My new "project"

When I abandoned Effy's BoD project, I started a new journal. I sometimes call it "WoW Journal" - the Word of the Week – and sometimes "QoW Journal" – the Quote of the Week. But WoW looks nicer, so we'll stick to that… 

My idea was to have a page for each week of this year - not necessarily painted that very week - containing a word (and a quote) that somehow summarizes how I felt that particular week.

So, because I'm now an expert on this, I painted yet another “Focus” page representing the year 2012… [insert sigh here]

[my favourite quote by Mark Twain]

This is not my best Focus, but it came out pretty well... 

I used my currently favourite (and overused) technique  – I haven't developed it, but merely reinvented it for myself. And I enjoy it very much. I colour packing paper (similar to tissue paper) with distress inks, spray it with water, leave it to dry, stamp images on the paper and then cut or tear it and glue it down on my page. The rest is acrylics and some stencil work. [tutorial might follow]

Re-focused

I liked my BoD title page so much I decided to recreate it on a canvas.

[quote by Robert Collier]

I like this one even better… [giving myself a pat on the shoulder – because no one else will]

BoD failure

At the beginning of the year, I signed up for Effy Wild’s Book of Days (BoD) - a yearlong art journaling adventure. 

It started pretty well. We were find a book to alter and choose a word for the year. My word was FOCUS - I felt I needed to focus more on myself and those who appreciate what I do. 

The first task was to create a title page for our book. I decided to make a special book for my BoD rather than to alter an old book. I always liked the Coptic stitch binding and my first attempt at this wasn't at all bad….

But then it all went wrong. I struggled a lot with the journal. I tried to adapt it to my needs first.  I couldn't journal every day, but I sometimes wasn't able do any art for two or three weeks in a row – so I was constantly behind the schedule and that made me upset.

Eight weeks later, I made an important decision: I decided to abandon the BoD journal. For three reasons:

1. Regular journaling became a burden for me. And when I'm under pressure I either perform miracles or I fail to do anything at all. The later was happening in this case.
2. As I already mentioned in my previous post, I keep a daily journal and having an art journal just seemed redundant to me.
3. I already had something else on my mind…

This is all that remains of my BoD. I kept some pages, discarded the rest.

But… six months later, I still follow Effy's inspiring posts and videos but I have a "project" of my own. 

Art journaling

About a year ago, I started my first “art journal”. (more scans from my journal on my Flickr)

It surprised me how quickly I came to like this art form. My journal doesn't contain “journaling” in its true sense because I keep a daily journal and – being slightly socially awkward - I don't want to share my deepest thoughts with anyone. But... it allows to show my mood and a little bit of the “real” me without revealing too much.

Evolution

My art has always revolved around abstract shapes...

...nineties were full of collages and drawings...

... the new millennium found me painting with acrylics... 

... and now, it's all about art journaling. 

Welcome

Welcome to my new blog mapping my artful journey – my successes and also my failures.

I have always liked to craft, but I never considered myself AN artist. I'm more of a trial-and-error artist. I'm an office rat and I like to say that I cut through red tape during the day and through tissue tape at night…

Disclaimer:

English is not my 1st language (not even my 2nd when I think about it), so accept my sincere apologies in case I commit any crime against English grammar in the future.