Visual Journal Page 22: Happy Accidents

Accidents are an inevitable part of everyone’s life. Whether the accident involves cars, glasses of milk, or mysterious moving tables, they are always waiting just around the corner. In my twenty-six years of life I have witnessed quite a few accidents and I have noticed some people seem to find accidents more easily than others, and I fit in the more easily than others category.

I hate to admit it, but I am clumsy. Grace is not one of my descriptors, and I blame it on my impatience. I like to get things done quickly, and to do this I have to ignore small details, such as table corners, and each and every step in a set of stairs. In addition to my already clumsy nature, I also bruise very easily, which isn’t a winning combination. I am constantly riddled with bruises, bumps, and scraps, I worry people think I am anemic or being abused.

Walking can sometimes be a task, I trip over slightly uneven pavement, cracks, and roots. I wish my feet and my eyes would work better together. My only hope is that some innocent bystander gets a chuckle out of my trips, stumbles, and falls. I can imagine them walking behind me, taking in the show of my flailing arms, and my quick crowd assessment afterwards to see if there were any witnesses. I know I have had my fair share of chuckles on other people’s part, I tell myself I am simply returning the favor.

I warn my students from the beginning. If they fall in class, I will laugh first, and then ask if they are okay. They know what they are getting themselves into when they attend my class.

In addition to the physical damage I unintentionally cause myself, my impatience and clumsiness also affects my art and projects in general. I want to get things done, and I want them done now. This means in my haste I am continuously dropping paintbrushes, screws, hammers, tape, glue, or whatever I am currently using. This also means my art bag is loaded with random pens, scraps of paper, and other miscellaneous junk, which I randomly shove in with plans to use it later.

Which brings me to the story of this page, the bleeding tissue paper incident.

I was trying to get everything packed up quickly. It was a Friday, and I was wasting little time getting out the door and on the road home. I had grand plans of great production over the weekend, I knew many journal pages would be created. In addition to my planner, visual journal, magazines, scissors, water bottle, glue,  and book pages, I also added a large stack of bleeding tissue paper. I had visions of beautiful pages being formed from the tissue paper I carefully selected for my weekend project.

Combining the water bottle and tissue paper is where I went wrong. Really, the not tightly screwed on lid of the water bottle is where I went wrong, but my impatience doesn’t allow for those details.

As I gathered my things and headed inside I realized my art bag had a large, damp area on the bottom. I quickly set my things down, and began to inspect the damage. To my relief my journal was water free, but as I moved closer to the bottom of the bag, I realized my beautiful tissue paper was ruined. The water created a large splatter right in the center, and the colors of the layers melted together, and into the fabric of my bag. My bag was a mess, my visual journal plans were done, my bleeding tissue page would not be complete this weekend.

Or so I thought.

I carefully laid the sheets out to dry, thinking I could salvage the edges, if nothing else. I later returned to them, and took a closer look. They were actually beautiful. Interesting shades of gray with hints of the former color swirled in the center of the blues, pinks, and purples. Without knowing what I would do with them I carefully cut out each water stain. As I layered the accidental works of art together inspiration began rolling in.

From time to time when I bump my knee, trip over an invisible step, or accidentally spill even more paint, I have to remind myself, you never know what may come from even the worst accidents.

SUPPLIES

• Visual Journal
• Rubber cement
• Scissors
• Bleeding tissue paper
• Water
• Masking tape
• Sharpie

HOW TO

This page was an accidental work of art. I took an unfortunate accident, which caused quite a mess, and turned it into a visual journal page. If I were to recreate it I would stack a few layers of different colored tissue paper, pour water on top, and allow them to dry. By doing this you are causing the colors from the various layers to bleed into each other and create a tie dye look. Since this accident I have used this technique many times. I love the way the colors come together, and I love the semi-transparency of tissue paper when it is glued on top of words.

Once I had my tissue paper shapes cut out, I played with the layout. I decided the shapes weren’t enough, I wanted something else in the page. In the past I had used strips of masking tape to highlight areas, and decided it would work well in this page. It was a neutral color, and wouldn’t compete with the already colorful shapes scattered around the page. I also liked the contrast of the organic blobs with the geometric lines the tape created.

I switched between gluing tissue paper, and laying down the tape, until they were intertwined and overlapping. Once I was satisfied with the layout I added the words with sharpie.

CHALLENGE

Have your own happy accident and experiment with layering bleeding tissue paper and adding water. Try to return to your art class days and consider the color wheel. Complimentary colors will create browns and grays (blue/orange, red/green, purple/yellow) while primary colors will create secondary colors and nice blends (red/yellow=orange, blue/red=purple, yellow/blue=green). I also like to mix tertiary colors, or colors next to each other on the color wheel (yellow/green, red/orange, blue/green, blue/purple, etc.). Have fun and enjoy some color theory!

Visual Journal Page 22: Happy Accidents

VIsual Journal Page 21: Field Trips and Flying Cats

The High Museum of Art is an Atlanta staple for me. As a child it was a place I frequented with my family, which helped mold my artistic taste and encourage my artistic pursuits and obsessions. As this museum has watched me develop from a child into an adult, I too have watched it through it’s growing pains from a single building, it’s slow stretch across a plaza, an into a space twice a large, to bring us even more amazing artwork to feed our souls.

I discovered new favorites with every exhibit and even hidden treasures within images I had seen countless times. The High Museum is at least an annual visit for me, and I look forward to what I will find next every time I go.

As an art teacher I long to take my students into the city, up the winding ramp of the museum, to share actual, in front of their faces, physical works of art. Unfortunately, with a country in recession, these “frivolous extras” are no longer viewed as needed, and I am forced to come up with alternatives to museum visits. Despite this, my fellow art teacher, Morgan, and I were determined to get a group of students to a museum at some point that year.

Our initial goal was to take our advanced art classes on a museum visit before the end of the first semester. After looking into bus booking, tracking down substitutes, and administrative approval, we quickly discovered there wasn’t enough time to pull it together. Plan B was to find a way to get our art club together an upcoming weekend, which meant giving up a Saturday to chaperone students at a museum, but it was something we felt the students needed.

Our weekly art club meeting rolled around, and we excitedly presented our grand plan: We would all meet at the High Museum of Art on this particular Saturday to enjoy the surrealist creations of Salvador Dali. We were going to get these kids out of their small town bubble, into the big city, and fill their souls with art. Going into our grand presentation we were worried about the number of students we would have, how we would handle them all between the two of us, what kind of crowds we would be dealing with on a Saturday in downtown Atlanta, but it turned out we didn’t have much to worry about.

We didn’t really consider the logistics of how the students would get there. We naively assumed their parents would be more than happy and willing to drive the kids to a day of learning, to help their children expand their knowledge and cultural understanding of the world. But, many parents in our district work weekends, only have one car, have multiple children, and didn’t have the time or means to transport their child to the big city.

Our grand plan museum visit turned into a small gathering of Morgan and I, plus six seniors and one junior. As much as I wanted to have more students attend, I was okay with the small group. The kids who were truly passionate about art found their way there and we enjoyed good discussions and amazing sculpture and paintings. Because it was such a small crew, once we we were about to bust at the seams from the incredible images, we ate lunch together in Little Five Points before parting ways.

I may have sacrificed a much needed Saturday, and break from teaching, but I was able to see another side of my students, I got to see my kids outside of their school bubble, in the real world. I have to say, what I saw and heard was impressive. They were as touched by the range images, from flying cats, to deeply religious paintings, as I was. The depth of their comparisons and discussions truly surprised me. My audio tour headphones ended up around my neck, barely listened to, as I roamed through the rooms, eavesdropping, catching sentences here, and words there, my students’ impressions, which were far more interesting than a prerecorded history lesson.

Later that year Morgan and I did get the chance to take our classes to the Georgia Museum of Art, over fifty high school students flooded the halls of Lamar Dodd and the museum. But nothing beats my Saturday, with my small bunch of kids, spending a day with Dali.

SUPPLIES

• Visual journal
• Rubber cement
• Scissors
• Magazine images
• India ink
• Paintbrush
• Laser printed image
• Packaging tape
• Water
• Museum tour sticker
• Museum brochure

HOW TO

For this visual journal page I was determined to create my own surrealist image, to reference our day spent inside a surrealist’s mind. Because the actual High Museum building is such an iconic and nostalgic image for me, I made sure to include it in the page, and that was where I started. I began by lightly drawing the museum in the center of the page. Once it was drawn out, I took India ink and painted in the lines, and filled in the windows and shadows. My mom gave me a tip awhile ago, that I constantly rely on when drawing and painting buildings, if you use a ruler to make one line straight, you have to use a ruler for the entire thing. But, if all the lines are slightly off, they will come together and work as a whole. I rarely use a ruler when drawing or painting.

Once the museum building was set I moved on to my sky. I ripped up pieces of blue from magazines and glued them down. I also took pieces of yellows and oranges, and did tape transfers of them (to read how to create the semi-transparent look of a tape transfer go here) and layered them over and in between the blue strips.

From there I moved the the middle and foreground. I knew I wanted to include and image of Dali, and his iconic mustache, and I found the perfect image in one of the High Museum brochures. I cut it out and glued it down. I also wanted to include images from his artwork, and I proceeded to print image after image, do a few more tape transfers, and play around with the placement until I was satisfied. Because there were so many different images, it took awhile for me to get everything to work together. Remember, it’s better to lay everything out first, and then start gluing down to avoid ending up with an unsuccessful collage you can no longer move around.

Once everything was set I realized I didn’t have space for our group picture, which I planned on including. Everywhere I place it, it became overwhelmed by it’s surroundings. Finally, as a last resort I placed it on top of the museum building, thinking to myself, this will never work, it makes no sense, this is a ridiculous spot. But, to my surprise it was perfect. Not only did the curve of the building fit with the curve of our stance, but it tied into the surrealist image I created from the surrealist images I saw that day. As soon as I laid it down, I knew my page was complete.

CHALLENGE

Create a page about your last museum visit, even if it was ten years ago. If you have never been to an art museum, go. Consider this a double challenge to get yourself in front of actual works of art, and reflect on it in your journal. If you have absolutely no way to get to a museum, do some research, find a good online museum that peaks your interest, and explore. Find new favorites and expand your artistic knowledge!

Thanks for visiting! Please help me spread the word by liking, tweeting, digging, e-mailing, sharing, commenting, and subscribing!

Your email:

 

 

VIsual Journal Page 21: Field Trips and Flying Cats

Visual Journal Page 19: When the Winter Winds are Blowing

A fireplace was something required in the house Nick and I bought. I was willing to compromise on the front porch, kitchen size, and number of bathrooms… but the fireplace was a must. Fires soothe and warm me. They provide endless entertainment as I gaze into the dancing flames. Winter isn’t complete without a warm hearth battling the chilled air. I held out on a house until we found a house with one in it. My winter would be complete this year.

It’s funny how certain things stick with you as you grow from child to adult. Certain things find ways of hanging on, reminding you they were included in your childhood memories, and should be included in the formation of your adult memories. It’s strange how they appear, as if from no where, and force their way into new traditions.

The first Christmas Nick and I spent together I sat down one afternoon and began wrapping his gifts. I carefully folded each edge, creased the paper just right, attached the bow, and stuck the tag underneath. I grabbed my pen and began filling out tag after tag, on the one to many gifts Nick got that year. Halfway through my task I had to pause, rather than writing To: Nick, From: Whitney, I was writing things like To: My Hub-a-Dub, From: Your Wifey or To: My Snookums, From: Your Snickers… ridiculous… What was I doing? Where were these names coming from? We really aren’t a pet name couple… what was happening?

It suddenly dawned on me. Memory after memory of Christmas after Christmas revealed itself. My parents, with their piles of gifts, reading off the most ridiculous names they could come up with to put on their presents. Of all the Christmas traditions I could’ve repeated, this is the one that stuck, wouldn’t let go, and inadvertently pushed itself straight through my arm, into my hand, and out my pen. Despite my initial shock, I have given in, it felt right, and this is year number three of ridiculous Christmas tag names.

Like Christmas pet names, fires have stuck with me. Every winter season my Dad would build us real, no gas, actual wood burning fires. He would send us, bundled up, out in the cold to collect the bucket worth of kindling required for our fire entertainment. He would carefully shovel out yesterday’s ash, place the kindling, stack the wood, and stick newspapers beneath his creation. We would battle over who would get to light it, until we finally compromised to each light one side, and watched in anticipation as the three starter points moved towards the center, and converged on it’s meal.

It was tradition to have an all day fire on Christmas day. Dad got it started before we even woke up in the morning, and it lasted until we went to bed that night. Tradition. Once the season was over, Christmas blues and opened presents were all that remained. But, the fires continued, with an added bonus, a branch of Christmas tree piled on top, to provide us with crackling, snapping, popping, excitement for a few minutes, before another piece of Christmas was gone until next year.

Nick has filled my fire Dad needs. He comes home at night, fills his arms with wood, carefully builds his pre-fire wood pile, although I don’t argue with who gets to light it, and he makes me warm. I lay in front of the fire, snuggling with my puppies, watching a movie, and reminisce about fires past. I watch the flames repeatedly lick the wood until it melts into ash. I love how the colors transition from blue, to red, orange, and then yellow. I love the tingling heat that hits my face as I slowly approach, until the heat pushes me back, I give in, find my spot just close enough, and enjoy the memories that swirl around with the heat and flames until they tickle my face and remind me why I love this tradition so much.

SUPPLIES

• Visual Journal
• Scissors
• Rubber Cement
• Hot glue gun
• Glue sticks
• Poster board
• Tissue paper
• White paper
• Book pages
• Water color
• Latex paint
• India ink
• Paint brush
• Gesso

HOW TO

This page is very complex, and I love it because it took time, it looks three-dimensional, and it looked amazing when I finished. I decided awhile before I create this page that I wanted to make a page about my love for fires. After sitting around one Saturday afternoon, procrastinating, I finally took out my book and began brainstorming. I was sitting on my sofa, staring at my fireplace, when I decided to recreate the room in my book. I would put the wall our TV is on, on the left side page, and the fireplace on the right side page. As soon as I had my idea, the details began to quickly fill my head. I decided I would challenge myself this time, and try to make the fireplace look three dimensional.

I began by ripping up old book pages and gluing them down in the book to create a background. I then sketched out my room with a pencil. The fireplace is set back from the wall on the left of it, so I made sure to make it look like that in the image, by paying attention to the perspective. Once I had it drawn out I started on the fireplace. I cut small rectangles out of poster board to create the bricks. I wanted it to be three-dimensional, and this gave it just enough thickness to do that. I made sure the bricks were the same size, and once I had a good stack, I began gluing them down. I spaced them slightly apart, and made sure to stagger them. I used hot glue to attach them to the book page. I wanted it to look exactly like my fireplace, so I turned the bricks vertical above the fireplace opening, to imitate the pattern. Once the bricks were all glued down I started on the mantle. Our mantle is relatively ornate, the wood staggers in and out, and has a nice linear pattern. Again, I wanted it to be perfect, so I cut a wide piece of poster board for the base, and slowly cut thinner and thinner strips, and stacked them on top of each other. Doing this imitated the building up look of our mantle.

Once all of the poster board was glued down for the fireplace, I dipped tissue paper in gesso and carefully placed it on top. I wanted everything to look like one piece, and by covering the rough edges and spaces, I was able to get that affect. Before the gessoed tissue paper dried, I carefully pushed it into the spaces between the poster board, in order to keep the detail showing. Once it dried I took water color and painted the bricks with a gray shade to imitate the look of my fireplace. I left the mantle the white color of the gesso.

Once the fireplace was complete I started working on the background. I drew and painted the candles, flowers, and paintings above the fireplace. Once they dried, I cut them out and set them aside. I also splattered watercolor on a separate sheet of paper, and cut it out, to create the flames of the fire. I drew the molding and floor, painted it in with watercolor, and outlined it with India ink. I decided in order to really make this look like our living room I should paint the walls in the book with the actual paint used to paint our actual walls. I watered it down slightly and painted latex paint in my book. Once it dried I began gluing down the paintings, candles, and fireplace flames.

To finish off the page I used India ink to write the words, using a small paint brush. My fireplace page took hours to create, but it was worth it in the end. I love flipping back to it and reminiscing about the work put into it and all of my fireplace memories.

CHALLENGE

Create a page about one of your family’s traditions. It can be holiday and season related or not. Consider everything from popcorn on movie night and pizza on Friday to going to the same beach every summer. Have fun!

I hope you enjoyed today’s post! Thanks for taking the time to read about on of my favorite traditions, I hope you will pick up an old book and give journaling a try! Help me spread the word about visual journals by tweeting, liking, digging, tumbling, stumbling, and everything in between. As always please comment and subscribe!

Your email:

 

Visual Journal Page 19: When the Winter Winds are Blowing