Monday, July 14, 2008

Journal Challenge - Soul Journaling

(All DAILY posts on this will be added to this Post in sequence)

Sarah Whitmire has a 'journal challenge' on her blog and I figured it was just what I needed to do a 'art journey' this summer and see where it leads.....and to have someone to keep me in line....and to not let me slide. It will be fun! So here goes....

The book I am going to use is a blank book I got at Borders last summer and it has kraft cardstock pages.


To start out, we are to cover the first 3 pages in text from a dictionary or phone book ....then write in bold marker... Starting with the prompt: “Today I feel…” Like I feel stupid for starting a journal challenge during the busy summer months, but then Big Brother just started and I will be up late every night for the next couple months watching these 'other' stupid people....lol! That's my excuse and I am sticking to it! I ripped a few glossery pages from William Shakspeare and wrote some stuff....tomorrow I will check in and see what Sarah has planned.


To share progress with Sarah, I will also be sharing with 'you' here on this blog. YOU could join us if you want....just head to her blog
http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/
and read up and get started.


DAY 2....Claim our Journals!
We are to dry brush gesso over our dried pages exCEPT I screwed up and did my writing with a non- permanent marker...what a mess!


But I fixed it. Then to CLAIM we Stamp or write "This Book belongs to:" at the top of the page. Write your full name underneath that. Then write it again and again until you have filled the page with your name. Use different fonts. Be Creative. Be free. OK....this is as free a I get without it looking like a 2nd grader (one of which I have here today helping me...he said, "Good job Grandma!") That's it until tomorow....

Homework assignment: to think about what you need to protect and nourish your creative spirit. Think about the things that sustain you. What’s needed to shield you from outside criticism and your inner critic?

DAY 3....&4....
Construct our own Soul Armor!
Think of strength and protection. Think about what you turn to when you are “under siege”. What does your creative spirit NEED more of?
How do we keep all those critical voices from crippling us in our crusade?

We are taking a couple days to do this...with clipart, altering and more writing. I will post a picture as soon as the paint dries. Visit Sarah's site to see how hers is coming along. http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/

I have My Armor On!
I had difficulty thinking of things I needed to protect myself from....so my Armor is to help hold things in that I want to nurture and explore so I don't get sidetracked. Expressing Myself and Making it Personal instead of cookie cutter art are things I want to work on. Time is my only enemy...I have great support here at home and the groups I am in on the internet are excellent stimulation and inspiring! Well, that's it...I'm sure I will add more to this page as the journal continues.




More artists that are on this crusade....
Cheeka - Soul Lilies
Christy - Average American Girl
Mary Hunt - Working Projects
Caro - Glitter Tart Designs
Eliabeth - Miss Oddity's Crazy Collection

DAY 5 Scavenger Hunt!!

First prepare 2 pages as before with gesso cover and then wash with dark stain to age.

Time to get out those magazines!!

Find the following images in your magazines. When you see one on a page just tear the whole page out, set it aside and keep going. Don’t pay any attention to the size of the image. When you find one you like, just tear and go!

1.A smile
2.Something beautiful
3. a chair
4. something red
5. something blue
6. something comfortable
7. something exotic
8. a leaf
9. a color you love
10. a pattern
11. a flower
12. a bird
13. something you want
14. something you own
15. the letter R
16 something that smells good
17. something that tastes good
18. A circle
19. the letter A
20. An eye that’s the same color as yours
21. a hand
22. the letter T
23. a butterfly
24. a number

Set your images aside until tomorrow.

Part of not knowing what the end result will be is learning to enjoy the journey.

DAY6.....

Scavageing for photos posed a bigger problem than I expected....besides my Somerset and ClothPaperScissor mags, that I would never cut up, I could only come up with ranchey/agricultural ones like Acres, Heartland, and WesternHorseman. But it ended up ok and I found just what I was looking for except a Butterfly...so I picked another insect that represents what we are dealing with this summer in numbers! lol!

We are to cut the 24 pictures into 1x1 inch sguares and get them glued to our pages in this fashion...then we will see tommorrow what the next thing is....we are suppose to gather all the tape from around the house that isn't clear, this should be interesting!





DAY7
Today we are going to journal. Take the next 2 pages and write small, filling both pages....starting with the prompt, "I forgot to tell you…”

I wrote about Art Secrets...stuff I see myself doing and how I want to improve.

Then,the Tape that we gathered yesterday is to cover what we wrote...seal it up.

I'm not so sure what the lesson/goal is here...to write and get things out of our systems then dimiss them by hideing them forever??? Or to learn that tape is a good material to feel free to use in different ways when we journal?? This is what I did... What I wrote, let's say, is beginner journaling. Some day, in the future, I want to revisit my "thinking" to see how I have progressed. So what I did was create two cover pages over my journaling, tied off with ribbon that only 'I' open. like doors. I used tape and I will add more to this later, maybe some alchohol inks. That's it for today...no homework. This has been a lot of fun and just wanted to let you know it is not too late to join in. It would not take long to catch up!!



Four more gals just joined us...
Kathryn - The Collage Diva
Jo - Art Heart Studio
Keron - The Colour Guru
Jacky - art4mio
And another few....
Ruby Claire from Australia
Taylor's Textiles Trials
Jane - Sepia and Glitter

DAY 8
Textural background day....take the taped pages and SAND. Add gesso (white or black) then wipe off as you go. Add color in the same manner. Sand again. Texture seems to pop! Assignment for tomorrow....Pick a flower today and press it somewhere in your book! :) I'm going to antique this a bit before tomorrow.



Day 9
Today we are to go back to the scavenger hunt 1x1 pages and add some paint and journaling....I used straw yellow since that was my fav color I picked out for my square. The lesson here is to feel free to go back and add stuff to prior pages in your journal at any time, this journal will ever really be what you may consider “Finished”. I want it to be constantly growing and changing. As new insights and ideas are awakened in me I want to be able to go back into my journal and add to it.



DAY 10

Start two new pages. If the paper is not watercolor, then gesso it. I am starting to feel 'One with my Gesso'.
Draw a basic house shape with a pencil. This is be 'symbolic' of my house and not meant to look exactly like it.
Then we are to use a brown paper grocery bag (recycle) to make a pocket over the square section of house. On the next opposite page I am to to draw more houses or your "outside world". Our instructions are to not go into too much detail yet...and wait till tomorrow, while the glue dries on the pocket.



I see a few more Soul Journalers were added to the list at http://sarahwhitmire.blogspot.com/
so, if you think you might like to join us, you could easily get caught up in a full afternoon...grab a book and lets go!

Linda - Blue Eyed Girl -from the UK
Vicki- Altered Everything and More

22 comments:

Sarah Whitmire said...

Oh I love all the stamping and the heart! You're doing a great job!

Ps. you were supposed to feel like a second grader. *wink* Nothing wrong with that! :)

*HUGS*

Sarah

mary schweitzer said...

It will be fun to watch this develope! Please keep us posted. I don't have the discipline to journal, I wish I did.
Mary

Christy said...

Oooh I know just what you meant when you wrote "this is as free a I get without it looking like a 2nd grader". Sometimes I am having so much fun and I think to myself "gee, this probably looks like a kid with finger paints" but then my muse pops up and says "Sooo" LOL Love your page and the little squares you added around the edges. Perfect addition to this!

Cheeka said...

Oh yours is so neat and tidy compared to mine! I always look like a second grader and I have the crayons and glitter glue to prove it! Good work!

Cheeka said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cheeka said...

Ummm your knight's hat is very pretty. LOL - isn't this fun?

Christy said...

Wow your color looks beautiful. And I love how you didn't color everything... I seem to have an issue with that LOL
Are those Mona's eyes? Looks like it to me. Hmm I really like "Make it Meaningful". That is a good one.

Christy said...

Oh yea, and I just wanted to say I love the way your journal has a split binding (right word?). That is very cool!

Christy said...

re: Day 6
I love your insect replacement. Very funny. We have that problem here in my town too! I kinda think it is fun that you were limited in your magazine choices. Your pages look like a spread from a Country Living magazine.

Kathryn Costa said...

I love LOVE LOVE your armor. How cool that you have it holding a time peace. Everything about the armor page is perfect. I just joined the crusade and made my armor this morning. Swing by and try it on.

Now I'm off on a scavenger hunt to make my next page. This is so much fun!

Mary S. Hunt said...

first of all i didn't even know we could make our entries go in sequence like you are doing...very cool!
i am finding as i relook at the work i am entering.. i am not following all the directions as well as the rest of the participants and i forgot to use permanant ink on an entry too...

I LOVE your armour!

and i like ..but don't do...when intropection goes along with the blog entries.
AND
you are my neighbor
i live in SD!

Cheeka said...

Hey everyone! This is fun! I am behind but that's to be expected - so going to do some more tonight. I love that you deviated from the "rules", Connie. I don't think the rules are for everyone and if you don't know the rules, how can you break them (grin). Personally, I like knowing I'm going to cover up the writing because I have had a few instances where people who were supposed to love me read what I'd written and used it against me. So it's good for me - I wouldn't write as true if not.

Christy said...

Holy Moly you have turned tape into an art. I love your pages and I love that you 'deviated' and came up with something like this. I agree with Cheeka in that what I wrote on my pages were in the spirit that they would not be read ever by anyone. My daughter has a habit of going through my old journals. That is ok but every once in a while I want to write things because writing them gives them a bit of closure for me and yet I don't always want to hear about them later LOL

Miss Oddity said...

I really love that you have chosen to be able to go back to your journalling if and when you want to by undoing the ribbon. Personally what I wrote I'm happy never to see again! Your armour is wonderful and your journal looks beautiful. Can't wait to see what else you do.

Little Blue Violet said...

This looks like it was such fun! I am sorry to have missed out. Your pages are so nice and the knight is awesome.
smiles
DarLy*~

Christy said...

Day 8: Ahh pretty in pink! Like the little hint of green too. This is such a fresh and lovely page. Are these your real flowers that you picked? The are perfect.

Ruby Claire said...

WOOOOOWW this is so awesome!!
I so LOVE how it is all peicing together and looking so awesome! :D
xx

Christy said...

Day 9: Love that color. My fav color was topaz which is pretty close to this! I like your spin on the stitched square!

Linda Vincent said...

Your journal is progressing beautifully - isn't this a wonderful thing to do? I'm really enjoying it.
Linda

arlene said...

I love your pages so far! It's so much fun to share this Journal journey by seeing what others are doing!

Jennifer Williams said...

I love your journal pages so far. Using Mona's eyes for your armor is very original!

Anonymous said...

Took me time to read the whole article, the article is great but the comments bring more brainstorm ideas, thanks.

- Johnson