What I Do

What I do is I journal. With paper and pencil I am happy anywhere. It is my sanctuary - where I can sort through all the flotsam of the day and decide which of those things really matter to me. We all have too many demands on our time; the journal is the place where I go to find my answers, set my goals, regret my errors and continue on. It clears my head for what comes next.

Before I write on each page I have usually set the stage with an overall colorwash of acrylic. Over this I experiment. It will always be an experiment involving the media I am currently involved with. For a long time it was bits of collage from the day to write over or around. Inkjet photos of daily events. Oddities I found on the web and liked. Napkins from restaurants or momentos from travel. It helped me place the entry without looking at the date on the page.

More recently it has been a vehicle to deconstruct my dreams and my past and to explore the ways I can apply that to the symbolism in my work. It takes a lot of time and deep reflection to discover what lies in ones heart and to encode that into an image. But what a joy when it can be accomplished. It's habit forming; the love of that 'high'. And it is your gift to your self.

This page is one I did last night while experimenting with graphite and acrylic. I was thinking of the Joanie Mitchell song, "The Hissing of Summer Lawns". It will be written over too in the coming days. I like to look at it an see my progress. It is the beginning of something but I don't yet know what that is. I love having that, or any, strange image to becken me on. It is like a mysterious whisper from off-stage.

Only one more day before the Artfest schedule is posted. I can feel the excitement.