1000 JOURNALS...AND ME

Greetings, dear readers!

I told you a post or two ago that I was going to talk about the 1000 Journals Project and show you some excerpts from the art journals I've created over the years. I just heard an interview with the director of the documentary on BlogTalkRadio. Andrea Kreuzhage, is an amazing film director, and her love for artistic expression is what prompted her to take on the 1000 Journals project in the first place.

An artist, intentionally calling himself "Someguy" sent 1000 blank, black journals "into the wild" with no rules, no directions. He wanted to see what people would do with the spontaneous opportunity to create. Someguy explains his rationale for the project:

How it Started:

"I've always been fascinated by what people scrawl on bathroom walls and in public spaces. I had been taking photographs of this writing for years, and wanted to put together a book. It seemed appropriate to encourage readers to become contributors, and join the conversation by writing in the actual book. From there, I decided that a blank book might be more fun... especially one that traveled around, to gather a variety of thoughts and opinions. And then, why not 1000 of them? It's such an absurd number.

The project officially launched in August of 2000, with the release of the first 100 journals in San Francisco. I gave them to friends, and left them at bars, cafes, and on park benches. Shortly thereafter, people began emailing me, asking if they could participate. So I started sending journals to folks, allowing them to share with friends, or strangers. It's been a roller coaster ever since."

Needless to say, I was fascinated with the project and have been following it's progression for several years now...hoping, wishing, one of the famed journals would end up in Southern Illinois. No such luck. However, I loved the idea of "no rules" art.

I have been inspired by such artist/writers such as Sabrina Ward Harrison and SARK. Both are incredibly talented, spiritual, gifted women who are learning to be okay in their own skin. SARK (an acronym for Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy) jokes about having to overcome the need to take a nap mid afternoon. She finally found freedom to nap...and when she did, she wrote a book about it. It's one of the most liberating books I've ever read!

While reading SARK's book: "Change Your Life Without Getting Out Of Bed: The Ultimate Nap Book" I began to find PERSONAL freedom (always feeling the need to be productive) when my family and I went to Florida and toured the home of Thomas Edison. We saw his laboratory, and there, in the corner of this amazing historic room, was a cot and doggie bed. The tour guide said that Mr. Edison took an hour nap every day...usually at 3:oo p.m. He said he was MUCH more inspired POST nap!

And so, I was inspired to begin writing. And drawing. And generally creating with no rules (I've no DOUBT my love for collage and 'no rules' is what led me into the AltAred Art realm in the first place!) I have kept countless journals ever since. Lately, I was SO excited to look through my journals again and see the emotion, thoughts and feelings that I was experiencing at the time. I've learned a few things about me while looking back through all of my journals...a few themes seemed to recur:

1. I am incredibly inspired by nature.
2. I am far more creative while experiencing solitude.
3. I get "in touch" with both my creative and spiritual self while involving myself in art.

4. I am (can be) ocassionally profound.

5. I am a deep thinker, deep feel-er, and create with a great deal of emotion.

I would challenge you, dear reader, to look back at your scrapbook pages, journals, art, whatever, AS A WHOLE ... do kind of a retrospective...and get a feel for themes that you find that tend to show up again and again. It's enlightening, I tell you. Here are a few pages excerpted from my first EVER attempt at an art journal. If you take time to read a few of the entries, you'll see that the majority of them have a 1999 date on them. Several were a year or two later. (I tend to use the same art journal til all the pages are full which messes with the chronology I realize, but eh...I'd rather not be wasteful):

As you can see, I'm big into lists...or...collages of words. I LOVE writing with color! I've whited out things I thought might be too personal or names that I don't want blabbed all over the net. The pictures are otherwise exactly as they were in my journal. There's more, pencil sketches and such, but this has become an incredibly long-winded post...More tomorrow!

Peace Out!
XOXOXO



Paula Clare