Monday, January 18, 2010

Art Journals Then and Now



These are my two most recent art journal pages.  Both were created using soft pastels, in response to prompts about Mary Cassatt in the Masterful Art Journaling class I'm taking.  The top one is reminiscent of one of my favorite photos, which I posted on my blog a while ago here.  The other is a variation on my "The Butterfly Seller."  What I find interesting about both of these and everything else is my current art journal is that my current art journal really is more of a sample book, with some very nice finished pieces of art work that evolved from some of the samples.  My current journal is not really a visual diary, although the journaling above ("This is the wardrobe of the girl I am inside my head. The clothesline of my inner artist.") comes close to that type of art journaling.  My original art journal (from 2006 - which truthfully only ended up with 5 entries over two years!) was a a bit more of a diary.  The "Rain Out" page was how I was feeling one spring when the Little League baseball season got almost completely washed out, and the boy cried all the time!  I'm sure both types of art journals are wonderful, and I want to make room in my creative time for both!  Now, to just figure out where altered books fit into the whole picture . . .

9 comments:

helena said...

love the washing line piece - both the image and the senitment

Margi said...

both pieces are marvelous! I love the inner girl clothesline, that is a perfect way to express it! Can't see what you come up with for an altered book. I won a Nancy Drew altered book not too long ago and I so love it. I have not brought myself to write in it yet because I love it so much in its original form!

Amy said...

Rinda, I've never made an art journal before - it is not something I feel confident with and I think it is something that I would need to undertake with a lot of guidance. I love the idea of your current journal taking on influences from some of the masters - I can see your references to them on the pages you have posted.
Do you create according to a sentiment/quote you like or find inspirational or, is it the artwork itself which determines the direction you take?

Sian said...

I absolutely love that idea of the inner clothesline..I'm going to have some fun thinking about that one. Lovely pastel work.

Lizzie said...

An "Inner clothes-line" is such a lovely idea! I wonder what mine would look like... I must consider this.

Altered books. Hmm, that's a different thing to Art Journals, yet, maybe it's not.
I have a lovely book by Alisa Golden, called "Expressive Handmade Books" (Sterling Publishing). Her books are Art Books. They are handmade, but the pages are not really blank. They contain her paintings, prints, writings. Many are themed. Many follow a story from her life - including the sad, sad story of how she lost her little boy and life afterwards. A way to record, yet perhaps cope with, such heartbreak.
The books are wonderful though, very inspiring. There are detailed instructions, with photos of art books by other artists too. You can follow the instructions to create your own art book, altered image book, or just plain books to use later. I love it.

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nancy y said...

I like the inner artist closeline and the look of the soft pastels on both pieces. Have have played with them a bit and like the fact that you can really blur & blend them. I'll have to dig them out again, thanks for the reminder!

Cheryl said...

These are both wonderful but I happen to have this "thing" for butterflies so you know that is my favorite.

Anonymous said...

I loved the art of "inner clothes line" the moment I saw it, but once I read your journaling, I was even more enamored of it. I think it should be framed.