routine walks around town. I have often wondered what is at the end of it.
Looking for a place to sit so that I could pull out my journal, I ended up in front of Magnolias at the Mill. Magnolias is a very nice restaurant and bar in Purcellville that once was an actual mill, and since it was the best view from where I was sitting, I decided to draw the facade. After a quick sketch (I later added the blue in the studio), I popped inside for a cold beverage. It was a pleasant way to spend the afternoon.

In other news, I stopped by a local bookstore later in the day to pick up the latest issue of Cloth Paper Scissors (below). A friend recently told me that The Journal Junkies Workshop was reviewed by the editor. See the review below. It is definitely nice to see good word of our book in a popular magazine with a large readership.