IF - Strings

This weeks IF journal page started off with blind countour line drawings of a table top vise and an old telephone. Since I draw blind contours with one continuous line, I am always reminded of strings. I love the tangle of lines that result in not looking at the paper as I draw. As I worked on the quality of lines, I began to think of how strings can tangle and bind. And recent events in my life brought to mind how so many people are trapped and tangled in the the mediocre, and how they try to bind and tie down others. These are naysayers - people who can never stand up for your vision and will give you a hundred excuses why it won't work. Instead of giving you wings, they give you rhetoric and excuses hoping to tie you to their mediocrity. As I bulit layers of graphite, ink, and watercolor pencil, a tangled figure came to mind, so I created the figure with acrylic, and tied the acrylic into the background with colored pencil.

Although the figure is bound, it struggles against the tangle of lines, and stretches upward. Despite the naysayers and the unbelievers, we all must dream and struggle against the ties that bind us to mediocrity.

A Shout Out


This blog has been up and running for about a year and a half now, and I'm finally figuring out what I want it to really be. I posted a lot when I first started because I had so much to share, but over the months, with the commitments of life and feeling like I didn't have much, I really hadn't posted much. I really want this to be a place that people can come and find some inspiration for journaling as well as for art in general.

So, over the coming months, I am going to try to ramp up my contributions to the blog in a few different ways. First, I want to continue with Illustration Friday. It is a challenge and a push to journal more often, and I know that it has drawn more folks to the blog. Second, I want to do a bit more self promotion and encourage people to stop by the Journal Fodder Junkies website and online shop by posting a "Product of the Week" type thing. And finally, I want to include more posts that are more of journal prompts - ideas, techniques, and concepts to inspire people to work in their journals and try new things.

I am also very appreciative of all of you who have taken time to visit the Journal Fodder Junkies. So, I want to thank all of those people who have stopped by over the last 18 months or so, and a special thank you and shout out goes to all those bloggers and individuals who have linked to this blog or the JFJ website.

A special, special thank you goes out to a friend I have known since college and who has been constant encouragement, and that would be the Turtleboy himself, Go Flying Turtle blogger Steve Loya. Steve encourage me to start blogging, and has also done a great job of helping to promote the JFJ. Stop by his blog, and read the Artist Spotlight he did with me.
http://goflyingturtle.blogspot.com/
http://goflyingturtle.blogspot.com/2008/03/artist-spotlight-eric-scott.html

Please find a list below of blogs and sites that have linked to the JFJ or included a mention to us. I encourage you to stop by and have a look around. And if I missed your site or blog, please let me know.
http://www.acreativejournal.com/image-transfer-tutorials-for-visual-journals/
http://www.collagediva.com/Site/Kathryns_Blog/Kathryns_Blog.html
http://magicalmuse.typepad.com/magical_musings/
http://harrell.srhs.net/Students/Sketch/sketch.html
http://karenscraftyworld.blogspot.com/
http://3fido.blogspot.com/
http://artsyville.blogspot.com/
http://marinagey.wordpress.com/
http://freestylefibre.blogspot.com/
http://jkl23.blogspot.com/
http://livingwithmrfleas.blogspot.com/2007/05/fodder-journal.html
http://the-turtle-shell.blogspot.com/2008/01/new-year-new-journal.html
http://thelinemovement.blogspot.com/2008/06/journal-fodder-junkie.html
http://www.catawba.k12.nc.us/news/detail.asp?ID=616
http://programs.durham.edu.on.ca/schools/donevan/images/stories/arts/visual%20journal%20assignments.pdf
http://wonderlost.wordpress.com/2008/09/21/why-art-cannot-be-taught/

IF - Sugary

Well, it's my second week for Illustration Friday, and I must say that this was a tough one. My work tends to be rather conceptual, and some of the IF topics lend themselves to more literal translations. And that is the main reason that I haven't really done any Illustration topics before. But as I sat and thought about the word "sugary", I immediately thought of cookies - it could have been the sugar cookies that I bought yesterday. But cookies always remind of home and my childhood.

My mom was the head baker at a local grocery store in Washington, Pa., and she is a terrific cook and baker. I still consider her chocolate chip cookies to be the best. But as I thought of my mom's baking, I began to really latch onto this idea of "home". So, I opened my journal and began to draw the house shapes in watercolor pencil, and slowly the page took shape. In the end, the page seems to have very little connection to "sugary", but it was all about the mental and emotional connections that I made to come to the final page. Even when I think of the final theme of "comfort", I think how so much comfort food is the sugary, fatty, delicious stuff. So, this page has a bit of a dark side, because I have always struggled with my weight, and my craving for those comfort foods. Also, I came to the idea of "roots" and the notion that sometimes we are stuck in the past unwilling to uproot ourselves. But that's a whole other idea for another post.

So all in all, it was a challenge, but a good challenge.

The GodFodder

Ever since I first saw a few of Joseph Cornell's boxes in the National Gallery of Art in D.C. years ago, I have been enamored with his work. His work has a mysterious magical quality to it. I have gone back again and again to those little boxes tucked away in the East Wing of the gallery. Since they are under Plexiglas, they have a very sacred feel to them - precious artifacts preserved for all time making them all the more mysterious.

I was very fortunate to see two exhibitions of Cornell's work over the last three or four years. The first was at the Art Institute of Chicago. They have several rooms of his work, and it was the first time, I was able to view so many of his pieces in one place. I believe that these are part of the museum's permanent collection. The other was a retrospective that showed at the Smithsonian's American Art Museum in D.C. This exhibition brought together some of Cornell's most famous pieces as well as many of his collages and early works. What really rounded out the retrospective was all the "fodder". When Cornell passed away, he left a basement studio packed with boxes and files of images, objects, and all sorts of random things that he used to create his pieces. Photos of his studio show shelves lined with these boxes. It was a nice glance into his process being able to see his ephemera as well as pieces only partially completed. I was able to go the the retrospective on three different occasions, and I consider myself very lucky.

So, the above page is a little homage to Joseph Cornell with the image of Cornell done as a packaging tape transfer. The page was completed a couple of years ago in Journal #9.

Illustration Friday - Packed

After months of thinking about using Illustration Friday as inspiration for journal pages, I have finally been able to use one of the topics to complete a page. As I began to think about the word "packed," I first thought of having a page packed with stuff, and then as I worked on it evolved into a representation of how my days have become so packed with things to do, that I have to write it all down just to remember it all, and there never seems to be enough time to get it all done. And that point was driven home when fellow Journal Fodder Junkie, Dave, reiterated the same thing today when he told me how his days are nothing but running. He said that he felt like he started running the moment that he got up to the moment that he went to bed. Just constant running without feeling like anything gets done - without getting anywhere.

So this packed journal page is my first foray into IF. I hope that it is the first of many.

Fodder

I wanted to post something different than my usual "Here Are Some of My Pages" post that I normally post. So I instantly thought of fodder. If you are new to this blog or new to the idea of Journal Fodder, it is simply the "food" for your journal. Over the years I have amassed a bit of digital fodder - images, words, and other things, that I can print out anytime. This saves a lot of actual space in my fodder bins in the studio. So, I decided to post these images. They are relatively large - 8.5x11in., and they should print off quite well.These two images were inspired by paper that I had seen for scrapbooking. I remember seeing some of this 12x12in. paper in a store once that looked as if it had been painted, and it was obvious that it was originally painted and then scanned. I thought to myself, "I can do that myself and save myself some money." So, these two painted papers were created the same way. I crumpled some drawing paper, and then proceeded to paint them with watercolor paint. The wrinkles soaked up the paint differently then the smoother sections and enhanced the texture. Then I scanned them in and saved them. Now I can print them out any time, cut them up and use them in the journal.
Feel free to print these and use them as you see fit. Post to the Flickr group if you like, so that we can all see what you have done. Happy Foddering.

Old Artwork

As an art educator of more than 12 years, I always have lots of demo samples around that I begin and work on with my students when I share new projects with them. Often these samples lie around in a cabinet where sometimes I pull them out in later years to show students. But more often than not, they stay in their cabinet. Occasionally, I purge the artwork and use it as journal fodder. This page was done in Journal #2 (quite a few years ago) using several portraits that I had created from demonstrations on proportion. I cut the drawings apart and recombined pieces to create something new. I need to do more of this.

Teesha Moore's Art & Life

This past Friday, I received a complimentary copy of Teesha Moore's Art and Life magazine where images of my journal pages took up nearly three pages. I am grateful to Teesha for including my pages. I know that she has a lot of fans out there.

It's an interesting story (at least I think it is) of how she ended up publishing some of my pages. Back in the spring, I was searching the web for new and different opportunities for the Journal Fodder Junkies, and I have know about Teesha's Artfest for many years. I emailed her, told her a little about what Dave and I do, and asked about getting an application to be instructors for Artfest 2009. She emailed back saying that she was dropping the info in the mail and asked if I had a website. I steered her to the blog and to my personal Flickr page, and she emailed asking if I would like to be published in her magazine. I sent her some images, and lo and behold, three glossy pages of my stuff. I know that the magazine has led at least one person to the blog and ultimately to the website, and I'm hoping that it will help get the word out about the Journal Fodder Junkies.

Thanks very much, Teesha.

BIG NEWS

Dave and I have some big news to share. Some of you may know that we have submitted a proposal for a book on visual journals to several publishers. Well, after several months, we have just learned that our proposal has been accepted by North Light Books. North Light publishes a lot of books about art and has published several books on visual journals over the last few years. So, we are going to be published, and we owe a big debt of gratitude to editor Tonia Davenport who put a lot of hard work into tweaking our proposal and presenting it to the board of senior editors.

Now there are still a lot of details to work out and things are in the earliest of stages, but as of now the book (yet untitled) will likely come out in the Spring of 2010. It seems like a long time away, but as I have been assured on several occasions, nothing in the book business moves swiftly. So if you are interested in the book but can't wait that long, we do have our booklet as mentioned in a previous post.
And that leads me to our other news, the JFJ website has been updated and tweaked, and now can accept online orders for the booklet as well as other merchandise and art prints. We have set up features through PayPal that will allow for the acceptance of all major credit cards and PayPal accounts. Also we would appreciate any feedback about the website in order to make it more informative, more interactive, and easier to use. Please email us.

Thanks for all the support, and we will post updates about the book as they come up.