Connection

I seem to focus a lot on the idea of connection with other human beings, but there is one particular connection that means more to me than anything. Unfortunately, I at times take it for granted, and it hasn't been something that I have explored much - well at least here in blogger-land, but also in my journal. Perhaps it is a privacy issue. But whatever the issue is, I feel that it is important to acknowledge - at least in a small way - the importance of that connection.

And that connection is with my wife. This past weekend we celebrated our wedding anniversary with a simple lunch and some book shopping, and I've been thinking a lot lately about her, our years together, and what she truly means to me. Without her, all of the wonderful things that have happened over the last few years would have been pretty meaningless, and I could have done none of it without her support. She has been there with me every step of the way and has always been my biggest champion even when it has meant my flying off to another conference or spending days and days away conducting workshops or working on the book.

The Journal Fodder Junkies could not be possible without her. So, this is just a little acknowledgment - a little thank you for the woman who has been there for me. I thank my wife Joanne for her patience, understanding, and love.

Collaborative Journal

Yesterday I found a package from North Carolina waiting in my mailbox when I got home. I knew exactly what it was. I immediately tore it open, and savored all the new things added by Erin. I am continually blown away when I see what she has done. The above spread is absolutely beautiful with Erin's lace-like brush work in white. The lizards and bugs are nice visual surprises.

This Tangled spread began near the start of the collaboration when Erin drew a few of the branch forms in ball point pen. I continued the ball point pen drawing and added red circles. It was a beautiful page after that, but with Erin's addition of the purple, yellow, red, and text, it has to be one of my all-time favorite pages.

I posted this spread back in January, and since then, it has undergone a tremendous evolution. With the addition of the translucent envelope, I had to scan it twice to get both pages of the spread.

I am still mystified at how well our two styles have melded together to create this amazing work, especially thinking how Erin and I were complete strangers at the beginning of December. As always I am grateful for the shared journey and friendship.

The New and The News

Time slips by so quickly and so silently, and I keep meaning to do the one hundred things on my to-do list, but they fall between the cracks. But I found some time this morning to scan some pages from my current journal, and I'll post some more throughout the next week or so.

The New: So this is a new scan of Page 1 in Volume 12 of my journals. I began this page back in November, and I have slowly added to it. I began this page with watercolor and then drew the self-portrait from a photo that I took, and I've added watercolor pencil and ink. It is by no means finished, but I don't know if I'll go back to it much. I haven't worked much in my journal lately. I've been busy with so many things as well as just being plain worn out and exhausted. Perhaps with the school year wrapping up, I'll have more time soon.

The News: As mentioned, another school year is quickly coming to an end, and I am finishing my 13th year as a public school art teacher. I'm already looking forward to next year thinking about all the things that I'll do better and differently.

Our book finally has a title. Actually we have known about it for some time, but I just keep forgetting to post about it. But our book will be titled, The Journal Junkies Workshop: Visual Ammunition for the Art Addict, and will be released by North Light Books next year. We've actually have seen a design for the cover, and I'll share the finalized cover when I can. We are very excited about it.

And finally, Dave finished up his MFA in May, and has landed a teaching gig at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC where he will be teaching both Art Education and Studio Art courses. Congrats Dave.

IF - Cracked

For the past Illustration Friday topic "cracked" I decided to create a graphite drawing. Drawing was my first love in art, and I spent hours drawing growing up - especially portraits. I feel like I have pretty good facility with pencil and shading. I still love watching a piece come "alive" - even if it's not an animate subject. When faced with a blank piece of paper and a pencil, I feel like I am carving into the surface, not drawing on top of it.

Although, I do not draw as much as I once did, and portraits really are rare in my art, I find myself returning to graphite now and then. I have turned away from portraits in favor of these abstract, shallow-spaced pieces. They have been much influenced by my mixed-media, layering work I have done in the journal.

These pieces rarely contain representational imagery, but can hardly be called non-objective. They really are representations of identity and experience. The way we experience a moment or an event is such a complex mental, physical, and emotional amalgam. Our experiences and our identities are such rich, multi-level entities that I have focused on this idea in much of my recent artwork. This particular piece explores how such a complex structure can be so very fragile and prone to cracking. So for all it's balance, rigidity, and structure, this piece is on the verge of complete disintegration as the cracks begin to show.

Journal Page

I just wanted to post a page from my current journal. I haven't had much to scan and post in the current journal that wasn't done specifically for Illustration Friday since much of it is still in process. But this page felt like it needed posting. It was begun shortly after NCCAT in December and is all about my desire to connect with others.

IF - Parade

Last Friday's Illustration Friday topic "parade" sparked this two-page spread in my large Moleskine sketchbook. I recently took a trip down memory lane as a looked through some old sketchbooks. These little 5.5x8.5 inch books were mostly from a time before I discovered the visual journal, and they were little books that I always carried around with me doodling constantly and writing the angst and love riddled poetry that only a twenty-something can write. They were truly my first visual journals, and the last two were my first foray into the world of visual journaling as I know it now.

But last week, I began flipping through them in an attempt to find some inspiration. I was immediately floored by their raw and prolific nature. I used primarily black ink and I sketched and worked fast, but I still manged to fill two or three per year. I didn't read the poetry, but I looked at page after page of doodles, sketches, and visual jottings. I was amazed to see some things - shapes, forms, and images that still reoccur in my art, but I was equally impressed with things that no longer occur in my art namely the figures. I've always loved figures and faces and people in general in art, but I've gotten away from the quick gestures that populate these little books.

So I decided to revisit them in a parade across two pages. I started with the black ink figures and then added the red-violet swirl. I then added watercolor pencil and finally watered down gesso. Despite begin grouped together, these figures are isolated from each other and do not interact. The gesso creates a fog and only bits through the rectangles are clear. It has a sombre feel, and it is most likely not finished and will evolve into something more.

Layers: A Tutorial: Part 4 - The Last Layer

I finally finished this layered piece. For the sixteenth and final layer I used acrylic paint to solidify and enhance a few more areas with in the swirling forms. I also used crimson paint to re-emphasize some of the red vellum I put in much earlier and to paint some thin red lines. I also used white paint marker to write some not so evident words and to draw in the lines and rectangles. I used black paint marker to draw more lines and to sign the piece. I am quite pleased with how it turned out.

Now I just need to decide how if should be displayed. I was thinking about mounting it on wood and framing it some how, but who knows.

Collaboration and Inspiration

I often find inspiration from my artist friends, and I couldn't resist using a recent post by Steve of Go Flying Turtle as a source of inspiration for the beginnings of a page. Steve recently posted about his splotches posting 100 different watercolor splotches on Flickr and calling for artists and bloggers to collaborate and use his splotches how they see fit. I decided to use the contour of the splotch below to create a line drawing for a new journal page. I actually cropped the original splotch in Photoshop allowing it to go off all four sides of the image. I then printed out the cropped image and drew the contour. I have no idea what this page will evolve into, but it's a start.

IF - Theater

For last Friday's Illustration Friday prompt "theater", I automatically thought of masks and roles. This page in my current journal actually began as planning (the writing and face sketches under all the other layers) for a project for one of my classes, but fit in perfectly into the topic.

The page plays off of something I remember from my sociology class in college - the dramaturgical perspective where behavior of an individual is analyzed as if it were a theatrical performance. The basic notion is that life is a stage and we are the players (wait that sounds familiar). But we have our role and our character that we play for the audience (society) when we are onstage, but we can step out of character - be our true selves when there is no audience (backstage). I've always liked this perspective and it fits well with my recent readings by Carl Jung and idea of the persona being the "mask" we present to people.

So this page explores these notions and how the characters and roles we play are the masks that we wear and present to people. We may play different roles to different people and may wear different masks, but what about the actor behind the role - behind the mask. Who ever really sees the true identity of another individual, and why are we so willing to lock ourselves and others up in the roles they play? These questions came to me as I worked, and I wondered why we fear revealing ourselves, why we hide, and what happens when we become trapped within the roles. How many of us have felt like phonies at sometime or another? How often do we fall into the roles either we create for ourselves or are created by others?

These are all thoughts that have been going through my mind lately. The page is far from being finished, but I wanted to share.

Layers: A Tutorial - Part 3

The changes in these three layers are not as pronounced as when I first started, but nearing completion, this piece has become very rich, very layered, and very complex with a lot of push and pull.

13. To bring back the word "sift" and the numbers that I stenciled in earlier in the process, I used water-soluble graphite pencil to shade in around the letters and the numbers. This darkened the negative spaces and allowed the letters and numbers to "pop". Instead of using water to blend the graphite, I used matte medium. The acrylic medium mixes with the water-soluble graphite and creates an interesting glazed effect. To strengthen and accentuate the letters and numbers even more, I use white colored pencil to fill them in. The white is somewhat opaque bringing a bit of solidity to the word and numbers. I then painted a layer of the matte medium over the entire surface. This does two things. It seems to make the colors a bit more saturated and it prepares the whole surface for acrylic paint by covering everything with a nice consistent layer.

14. I wanted other images in the piece so I used four packaging tape transfers. This simple technique worked on bits of maps from an old road atlas lying around the studio as well as a laser print of a tree image (which is by photographer Eugene Atget). With these types of image transfers, the image is stuck to the clear tape and the paper is removed to create a transparent image. I used glue stick to glue the images to the surface. I probably should have used acrylic medium. But I sealed the entire surface with more matte medium which took the glossy finish off the tape transfers.

15. I spent quite a while applying acrylic paint to the piece as a way to accentuate some of the lines and forms. The layers of matte medium provided a good surface on which to paint, and I carefully mixed, blended, and layered paint in a way to bring a lot of contrast to the upper right and to several other areas throughout the composition. I used an acrylic retarder to allow for more mixing and blending directly on the surface. After the acrylic thoroughly dried, I used an opaque paint marker to apply black lines. For the most part these lines reinforced lines that were put in previously.

So this piece is close to being finished. I'll probably apply more paint as a way to solidify a few more areas and to push the paint marker into the piece instead of allowing it to float on the surface.

I am quite pleased with this piece, and although I was more particular and meticulous with this piece than I would have been with a journal page, hopefully you can see how I layer and layer to get those rich pages. I'll post the finished image once it is completed.