Art & Soul 2008 Portland

I've been visual journalling for more than 15 years now and in all that time I have only taken one class which actually was even earlier than that, stamp carving. There were four people there, me, the two friends I came with and the instructor. It was a valuable class and I still carve stamps now and then. I've wanted to attend Art & Soul and ArtFest for years now and the closest I got was going to Vendor night two years ago with Bree. It's always been a problem with the timing, the money, or the distance. Another barrier for me is that I can find the information somewhere else, or figure it out myself.



In the meantime, I have joined PDX Visual Journaling Group led by Donna Bauermiller. Donna is very very gifted. Not only can she show you her growth as an artist, she is willing to. And she is one of the most natural encouragers I have ever encountered. In any meeting she will draw you out and find out things I would never think to ask. She also has a great sense of humor. I love this woman. And I have really come to love the class experience.



So, I decided I wanted to go this year to at least one class, but when the classes opened I didn't have the money and then it was too late. But someone dropped the class I wanted to take and I made it. So yesterday I took the workshop Book of the Night by Juliana Coles. Was it worth it? Yes. It takes me at least a day to determine how I feel about something, a book, a movie, and in this case, the class. I chose it because I like dark themes. I expected it to be emotionally draining. It wasn't. It was draining, I felt absolutely exhausted by the end of the class. I was quite happy to be done.



On reflection, the class isn't complete yet. There are exercises to be done yet which are in the workshop book we were given. And I've thought of a couple of my own. The other thing this class has shown me is that I need to take more classes. Not so much on theme levels as on technique levels. I found painting with acrylic to be very seductive. I don't particularly want to produce art on canvas, but I do want to know more about composition, balance, and when to quit! Or when not to. And improve my drawing skills, which I have been working on on my own. And maybe get in a bit of writing with Susan Wooldridge.



Another benefit was the swaps. I prepared 35 (gave one away at work) little packets. I knew I wouldn't finish 35 of anything, so I sorted through most of my stockpiles and whenever I found 35 of something, I put one in each bag. Eventually they filled an entire totebag. My co-inhabitant was adamant that I should return with an empty bag. I made about a dozen swaps and gave the rest away. It was well worth it. On every level. :)



And there were the benefits of interaction with the other women at our table. It was delightful. And going to the vendor sale and running into so many familiar faces? Priceless. I can't wait for next year, so I'd better start stowing some $$. I have a lone sock somewhere....

Volume 4: Grimoire

Started in 1998/1999 and "completed" in 2001 (prior to 9/11) this volume has a very witchy flavor. The book was a 500 page blank book (I removed a lot of them) and I carved a stamp and embossed the cover with it. The inside covers were covered with art paper printed with spirals.
My "audience" at this time was me and friends/daughters. I have never been a perfectionist and at this time I was still inventing the process myself, so my inner critic was well at bay and I didn't bother with backgrounds. But I still enjoy the starkness of the white pages.

The phrase "a woman of obvious power" was taken from "The Witches of Eastwick" by John Updike. There were also quotes from "Practical Magic" by Alice Hoffman.

A lot of the images I used reflected how I felt deep within. Sort of alone and floating in a misty world of possibility.

This is another example of color use and the start of images of women who don't fit commercial standards of beauty, but I find them quite luscious in their boldness.

Another recurring theme is my childhood and the objects that were important to me. The photo was taken after Christmas 1961 and developed in January -- The Shasta Daisies are blooming, I don't have sleeves or socks and that was a nice part about being a kid in California.

More magazine images I felt connected to. The 'remove before flight' tag on the broom was printed on clear label paper. I also liked images of hallways, paths, and stairs--symbolic of my personal journey.

Pink fantasies, pink marabou, pink telephones, fairy dust.

This was a perfect Spring day as I recall, and the images and poem enhanced it. Billy Collins is my favorite poet. Sometimes I did winter pages, but they never felt as good as other seasons.

Volume 3

I didn't name this journal after another type of journal. It was transitional for me, again I paired themes and sometimes colors. And I used a spiral bound photo album with black pages.

I found amazing photos to illustrate the discovery of a new life -- one lived alone which I enjoyed for 6 months, long enough to be able to share again. Then my youngest daughter, Brooke, moved in with me which I really enjoyed.

This time was very quiet and pleasant and I enjoyed white bedding and white towels and no one running around after turning off lights. In fact, I kept the lights blazing.

I've never been afraid (much to my daughters' chagrin) of color.

I also paired photos of age - preparing, I suppose. Whenever I look back on this book, I can almost hear the creek rushing by (and under) my apartment. It was a marvelous place to rest and regroup. My prior journals had been a place to escape to, this one was just a place to be.

The Commonplace Book 1997-1999

These are selections from Volume 2. I used a spiral art book with ruling on the bottom half of the page. Originally I thought I would do more writing in it. As you can see, I was still winging it without a decent paper cutter, just scissored magazine clips and rubber cement. But I started getting deeper into associations. Synchronicities began to develop, sometimes two images seemed very similar such as the women and the owls.

Other times it was all about color or no color at all-- black and white photos of fog. And exploration of passion and longing and romanticism.

I was reading Possession by A.S. Byatt, devouring poetry, watching Portrait of a Lady, The English Patient, and the Mirror Has Two Faces. I also was bitten by the Opera bug.

Other passions I had at the time were music - it was the time of Lilith Fair, Enya and Loreena McKennitt. Also exploring Oregon's emerging microbreweries. And ending a 25 year marriage.

Volume 1 1993-1997

My first art journal which I titled "Comfort Journal" because that was what I intended it to be. You can find the definition in "The Woman's Comfort Journal" by Jennifer Louden. It started in late 1993 with two Nick Bantock postcards given to me by Todd Allison who I consider to be my personal muse. It was a lined blank book with a cloth padded cover and it splayed out because of all of the things I attached. The photos above were clipped from a magazine article about McMenamins Edgefield where I had spent an afternoon with friends and spent a deal of it wandering the grounds while I read a long letter from a 6 year correspondence with a mad poet from West Virginia. It all felt marvelously 19th century romantic. The first quote is from "Possession: A Romance" by A.S. Byatt which is still my favorite book. The word "quiver" is from a lexicon I was creating with my good friend Roadside Rosie. This entry is from 1997. The Anais Nin quote: "We don't see thing as they are. We see them as we are." still rings true to me.

When I review this volume I am carried back to a time when my life was changing a great deal and I first felt its spiral. It contains quotes, dream symbols, poems, lists, photos, recipes, tickets, stickers, rubber stampings, labels, cards, movie stills, questions, maps, envelopes, a scan of the woman on the cover of Poemcrazy, copies of antique photographs copied at out of library books, fortunes from Musee Mechanique in San Francisco, bits from magazines, quotes from books I read, bits of gift wrap, used postage stamps and probably fortune cookie fortunes, which I personally find to be the most reliable form of divination.

These photos show a recurring symbol for me, the spiral, whether it is the inside of a nautilus or the curve of a stairway. I like to assemble repeating patterns and this is probably when I started doing that visually. At this time I had begun to recognize that parts of my life I had thought outgrown and discarded were coming back into my psyche. And that was a huge discovery for me.

I finished this journal and began my second Summer 1997. So it took about 4 years. It was very sparse to begin with, but I would go back through and add things as I discovered them. I did not know anyone who was doing anything similar at the time, so I wasn't influenced by anything beyond the written descriptions of journals such as the Comfort Journal.

Daydreams

Reclaiming the guest room. Well, space, actually. I have to get the bed together and leave room to walk and clear spaces. So far, I've found more things to do, projects to fondle, and things to coat with Golden Matte Medium. This room is a fright, especially with things drying on waxed paper all over the wee bit of floor that there is. Last week I sorted out a bit of the garage to finish sending Bhride's boxes and managed to locate quite a bit of fabric I'd forgotten about but it's so luscious I had to bring it in. My current fantasy? Having an elementary school classroom for my very own. How marvelous it would be to have a teacher's desk for my pens and writing things. All of those huge windows and counters and shelves, and 20 or so small desks to leave projects on. The cloakroom to fill with boxes. The chalkboards to keep reminders on. The bulletin boards to attach things to. Mail on one, photos on another, etc. The sink! The reading table to spread out large selections of things on. Good sturdy wastebaskets. An overhead projector to enlarge patterns with. A tile floor. And all of that glorious space. (Let's not think about asbestos...) That was fun, now back to my cloakroom sized room...

Hunter Gatherer

Yesterday was a gorgeous not-too-hot day. In fact, it was the sort of summer day in which one would usually open the windows and let the breeze gently waft through, that is, if one didn't live half a block away from major road construction. So Gryphon and I ventured out. We went to one of Portland's lovely little neighborhood shopping districts, Nob Hill, aka 23rd Street. I left all of my usual trappings at home (camera, purse, journal, etc) and just went with a hat, sunglasses, a couple of dollars, a pen and a piece of paper, previously written on and covered with wine spillage.

I was wearing a skirt with large pockets.

We walked, admiriring marvelous old houses and many tiny gardens, windowshopped, discussed the madness of short sleeved sweaters for women -- now displayed with arm socks, visited favorite shops, drank pints at McM's Ramshead where I wrote a short note for my journal (now glued in). I put a quarter in the Bad Karma Newsbox and selected a rolled up strip of glossy blue paper entitled "genuine photograph of heaven 1999". I don't know how many of these newsboxes exist. I think there is one on 21st street as well, and the first time I saw one was in front of Higgins which now has a retro newsbox with past newspapers in it. What we didn't see were any filled horse rings, another random-acts-of-art-in-Portland feature. I adore this city. By the time we were tired and ready to go back home, my pockets were bulging with "art supplies". Those little music posters, free stickers, advertising postcards, art booklets, a weathered (and expired) poster for an event that I pulled from a telephone pole. I want to make an entire book of those.

I've been reading Janet Marillier's new book, Wildwood Dancing, based on the fairy tale, the 12 Dancing Princesses, in which the narrator/protagonist, sews a special pocket onto her gowns for her pet (and undoubtedly ensorcelled)frog to ride in. I could have used a frog pocket for my gatherings. Gryphon is well behaved enough that he probably will never need it, but it might be useful.