i'm going to start thinking about thinking about making a new LITTLE visual journal. except this doesn't feel like a visual journal anymore. it never did. i think of it as a sketchbook. not that it matters what i or anyone else calls it. but for the last few visual journals i haven't done what i tend to think of as "visually journal". which, in my mind, feels like making a fully formed page with collage elements and writing. which. i used to do. a lot. but somewhere in the last couple of years i stopped wanting to write and i grew less interested in collage. and as my interest in fully formed pages waned, my fascination and curiosity about geometric shapes, patterns, florals, hand-drawn letters and sketching grew.
my book became a place to try out ideas and notice which ones stick and which ones drift away. except now that i'm writing this i'm thinking that for the last decade or so that's what my visual journals have always been. idea factories.
so maybe my next "visual journal" will be Idea Factory No. 16. but i'm not sure. i gotta go think about it some more. i'm so relieved that instead of returning to the classroom on friday i'll have lots of free time to toss these ideas around some more.
here, CATCH! if you have a giant idea of your own you want to throw back at me, i'm all ears. but if you could please make it as complicated as possible and write it in the form of a limerick that would be great. let me go make a cocktail and put my catcher's mitt on!
Okay, Teach! I went right out and bought a special little book to begin practicing in daily whilst sitting on my butt. Today was day one. http://www.flickr.com/photos/73169444@N04/9467436163/lightbox/
I have no idea if I am doing the Flickr thing right. But there ya have it. The flowers on the bottom were the last bit I did…and what I like the most about the page. Ha! I guess it’ll take time to get warmed up. I can already tell that I need to add to my marker/paint collection.
Off I go!!! Thanks to you and Shar for the practical advice. 😉
Dear Trish, MAM is right. I started a “glue book” 3 years ago to spur me to put something down in collage form. If you can’t start just glue anything in it. Seriously, after a few weeks I was in a zone, about a third of the way thru. I had such a deep sense of satisfaction it almost scared me! I haven’t stopped. It just flows on and on and leads to other forms of art. Collect pictures, words, quotes, ideas and start putting them together. That’s what I’m talkin’ about!!!
Am in LOVE with the ‘blue’ page. I’ve missed so much. Why don’t you have to go back to school and how much more time do you have? Maybe we can kidnap you and take you away from it all for awhile – just so we don’t get thrown in jail. xoDonna
I have no limrick for you… it is so interesting to note the evolution in your art journals. Love!
Reason i said this (above comment) is i started in collage about eight years ago as i believed (disastrous 7th grade art class) that the only kind of art out there involved drawing. and i didnt think i could actually do so. So collage and stamping gave me my first glimpse into the idea that art was open to me too. i only believed i could actually draw things that looked like, well recognizable things about two years ago. I think for me personally, i would still not believe I could draw (and thus couldnt draw) or be involved in art if it were not for the freedom of collage. It changed my life in the best way, and I’ll always love it. So, if you dont mind, I’ll clarify that that one led to the other for me personally because my issue was simply in believing in myself. It is absolutely a different path for everyone though. i had not put it together that these were in fact most likely a progression of ideas. Wise woman, you!
I see Mr Buck and the Family are now getting their own sections 🙂 hoorah to that! Xo as always.
I have nothing to say except that I just started a small journal for patterns and marks. If that’s not a limerick I don’t know what is. In fact, it’s going to be my visual limerick. Bottom’s up.
trish, id say sit yo butt down and DO SOMETHING already. it doesnt take courage or knowledge. it just takes beginning and developing a daily practice. but then i am a rather practical sort when all is said and done.
Man, I just love all of you.
Question to anyone who wants to pick up that mitt: What would you say to someone who felt that they had an intense creative desire deep inside their bones, but not the knowledge or courage to let it out?
Journals big, journals small,
Doesn’t matter – love them all!
Lines and dots, lots of wordies,
Zig zags, flowers, flapping birdies.
Lovely sketches, pastey pictures,
No such thing as messy glitchures.
Paint it on, sew it in.
Oh, come on, let’s all begin!
hmmmm. i must say i disagree jane. i do not think sketching or painting are natural progressions one reaches after doing collage. paper and scissors and glue make their own unique music that is entirely different from sketching. i think progression in a persons art/craft is based almost entirely on ideas not on disciplines/practices. an artist could just as easily progress from oil painting to crayons. depends on where they are being led.
I think there comes a time in we glue gals’ lives when we conclude that collage just only goes so far. And then, one sketches. It’s a natural progression. Still contemplating limericks profound and clean. This may take a while.
Heya, Maryann … this comment has nothing to do with your post — my ‘puter was recently hacked and I lost all my contact email addresses, and presently your linky-poo here on Dispatch isn’t working for me — so HERE is a link to a post that has a video I think you’d love! I know I did. Nick and Lilah and the glass-walled house they built. ahhhhhhhhhh.. http://tinyhouseblog.com/tiny-house-concept/nick-and-lilahs-glass-cabin/
Hi maryannmoss, it’s me, Geraldine. I emailed you my little gooey idea. Wouldya squint around on the catchers’ mitt and see if it got tangled in the webbing? You are still wearing the catchers’ mitt, aren’t you?
So true Susie….spell bound!! These pages are really gorgeous (partial to the black background, but they are all beautiiful!) and have a look I haven’t seen around the internet of art….your choices are you and it is that that makes them unique….and different but also there is a seasoned artist in there and is blossoming continually because her brain won’t stop with doing the arty thing….I have enjoyed your class so much…it has fed me in a way that I want to go to my corner of supplies and waller ..?.woller?….in the joy of getting lost in the doodles….and other fun with my supplies. With the circles I wanted to make a big fish with scales and then after layering him…sew him together and stuff? him to hang….also wanted to cut out my many water colored zinnias and sew them layered to make a lantern of JUST flower heads….I hope to try some of the ideas when kids are in school…the sweet visitors across the street….then I’ll have more time….also when I get back from VENICE!!!
limerick shimmerick
ideas romp and play
big ones and little ones
sing ring around the rosey
all day and they stomp
in paint as they go.
Ahem, can’t say I’m too skilled at limericks, tho i can see I’m surrounded by unbridled talent. I’ve always loved peeking into your idea factories/visual journals, they are inspiration feasts no matter what you call ’em and there is nothing wrong with change, keeps life interesting, I think it’s sort of a natural thing, I say rock to the tune of whatever drummer is kick startin your heart, sketches, color, patterns, paint, and pen, it’s all fair game. Your journals are like a carnival with many tents, each tent is it’s own playground and you get to decide what games to play in each one. It’s a 3 ring circus 24/7 and I’m sittin’ in the stands spell bound eating my cotton candy and popcorn.
oh so brilliant! I dream of going to a place like your journals! I love them so much! I vow to start to draw TODAY, no matter how simply or small or bad or good. On my lunch I head out for a freash new journal, I have everything else!
shar, pat, jaihn
i am hooting with laughter over your limericks!!!
so hilarious and fabulous.
ha ha ha to the 100th power!
Your book, whatever it is called, is absolutely stunning and very very inspiring. I love your journals … in all their forms, and find myself returning to them for inspiration.
Beautiful!
There is a young lady named Moss.
Art journalists think she’s the boss.
She could be Picasso
But alas that’s just not so
‘Cause she’s always hitting the sauce!
Yes – an idea factory! I’m calling mine that and am using your ideas to stoke the fires in my factory. Stay tuned for another limerick!
There once was a teacher on sabbatical
She liked to make people ca-cack-a-cle
To us she regales
Alphabets with fish tails
And they seem so logical and practical.
(I was trying to say… I really like the Saturday letters with the fish tails or mermaid tails on them. Party on.)
I juggle too, with what to call it, what format I like most, what theme to use. Then forget about it. Just do, it’s easier than to think about it. Your patterned pages are so full of summer happiness!
stacy,
oh no not finished. just took a leave of absence for a year till january 🙂
A visual journal like Connie said. Back to a former time, when life was vintage and fun! Emphasis on vintage. I love vintage, all of the way back to around the turn of the last century! Fun! And yea, when are you going to write that book about how you make journals, etc. Even if you just wrote it about how create your travel journals. Oh La la!! Love!
These books, journals, Factory books are quite beautiful. You should put them in a book. They are meant to be shared.
Just Amazing!
You are such an art inspiration.
Maybe I’m being too nosy, but are you finished teaching?
I surmised from your blog you took last year off?
I am an art teacher myself and while I LOVE my job…
having time for sketching, breathing and art-ing…
would be Devine…
Could you please get out a fork and knife?
I am coming over to eat up those journal pages. Every last one.
No salt or pepper needed.
Maybe a napkin.
ps, of course, you’d need a UK-style pronunciation of ‘leisure’ for that one, eh?!….. xxxj
There once was a lady of leisure
whose arts were her happiest pleasure
she played and she shared
explored, tried and dared,
and found her way home to great treasure.
Love xxx jaihn
I have no limerick to share
Just a thought–and I was wondering if you could take me there?
You know–back to that time we missed when we were young
There’s a blank for me
Just a few shadows but no form
Could I see a journal from back in time – maybe 1969?
Fill in the blanks of the man I knew as Uncle Ray
Panama?
Aunt Angie?
Visits home?
Aunt Ola’s red kitchen table?
Give me a date and let me return–but this time maybe we could roam together?
A time machine? A date for me to meet and savor what I didnt know back then?
By the way——I return to the classroom on Monday!