Johnson - Artists journal workshop : creating your life in words and pictures

ARTISTS

JOURNAL

WORKSHOP

creating your life in words and pictures

Cathy Johnson

NORTH LIGHT BOOKS

CINCINNATI, OHIO

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Artists Journal Workshop: Creating Your Life in Wordsand Pictures. Copyright 2011 by Cathy Johnson. Manufactured in China. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review. Published by North Light Books, an imprint of F+W Publications, Inc., 4700 East Galbraith Road, Cincinnati, Ohio, 45236. (800) 289-0963. First Edition.

eISBN: 978-1-4403-0868-0

Other fine North Light Books are available from your favorite bookstore, art supply store or online supplier. Visit us at our website www.fwmedia.com.

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Edited by Holly Davis
Designed by Guy Kelly
Production coordinated by Mark Griffin

Journal Artists on Cover
Top left: Cathy Johnson
Top right: Nina Johansson
Bottom left: Danny Gregory
Bottom right: Gay Kraeger

METRIC CONVERSION CHART

To convert	to	multiply by
Inches	Centimeters	2.54
Centimeters	Inches	0.4
Feet	Centimeters	30.5
Centimeters	Feet	0.03
Yards	Meters	0.9
Meters	Yards	1.1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What do you want and what do you need to get there?

Take a spin with materials and media.

What type of journal is right for you?

Find time, make time and develop a habit.

What have you learned and where will you go?

Ill admit, I prefer the term artists journal rather than art journal to describe what were about hereand theres a reason for that. There are many books and classes on making an art journal. For instance, an altered book in which the pages are small works of art in themselves, full of collage, calligraphy, stamps and scraps of this and that is an art journal. So is a book with a configuration that is almost like origami or a journal with a cover or other details that makes the book itself art. Some books are decorated with tassels and beads; some have a steam-punk look, with gears and bits of metal. These are often meant to be displayed in a gallery or museum and may be sold to a collector.

Instead, were going to explore what it means to keep an artists journal, a personal journal kept by the creative person that is you. You are an artist and a fully rounded, creative human being with plans, questions, answers, needs and goals, both ordinary and sublime. You explore, you respond, you worry, you delight in the momentand your fingers itch to capture that moment. Your curiosity is piqued and you search for your own answers, making notes and sketches as you go. You celebrate a milestone or the everyday occurrence. You run out of tea or eggs, or need to remember a phone number or what happened at that meeting you attended. Into the journal it goes! Your journal can be a place to express all of that, to capture the moments of your life. (It can also be an art journal, if thats what you wantits your decision.)

People sometimes tell me their lives are too boring or uneventful to journal; Im not buying it. They say theres nothing to draw thats not mundane. But seeing and capturing such things in the pages of a journal rescues them from the mundane. By giving attention and respect to small things, you raise them to a new level. Journalists find beauty everywhere.

There are many forms of inspiration behind my own journal keeping, beginning with the wonderful illustrated books Ive loved as both a child and a womanstorybooks, fairy tales, natural histories, field guides, travel journals and more. It occurs to me that my own journals are a natural progression, a meandering line trailing from those books that have influenced me throughout my life to the image I sketch there today.

Thirty years ago Morton Kelseys books on spiritual journaling inspired me. In the late 1980s, my friend Hannah Hinchman wrote A Life in Hand: Creating the IlluminatedJournal, my all-time favorite book on the subject. It changed the way I kept my journals and helped me to see that I could integrate everything under one coverplanning sketches, practice, nature observations, grocery lists, everything, in any medium I chose.

Later, Danny Gregorys books, Everyday Matters and The Creative License, helped thousands of people realize their everyday lives could be beautiful and worthy of notice, no matter what they were dealing with at the time. He continues to be an inspiration.

Journal keeping has been a life-changing experience for me, one that has continued for more than forty years.

This book will show you how to keep your own artists journal. As you celebrate the moments of your life, youll discover your own way of capturing them on paper, whether you choose to do simple gesture sketches in less than thirty seconds or to design a complex page with borders, textures, layers or text. Youll explore ways to express what you feel in the way that works best for you.

There are no rules. Theres no right or wrong way. Its up to you to let your journal evolve into what you, personally, want (or need!) for it to be. This book provides a map, as it were, with signposts along the way, but you choose your destination.

Did you know that the word journal originally was meant to describe a trip, a day-to-day record of travels, outward or inward?

It can be that for you. Enjoy the journey!

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