MCBA Visual Journal Collective December Meeting

Join us at MCBA, DECEMBER 16, 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. 

To view the completed Not-So-Blank Page Group Project

Whether or not you participated (and whether or not you are done) in the nine-month long collaborative project to fill our custom Smash journals "The Not-So-Blank-Page-Project"— you are cordially invited to meet with us tonight for a fun simultaneous viewing party of all the pages. 

We'll see what a page was like originally (my background empty below on the left) and then we'll see what each member of the project did to that page (my completed journal page below on the right). 

It will be a fun evening filled with journaling surprises! 

End the year by being inspired by creative responses to the not so blank page. You'll be all set to jump into your 2014 journal and maybe just a little relieved that this journal is complete.

My Not-So-Easy-to-Fill Journal and it's Reclaiming

For the last six months a journal has sat on my studio table.  From time to time I have paged through this journal and added a thing here or there, completing some pages along the way.  On those page throughs however this journal has often stopped me, stumped me, and other wise frustrated me like no other journal has.  This journal has a looming deadline and must be conquered before time is up and my frustrations were quickly turning to a panicky feeling every time I was near this nearly empty, needed to be filled, monster on my studio table.
What journal is this you ask?  How is it possible that someone who writes grocery lists on fine art paper and will splash watercolor with near abandon on a thirty dollar sheet of Arches can be stopped by a collection of color copied sheets bound into a book?  Those are the exact questions I asked myself this week.  Why?  Why is this a stopping place instead of a jumping in place?
This week I finally had an answer to that question - I have been trying too hard.  Trying for perfect.  Waiting for the right idea for every page.  Desiring that each and every background would shine and be the star it was meant to be.  As an artist I recognized that desire, the elusive quest for perfect and as an artist, I also was seeing the same results, nothing; a not-so-blank-sheet as it turns out.  When perfect is the goal, nothing is the result, because nothing is perfect, particularly when making art.  We all see the flaws we create so clearly that the resulting work will never be perfect.  It will be so completely un-perfect that we will be stopped in our tracks.
Thankfully, I also remembered our goal and original starting place for this idea.  The Smash Journal and the desire to make our own custom version to use as a collaborative project because it was fun.
Let's get reacquainted with the original idea:
Watch the Smash Journal video.
If you type Smash Journal into Google images.
If you have followed my links you should see a common thread of delicious non-perfection.  A mash-up of lives, ideas, images, drawings, and day to day stuff that is glued down and penned in with abandon. Books bursting with extra papers and lovely unique liveliness.  No thought was given to the background other than that it was a vehicle for the stuff contained on the page.  Not perfect and in its non-perfect state we reach wonderful, fabulous page turning journal goodness.
In my focus on the not-so-blank part of the project I was forgetting the most important part of the project title - journal.  A journal is a personal record of experiences, thoughts, events, and observations.  A record of a daily life on paper.  This week my focus came off the project as a vehicle for perfect pages and went to a focus on the project for MY pages, it is a journal after all.
With the pressure to create perfect pages off my back I have been creating my pages all week with complete and utter abandon.  Oh, I am still going out of order and not quite taking the sheets as they come but I am not letting sheets stop me anymore.  It's my journal and the pages need to be mine, whatever that means for the background.  Suddenly, I am having fun with this journal.  Knocking out multiple pages a day, not because of a looming deadline but instead because I am enjoying myself.
If you too are a part of this project and have been stopped by the pages, the project, the pressure of perfect, let it go.  Perfect will never happen and the idea of perfect only gets in the way of making the pages yours.  Remember it is meant as a journal, not the fancy Art Journal where the pages must be beautiful works of art, but as a record of your thoughts, observations, and experiences.  
A journal journal that's real and a reflection of you and your life.  Go!  Smash some of your life today into those pages:  receipts, recipes, drawings, photos, thoughts and all.  It will be beautiful because it will be uniquely you.  I know that's what I cannot wait to see in December, the completely unique approaches, the beauty that we each placed on the pages that reflects who we are and where we are at that day the page came to be smashed together.

Upcoming Not-So-Blank-Page Project

My crow (watercolor on added in paper) on
Roz's Squiggle background (see original below)

On Monday February 18th Roz Stendahl and I unveiled the new collaborative project for the MCBA Visual Journal Collective.  The project is called "The-Not-So-Blank-Page" and involves the group creating a collaborative custom "smash" journal.  Participants in the project will create two unique, original backgrounds that will be photocopied and become a part of the spiral bound journal that each person will fill between the April meeting (when we deliver the books) and the December meeting when we will have a simultaneous viewing party.

Examples of pages from the project prototype. . .

Roz's Squiggle background made
as an example for our upcoming
collaborative journal project

As preparation for this project Roz and I exchanged a couple of backgrounds via computer and I ran and had example copies made into a small prototype journal to experiment in with different art materials and to test the nature of the pages when they came in contact with water based products like paint.
I discovered that the copies took watercolor and a wide range of other art supplies fairly well.

My watercolor pear on Roz's photocopied background.
I was testing the paper and the copy to be sure both
stood up to water based journal work.

The photocopied image is very waterproof, none of the pages I worked on bled or changed due to the water in my paint and sheets only buckled somewhat after having paint applied; the image above has paint on both sides and some buckle is evident.  As you can see in the image above, the copy does resist the color, which makes very heavily imaged sheets a bit more challenging to work on than sheets that are more open or white.  I dealt with that problem by either letting the paint sit and soak in (interesting effects as can be seen in my heron page posted on Roz's blog post about the project) or by adding my journal elements on via collage (crow above, and both of the following examples).

On the left: my background made as an example for the project

On the right: my art work and collage element on the page

On the left: Roz's background made as an example for the project

On the right: my art work and collage elements on the page

Interested?  Keep reading.
How to be involved . . .

The Details:

Each person will create two separate 8 1/2 x 11 (portrait orientation) original backgrounds - 

        Work only on one side of the paper you use, do not sign your work.  Label the back of each page with your name, neatly printed and either "page A" for right handed page or "page B" for left handed page.  See the example diagram below which includes two pages front view, showing how they will be bound and a back view of each page, labeled correctly.  Because of printing limitations each sheet will lose about an 1/8 inch around all sides - be sure to keep any key elements away from the very edge of your pages.

All artwork will be photocopied for use in this project, with that in mind please keep all artwork flat and do not use anything that you do not have the copyright for in your background.  

Keep in mind that other artists will be using your page as a backdrop for their journal page at some point in the project, any element that you include can or will be covered, distorted, altered, or changed to suit the needs or desires of the new owner of the page.  All art work created on pages become the copyright of the artist who worked on the page, your background will only be your background when it is empty of another artist's work.

No pages can be removed!  We will view these together and want to see what each person does to each page, it would be no fun at all if we get to your page and it is missing!  If you make a "mistake" or really struggle with a background challenge yourself to work around it by adding a collage sheet over the problem area or using gesso to lighten a problem spot, etc.  There are lots of ways to continue to work and change a page for the better without resorting to its removal.

Backgrounds need to be complete and turned in at the March 18, 2013 Collective meeting along with a check to cover photocopying and binding costs associated with the project.  We are not making any profit on these books, we are only charging each person exactly what it costs to create the journal.  Costs are to be figured based on the number of participants x $.50 photocopy costs +$2.75 binding. (if 30 people participate the cost will be $18)

Payment is due when you turn in your artwork at the March 18th meeting, we will know at that point how many people are joining in on the fun and can give a price to all involved.  Please be prepared to pay with cash or check, made out to me, Suzanne Hughes, as I am the one who will be dealing with the copies and book production.

If you can not make the meeting but want to participate, please send your art work to: Roz Stendahl, P.O. Box 141434, Minneapolis, MN 55414. (Roz doesn't get mail delivery before the Collective on Monday so she needs to have your artwork in hand on Saturday to ensure you're in the count.) 

Mail in participants will be notified of the final cost, contacted (include email when mailing work), and will need to respond by March 19th that they are still participating and mail a check to the same address by March 25.
If you are unable to pick up your journal at the April meeting you will need to let either Roz or me know so alternate arrangements can be made for delivery of your book (potential fee for postage, pick up on Open Studio night at MCBA, or the May meeting as a last resort).


Additional information, examples, and details can be found at Roz's blog post about the project.

Making a Zine

For this month's meeting of the MCBA Visual Journal Collective, we had a zine exchange. For the exchange each artist had to create and make copies of their zine to share with the group. Now if you are confused, a zine is a tiny book or magazine that is created using a single sheet of regular copy paper with content that you as the zine artist create (for an instruction sheet on layout see Roz Stendahl's blog here).

I have never made a zine before and I found it to be lots of fun. To create my zine, I decided on a theme and then went back through three years of sketchbooks to find sketches that fit the theme. I scanned in all of the drawings I wanted to include and then sized them down to the correct size and layout in a Photoshop document. I printed these sheets on my home printer and then brought the sheets to a local copy center to have them copied as double sided sheets to use in my zine. The sheets were then cut in half, folded and stitched together with a simple pamphlet stitch.
The image at the top of the page is a view of my studio table mid-process.
My theme was "repose" and I used images of my pets and family members at rest or asleep. It was interesting to create a book out of separate images that were created at different times and I am extremely happy with the results.
I made a bit of a happy mistake when I had my copies run and I have 15 extra copies of my zine. I would be willing to trade zines with any of you who want to make your our zine. It is easy and fun and we would get to trade artwork! Just email me (sznnhghs@gmail.com) when you have your zine ready and we can trade mailing info.
More on the exchange and zine collection in coming days.