9_29_07 journal page

This is the first page in a new art journal I started. Last year at work, one of the printers we do business with sent us a bunch of calendars. After everyone had what they wanted or could use, there were still some monthly ones laying around. I grabbed one with the thought that maybe I could use it in my art.

It had been sitting in a stack with other possible materials until I got the bug to start an altered book-art journal while Rob was out of town. The idea of taking a whole book (novel-size) was a bit overwhelming. When I saw this in my pile I was struck with how perfect it was for my mood. It measures approximately 8" x 9.5" and has probably less than 20 pages. I haven't actually counted them but there is a spread for each month and some extra information pages so it's in that ballpark. A nice number to complete over a reasonable amount of time. The spiral binding ought to allow me to add things to my pages without worrying about whether it will still close or not.

I spent an afternoon putting gesso on each of the pages, letting them dry and then putting down some color in the form of acrylic paint. It really helps the process of creating a page if I have some color to get me started. As the afternoon wore on, I got a little bit impatient waiting for the pages to dry so put waxed paper between damp pages. I ended up getting some cool effects that way.

I really like how this turned out as a booklet. The different colored tabs are fun and draw me in. I can imagine doing a little doodle or number or something on them. I will certainly be watching for extra calendars like this as the new year approaches. You can see them on the right-hand edge of the scan.

For this first page, I was pretty excited about my findings of the day and was drawn to a red page. The style of the page is similar to lots of pages I have seen. I began by gluing down some scraps of my good news and a little tree I had drawn. From there, I had the phrase "crazy good" in my mind so I lettered it on boldly. After that, I knew I wanted to write some narrative about the day so put in lines for writing on. I wrote my piece using a couple of different colored pens. The last step was embellishing the gaps. I'm really into swirls and have started adding length to them, connecting them in various ways, just playing with them. I also used my little bee stamp and some other doodles to fill the space as well as further emphasizing the bold letters. I really like how the white dots turned out on CRAZY.

There you have it!