Friday, March 13, 2015

Grow Kindness (Dry Art Journaling)

Over the years, I have studied and experimented and played with a lot of different styles in my art journals, using all kinds of different supplies. Early on, most of the images I used were stamps or purchased images. But I wanted to move to pages that contained my work exclusively (or almost exclusively). So, I created a lot of collage sheets with my photography and personal ephemera to use on my pages. I also thought I had to learn to sketch, draw and paint. One style of art journaling I have studied is called "dry art journaling" because it doesn't involve paint or other art mediums. I do like those types of pages so I wanted to try at least one this month. This one, called "Grow Kindness," includes a focal photograph I took, a heritage photo of my mom, Hungarian postage stamps from my travels and assorted papers. I think it satisfies my desire to have my art journal pages be authentically my own, even if I don't draw and paint on them. I'm also wondering whether my desire to have authentic authorship of the pages is something that I want to hold on to or let go of. I hope to figure that out this month.
Edited to add: The dry art journaling class was taught by Kelly Kilmer.

7 comments:

Melissa said...

I like "dry art journaling" best because I don't feel as comfortable with the wet "messy" stuff! I haven't thought of the idea of creating pages with just my own art - great idea.

Sian said...

Honestly? whatever you do, it always seems authentically "you"

I really like that picture of your Mum on this piece.

Cheri said...

I'd never heard of dry art journaling, but feel that is kind of what I do in my planners.

Karen said...

I've never heard of dry art journaling either. I wonder if my favorite method of art journaling is a combination of background (wet) and then dry art journaling.Is there hybrid art journaling? I'm still happiest with my pages that are pretty CAS.

alexa said...

I am enjoying seeing what you create, and how you keep exploring your Self with it, Rinda. Julie Kirk, over at Notes on Paper blogspot is another dry art journaller , if you don't know her work already ...

Sandie said...

I've not heard of dry art journaling before (I don't seem alone in this!) However, I think it is something I do already as I experiment and journal in lots of different ways.
I am currently enjoying collage and took part in a collage swap. I was very excited to hear about how you have used your own photos in this journal page. Like you I am an avid photographer and I want to make more use of them. I have lots of ideas but not thought about using them as pieces in a collage.

Anonymous said...

It's beautiful. I like the idea of them being your own.