It Keeps Me Hanging On

The trend in art journaling - at least from what I've seen - is to show only happy stuff.  I've seen comments that say that some artists won't ever show their real feelings in public, and that they're impatient with blog posts that talk about the sad and bad.

Sorry about that because this post is about sad and bad.  Regular readers of this blog know of my continuing battle with mental illness and that I've been in a dark period.  As such, the pages I'm showing this week reflect that.  Feel free to find something happier if you so choose.

Yes, the above is a bit confrontational but it is how I feel about the trend.  Yes, there's a lot of negativity in the world but it's not going to go away if one averts their eyes.  Confronting it helps to control it and do something about it.  Which is why I do art about what I'm dealing with.

That said, what I'm showing you starts out with a mish-mosh of paint.  Actually, when I did the actual painting I was really having fun.  Not really caring about whether or not the colors mesh, whether or not it looks organized - it was a matter of planting down stencils and splashing paint on them.  And I like the effect as they are actually.

I think these could be used as backgrounds for a lot of things actually, but then I went and spoiled them with depressing journaling.

Spread One says exactly how I feel about honesty about my life.  For decades I denied that there was something wrong.  In 2009 I had a serious breakdown and it's been since then that I've admitted to my mental illness, and sought serious ongoing treatment.  My breakdown happened in a work environment, thus eliminating one thing people fear - that one's employers will find out.  After that there was no point in hiding it.

The spread is simple - my journaling plus the image of a young girl.  I feel that adding anything else will minimize how I feel.

Spread Two takes a quote from a favorite song, "Time," by a favorite band (Pink Floyd).  I toyed with some of the lyrics, and changed "the English way" to "Lin's daily way."  I paired it with a contemplative Victorian woman image and with a vintage clock, and left it as is.  To add anything else would once again minimize the impact of what I've done.

This work is in my so-called 'private' journal, not one of the two I'm exchanging with my friend Lisa.  Even so, I still am sharing it.

It really is OK to express one's honest feelings in an art journal - and it's OK to share it.  I won't mind.

later,
lin

Process, Process, Process

I hope you're not bored with this continuing series detailing the journal exchange between my friend Lisa Busch and me.  I just like to show you things I'm working on, and since I have a bit of a bully pulpit with this blog you'll just have to put up with it.  

I've started a new journal, since the one that currently has been with Lisa (and which has been mailed back to me) is just about filled up.  I like to make my own journals rather than buy them, so the journal itself was made with watercolor paper sheets that I cut down to size, and I added two pieces of black cover stock to use as covers.  I then brought the pages down to Staples for binding, rather than use my Bind-it-All (I'm lazy), and voila! A journal.

I started out plastering old text pages all over, something which I've been enjoying doing recently.

 Yes, I know - they don't look that much different from each other, do they?  But wait.....

The next photos show that I've added some rub ons to each page of the first spread, then added additional embellishments, and one figure of a priest on one page, and two people talking on the phone on the other page.

The rub-ons I used were discontinued by their company, 7 Gypsies, and I bought a bunch of this pattern from Lisa some time ago.  I normally use rub-ons to add background to the magnets that I make but thought I'd use them for the journals.  The strip of fabric trim on the left page is also from Lisa's shop (collagestuff.com)






The priest image came from a Dover collection, I think the "Men" collection.  The people talking on the phone images came from TheGraphicsFairy.com, a great site for finding free, quality, vintage graphics. 

I finished the two pages by adding quotes from two songs by Pink Floyd: "What Do You Want From Me?" on the left, and "Keep Talking" on the right. 

Often, when I'm working on pieces I forget to take photos documenting the whole process, so for the second set of pages I can only show you the finished product.

With this set of pages, I added lots of embellishments without really planning anything.  When I'm doing the journals, I don't plan.  I simply take stuff and stick it.  Sometimes I'll stencil, sometimes I'll use rubber stamps.  It's whatever I feel like doing.  I don't have a theme in mind most of the time either, and this set definitely shows it since I had no clue how to finish the second page after I glued the cat's head to it.  I just left it as is.  


On the other page, however, I decided to add a quote from another Pink Floyd song, "Wearing the Inside Out."  The songs I've quoted from are from their The Division Bell album, something I've been playing over and over lately.  I've been thinking a lot lately about hiding, about communication, about demands, and I felt that I wanted these pages to reflect that.  Except for the cat page.  There's no deeper meaning to it.  

On these pages, I used some gold punch paper that I got from a local art store, cheapo tissue paper from Dollar Tree, old buttons, and more rub-ons from 7 Gypsies.  Both the images are from Dover books but I don't know which ones.

Hope you've enjoyed yet another excursion into art-making.  I'm thinking that these might become larger projects someday.

later,
lin