1991 journal, some pages ripped out, the remainder painted gold and stitched 
shelf of hard cover journals 1994-2004I have kept journals for years. Family life, art ideas, and notes on what I was reading filled them quickly. In December, I started going through them, transcribing the text into my laptop and disposing of the actual jouranls. I've burned three, another I tore up and used in collage work.
They are like the stitched resist I talked about in my last post. I've spent so much time writing, now it's time to un-write.
shelves of journals 2005-2010
Once I have you looking, I'll let you in on what I'm thinking. Because I am thinking.
13 comments:
I also re use my journal pages (although I don't have anywhere near as many as you). I scan my pages and print them out in various modes to be used in other art work.
You might be interested in a documentary call 51 Birch St. In it one of the subjects of the documentary (the documentarian's mother) kept journals (written) for more than 20 years. It deals with the personal nature of some journals and what might happen to those journals after you have gone.
I love your blog and your work, btw.
How wonderful to have kept a record in that way Judy. I have kept journals sporadically but not since I started blogging. I suppose this is a sort of journal for me.
Actually, it was wondering what would happen to these things after I'm gone that started all this. There are way too many - probably 300 or so - and I'm starting with the ones that are NOT beautiful black hard cover, but any old notebook that I could pick up at the local drug store.
I think my children will treasure them, but there is a limit to what people can store in their houses.
judy this so relates to my book addiction, but my sketchbooks/journals are far fewer. i, too have purged things i'd rather my children not find. and i am very messy with the older stuff. the books that really matter are the artists' books, and a few collections of poems. bad poetry but mine.
I don't think I'd be able to bring myself to do it! When I go back over my past scribbles and sketches in my journals, I love being able to open the book, feel the paper, see (and hear!) the spine coming apart because so much stuff is glued in, touch the actual words I wrote and perhaps touch again the emotions I was feeling when I wrote them. Mind you, I don't have quite as many to deal with...I have enough problems with all the other stuff I hoard! :)
Thank you - I enjoyed looking. I'm interested in what you're thinking...
Very, very brave to actually dispose of some of your journals. But also very wise. I often think of what we leave behind and how it could be a burden (emotionally as well as physically) to our children.
well we are thinking the same thing in a way....
i completely believe in purging. i usually only kept one journal a year (i was hoping the blog would in some way replace journaling by hand) but wrote very small in pencil. going back through them there's not much i will keep. especially since quite a bit of it was about ex boyfriends.....
i love the photos in this post
What a graceful way to unwrite them!
on my last visit to the US my mom handed me a stack of my journals which spanned 10 yrs (age 13 to 23). There is also a limit to how much a person can bring with them overseas...
Now that my mom has gone I would love to have her journals to dip into.....though 300 is quite a lot. Great idea to use journal pages or excerpts in your art.
I just started keeping journal less than two years ago and love looking through them, so your step to dispose of yours feels incredibly brave to me. Though un-writing and re-using offer so many new possibilities.
I'm, more of a "re-writing" person when I go through my journals - adding bits of information to that existing alongside sketches done. A building since demolished, a person who is no longer there. It's just adding to the story. I've also started to upgrade the colour of what I perceive to be wishy washy sketches of earlier days. They do say, a painting is never finished ........., and that is true of a journal too.
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