The Art Journal - Page 2

Why I do it. 

This page was inspired ENTIRELY by Roy Batty, the deep thinking android from Blade Runner. 

"All these moments will be lost in time, 

like tears in rain."

With no record of them, my moments will disappear with me, and to be 'American Beauty' style sentimental for a moment - life can be poignantly, pleasantly, and even painfully beautiful - and I don't want to lose those snapshots. 

What I think is beautiful says as much (if not more) about me, and my concept of beauty, but things like beauty are highly subjective and I will enjoy looking back one day at these creations which illustrate in more than just words the details that I believe make life truly wonderful. 

This page is layered again... they all are... this time focusing on a photograph I took several years ago while living in Taiwan. 

This man held his granddaughter so carefully as the train moved. I thought it was such a precious moment that I had to take a photo... even though taking photos of strangers is a REALLY creepy thing to do. 

The vintage image of the woman came from a tarot deck which I cut up, because I liked the pictures. (Don't like tarot - I think its freaky) but the lady in this picture seems really sad, and journals should encompass the whole range of emotions that make up our lives. Even the sad ones. 

I cut 2 different papers into strips and wove them together just for some difference in texture. Stuck things down, then painted on the photo and print with acrylic paint - so that I could write legibly over them. 

What inspires you? Collect together some of the words, images, memories that inspire your work and your life and put them onto paper!

Some tips:

• Old magazine pages make cool paper weaves because it mingles the pictures. 
• Don't be afraid of painting on/writing on/or cutting photos. You can get them reprinted. (Unless you can't in which case - have a care!)
• Download free fonts (like I obviously didn't) for ideas, or to print out.

"Nothing else is love"

Once upon a time there were these things called CDs.

Once upon a time I had the money to buy them.

Given the rise of the MP3, it strikes me that this may only appeal to a small (and ever decreasing) number of people... but nevertheless, I will press on.

For a while, before I became poor and stopped caring, I was into music in a pretty big way. In fact, to immediately contradict myself - I still do care about music. I just can't afford to pour all that money into it any more,and I would like to think that some of the pretension that I affected at the time has been worn away. (I liked everything before it was popular and going mainstream was an epic sell out and generally deserved the loss of my good opinion... don't you know)

I threw out all the cases years ago when I moved overseas and had to make my collection more compact, but I did keep some of my favourites and I totally love the art on them.

So I decided to use them as inspiration for some of my journal pages.

The Shins are awesome. Seriously awesome. True story... if you haven't heard their music - look into it.

Chutes Too Narrow is still one of my favourite albums... ever. And check out the cool art, its all cut out and stuff... so I thought I would use it as inspiration for the first page of my NEW ART JOURNAL.

ps. note that those jellybeans disappear... aldis jellybeans are awesome.

The new art journal. It's the size of an autograph book.
I figured a small book would be easier to work with initially.

And now to unfiltered photos...

 I drew a little scene and coloured it in with watercolour paint. I really don't mind watercolour being epically messy, but if you want clean lines... wait for a colour to dry before painting the one adjacent to it.

Cut out the parts I wanted out.

Then I started with the next page - referring back to the first page to see which parts would be visible when they are on top of each other.

 Then I went over it all with coloured pencils to make everything sharper and add in details like the bridge, and grass patterns and such. See how only my name and that tiny horse (donkey?) silhouette is visible? Totally planned.

I also cut out the space around my name and that hill and the monsters head. So you can see the next page, which I will show you all later.

I say its a horse, but its ears are very donkey/mule-like.

And there it is. The title page(s) of my new art journal.
Thanks to The Shins and my propensity to horde things.

Do you have CD covers and art that you love? Rip it off  Be inspired!! Use ideas from things around you and make them your own.

"Mercy's eyes are blue and when she places them in front of you, nothing holds a roman candle to the solemn warmth you feel.

There's no measuring of it as nothing else is love."

- The Shins (Saint Simon) 

Merci pour l'aventure.

Pixar created one of my most favourite love stories when they made 'Up'. Of course it doesn't hurt that Ellie and Carl is very similar to Ellie (me) and Kyle (my husband) but asides from the name similarities, their story of loyal, enduring and life changing love puts the movie up there with my favourites. I used to just sit and watch the montage of Ellie and Carl's life together because it's definitely one of my favourite montages - even though it's sad. (really sad)

Ellie's love of life, despite never getting to South America as she had planned as a girl, her happiness in her marriage (despite the bitter sadness they both must have felt when dealt the cruel blow of infertility) and most of all the way she viewed all of these things, small and big as adventures - is all a great inspiration to me. 

You can tell how much she valued her life experiences, her memories, and her time with Carl, because she recorded it. 

Wah! Such a wonderful thing to leave behind. So full of love and fond memories and moments and all those good things that you want to remember about life. How I would love to get my hands on similar creations (if such existed) from my grandparents/parents/friends/whomever. 
As a side note, this is another one of the reasons why I feel so strange and melancholy about seeing family photos and albums in second hand and vintage stores.


I totally cry nearly every time I watch Up (Its strange, but I cry more about animated movies than I do about others... hmm) 

The point though is that I often feel that things are far too mundane in my life to deserve recording in anything by the briefest of notes. I think that it would help me as much as anyone, to record things as the adventures that they are. (Small though they may be) So in the coming months you can expect a lot more journaling, tutorials, scrapbooks, art and photos as I try to capture some more, try to be more grateful for, more productive with, and do meaningful things with the life that I have. 

And just to be clear, my whole renewed energy in this is not entirely supplied by a wonderfully rendered animation, but also by some of the other more diligent record keepers in my life - like my mum and mum in law, a certain graceful ballerina I know, and others. 

I do know people in real life. 
Just sayin'.

"Thanks for the adventure - now go have a new one! Love, Ellie"