Collage

Collage is fundamental to the the visual journal. It is the food - the fodder, and when you feed the journal, it gets fat.

Using a good glue stick is essential, whether gluing in postcards or thin papers. Any type of ephemera is good for the journal. I especially like finding random, mundane things.

Identity

The visual journal is a perfect place to explore who you are and what you want from life. Using words and images that are all about identity is an easy way to ponder these ideas.

These notions can be examined in many different ways, from photographs to tracings, and from image transfers to reflective writing.

Find Your Style

2017 is already off to a busy start - a new online workshop and a new exhibit. And now I can add another project to the list. Find Your Style is an an ebook compiled by Kristal Norton. Kristal is an artist, writer, and creative guide. She offers several e-courses as well as ebooks on art, journaling, and creativity, so she definitely speaks my language.

I was honored when Kristal asked me to be part of this project, and I couldn't say no. I'm a big believer that the universe answers if we are willing to listen, and so it was with this project. Out of the blue, this wonderful offer to share my small story came about, and I put together a short write up about how I have found my style. I join eleven others who share their stories and a little bit of advice on how to find your style.

For more details or to purchase this collaborative effort, check out Kristal's website, and see how you can FIND YOUR STYLE!

Straight Lines

The visual journal is an accumulation of actions - little steps that lead to big results. It's not about having hours of unfettered time to sit and work in the studio.

For me, the journal is about working when I find the time, even if it's just fifteen minutes, and having simple strategies to get working. Today's strategy - straight lines - collaged, painted, and drawn. Simple, yet effective.

Art Exhibit: Cascades Library

Today, I was fortunate to hang twenty-four pieces at the Cascades Library in Cascades, VA. It's a nice large space, and if I do say so, I think my work looks pretty great in the space.

Much of the work was from the past year, but a couple of pieces were from 2007 a few from other recent years. Although my work has undergone some stylistic changes over the past nine years, the bright colors tie everything together quite nicely.

If you're in the area, make certain to to stop by and check it out. The work will be hanging throughout January and February. Hanging an exhibit is a great way to kick of the new year.

This Is Not A Resolution

Happy New Year! It's hard to fathom that another year is done, and a new one has begun. 2016 has come and gone so quickly for me, and it has been filled with so much. But I'll save those reflections for another day. Instead I have had a thought, an inkling to try something.

Now this is not a resolution! The new year sees many people making these yearly promises only to have them fall to the wayside. They resolve to lose weight, save money, to make all of these life altering changes, but I've never been a resolution kind of guy. The new year is a symbol of renewal, and I've always had notions and ambitions for the new year. This year is no different. I want to try something. I feel like over the past couple of years that I have lost touch with my visual journal practice. When I got into the journal eighteen years ago, it changed my life, and I used it on almost a daily basis. Now that I have made a major change in my life, I want to engage in the journal like I did those many years ago. So, I'm going to try to work in my journal everyday for as long as I can, and post some of that work each day here on the blog and on social media.

I started my current journal a couple of months ago. I've done some work over those months, and I have worked on a dozen or so pages. Some are rather developed, and others not so much. I just have not engaged the journal in a way that I would like. So, today I dove into working with some watercolor on quite a few pages. I added to pages that I have already begun, like the spread at the top, and I have used watercolor as the beginning of other pages. I don't know how many pages I actually worked on, but these three spreads are just a few.

Look for more tomorrow!

New Online Workshop Launches January 1, 2017

Just six days until I launch my new online workshop, Vision: A Visual Journal Workshop. I've worked hard over the last couple of months to put together this four part workshop that goes through the steps that I used to create the above two-page spread.

Focusing on the theme "Vision", I tried to explore what I am envisioning for my future, and what better way to start off the new year. I use simple materials, and walk you through my process to build this richly layered spread.

I have the workshop marked down to a special discounted rate though January 1st, so act fast to save. Come the New Year, the workshop will launch, but it'll be back at it's regular price.

Click Here for more info and to register. I hope that you can be a part of my little adventure!

A Sneak Peek!

Since October, I've been working on a new book, a book that I'd like to self publish by the spring. This solo venture, is based on a couple challenges I've done over the past couple of years, the 15 for 30 Challenge and the Big Idea Challenge, and I've had the idea of packing a book full of such challenges.

We could all use a creative nudge every now and then, especially when we seem to have run out of ideas. We can easily become creatively blocked, and it’s during those times when we could use a little jolt to get the creative juices flowing again. This book will be full of such creative nudges and sparks, and I'm envisioning a book of 365 challenges, a year's worth. Readers will be able to use it everyday, or they'll be able to turn to random challenges when they need a nudge. Some people have criticized Journal Fodder 365 for not having 365 prompts, and in a way I wanted to answer those critiques with this new book.

It took some effort to brainstorm and develop 365 distinct ideas for challenges, and I found that I had to get very specific in order to come up with them all - 365 ideas is truly a lot of ideas. There are challenges with materials, ideas, tools, and techniques, and I've tried to spread them randomly throughout the book so that there is consistently a good mix.

The biggest challenge for me is design. Since my plan is to self publish the book, I need to design it myself, or pay someone else to design it. I'm an artist, but not a graphic designer. It's a challenge to use the software, but I think that I'm getting it figured out. I've written more than a third of the challenges, and I've begun playing around with the page design for the challenges. I'm thinking that the book will be 144 pages with three challenges per page, and I mocked up the first page of challenges just to get an idea of what the pages might look like (See the image above).

This is by no means the final design for the pages, and I'm certain that things will change drastically over the next couple of months. But it helps me to visualize the book.

I just wanted to give you a sneak peek into what I've been doing. I hope that I can pull it all together by spring.

Vision: A Visual Journal Workshop

I've been pretty busy over the past month or so, and I have quite a few things in the works. I've been working on exhibiting my work more. Check out my work currently at Gladiola Girls in Lexington, VA, and I'm scheduled to have an exhibit at one of the local libraries in January and February. Not to mention an exhibit in North Carolina in the spring. In my new role as Program Manager at the Round Hill Arts Center, I've been busy scheduling new classes for the winter and spring, including a couple of classes that I'll be teaching. In addition to all of this, I've been hard at work on several projects, including the new self-published book that I announced back in October, and I just accepted an invitation to be part of someone else's project (more on this later).

In the midst of all of this, I've been working on putting together a new online workshop. It's been nearly a year since I launched my first online workshop, and I had hoped to have several more out by now, but unfortunately life has a way of interceding and time slips away. However, I'm close to finishing the videos and the written tutorial for this new workshop, and my goal is to launch it on January 1, 2017.

Vision: A Visual Journal Workshop is a mini online workshop where I demonstrate making a two-page spread that focuses on the theme vision (you can see a detail of the spread above). I think the theme is quite appropriate for a New Year's release. The workshop focuses on how I build up layers on my pages, and it is packed with techniques and ideas. The best part is that it gives a good "behind the scenes" look at the making of a journal spread. The workshop, as it stands right now, consists of four video segments and a 20 page written tutorial, and I'm hoping to have it up on the website for pre-registration by the end of the week with a pre-registration discount, of course.

Look for more to come!

The Best Gifts are from the heART!

If you're looking for unique, one-of-a-kind gifts for the upcoming holidays, I have a number things in the JFJ Big Cartel Shop. Although most of my larger work is on display in Lexington, VA at Gladiola Girls, I have quite a few smaller paintings and mixed media pieces in the shop, including the radiating design above, and the monster painting below.

I also have some polymer clay monster sculptures and monster pendants.

And for the teacher in your life, there are digital downloads!

Finally, I have an online workshop that I launched last year!

Check out all of my goodies, and act fast so things can ship in time for Christmas!