Journals!

One of my stuffed journals :)

"To lose a passport was the least of one's worries. To lose a notebook was a catastrophe." -Bruce Chatwin

I attended a virtual lab on book binding last night on Etsy, and one of the presenters had this quote on the inside of one of their journals. I think it's perfect in defining my attitude toward journaling/sketchbooks.

I started really journaling when I was a high schooler & the majority of the pages were filled with teenage angst. What a world! hehehe. Now days I keep a journal handy for any snippets of inspiration I need to put down on a page before I forget them. I use them as records for photographic information, for example exposure settings I used for a certain frame. I also tend to dedicate entire journals to projects I'm working on. I put all sketches, ideas, polaroids, information, and literature into the journal so I can quickly reference anything I need to bring a concept to fruition.


I am definitly a person you could define as someone w/ a wander lust, and I travel as much as I can afford. When I am on a trip I'm addicted to writing in my journal. I love taking some time at the end of my busy adventure filled day just to write down what was going on during the day, do some sketching, write down some ideas to test when I get home, and paste in some photos. The journal to the below features time I spent in New Mexico, Utah, & Colorado. I really feel like journals can be finished pieces of art, & I have scanned journal entries, sized them up, & used them as full size images. But my journals have been primarily totable records for myself, little individuals treasure troves that I can go back to years later and see what I was thinking & where I was.

Journals are also places where I can write, draw, paint, and explore without edit. I don't have to worry about who's going to see it (b/c usually I'm the only one), I don't have to worry if the image I've pasted in is perfectly cropped, color corrected, and ready to print. I can freely put down ideas & don't have that little voice in my head that asks "Is this right? Is this too out there?" Although most of the time I try not to worry about the answer to either of those-try being the operative word. One of my favorite sketches is the sketch I drew of my hand. I was sitting out on an old wooden porch attached to an adobe art studio in Magdelena New Mexico. The group was being led through a discussion about how to do Modified Countour Drawing. I was so intent and focused on creating the likeness of my hand that I zoned out the teacher! When I came back to real life the class had moved on and I had this lovely drawing. :)

I happened upon a whole collection of featured sketchbook artists on one of the websites we mentioned in our "Favorites" list: Book By Its Cover http://www.book-by-its-cover.com/category/sketchbooks/. There's a whole archive of artists who've been kind enough to open their journals to all the artsy people of the web. Very inspiring!! I love how each journal is so different yet very alike in their goals. Beautiful beautiful work.