Art Journal with Contents Part 3

This page was originally blank on the left side and had a half face print on the right.  I dabbled about with the face print, and at one point had a butterflyish drawing on the cheek and it bothered me ... too easy.  I am having a big discussion with myself about not using things because I can or because they are there.  Learning to look for the things that fit, not always the easy thing.

The circles are from a wrapper on a gift from Japan.  I liked the sketchiness of the script.

The other side is an orchid leaf that has been hanging around for a while, getting more and more beat up, which is when I really like them the best.  The embossing is from the top of a can of sweetened condensed milk that I bought in Chinatown.  When I popped the lid I looked at it and saw "longevity".  So I saved the lid, and embossed it onto a piece of watercolor paper..

There is a bit of smeary charcoal in there also.

Art Journal with Contents Part 2

 Turning the page leads to this page.. The Volkswagon van in this picture was the second car I ever owned.  This is one that parks on my street every once in a while and every time I see it I smile.  So I finally took its portrait, since there don't seem to be any pictures of my long ago van in my albums anywhere.  Mine went through 4 rebuilt engines in the years I owned it, I would be driving along and all of a sudden there would be a bang and the whole weight of the van would drop onto the rear wheels.  I would drift to the side, hop out and go back there to open the engine cover door so that the inevitable puff of smoke would be let out and the soul of the engine would ascend to wherever they go.  I would get a ride home, call my shade tree mechanic and he would pick up the van and put in another engine and off we would go.  I loved that van.......

This is another page with a small page on top of it, and I turned this smaller page into a window and cut out the panes.  This is the spread opened out.

The van page close up

and with the window over it

The other side of this page is a collage of some plant material, orchid leaves and petals mostly

and with the window open over it:

Art Journal with contents

I have been working away at this little pamphlet stitch journal.  I talked about it earlier.. It is based on pages that I printed with my gelliplate that did not achieve "keepability".  I call them failed, but it has been pointed out to me that others might consider them fine, it was just that they didn't suit me when I pulled them... (thanks Dorothy)

So I folded most of them in the middle and stitched them together.  I am nearly done with the first little journal, I intend, when I have filled several to rebind them together as one, but they are easier to find unintimidating if they are short, so short they are.

I thought I would record a few pages over the next few days... so here is installment one.  I do NOT have a cover yet, so we start with pages 1 and 2:

Printed papers with collaged material, washi tape, builder's scrim, dried plant material (orchid leaves), a bit of stenciling, acrylic paint, metallic gold and flat.

The second set of pages are these:

 There is a flap of a shorter page between these two pages.   It is one of several smaller printed papers, that I made ages ago and added to the mix when I made up the books.  The flap on this side includes the Browning poem Pippas Song.  I thought the name was Pippa Passes, but maybe that is wrong..

 Page 3 without the flap

 Page 3 with the flap on top of it

 Page 4

Page 4 with the flap over it.

The pages interacting with the flaps have been a challenge at times, not always a big success, but interesting to play with none the less.  

Words

I'm spending a lot of time lately thinking about how words and imagery relate...

Words.

They are very important to me, but not as individual "things". They are important as they relate to each other, bounce off each other, interact and modify each other.  A well constructed sentence is a thing of beauty and a well constructed paragraph will stop me in my tracks.  A paragraph that I read more than once, a page that I copy or notice for itself, that is why I read.  It doesn't matter so much what it is ABOUT.. see the picture below.. but how it tells what it is about and on how many levels it conveys its intent.

I tore this out of the New York Times a while ago and it has been kicking around in my "things I don't know what to do with yet" assortment.

If you can't read it, it says:
"An adult alligator, which can easily weigh 500 pounds or more, has a brain that can fit comfortably in a teaspoon.  When alligators do something, which is not often and usually involves seizing and dismembering food, thinking does not much enter into it."

I don't even have a clue what article this was in, I don't know who wrote it, I only know that when I read it I instantly tore it out of the paper and kept it.

Words, sentences, paragraphs.......