Art Journaling is one of my favorite explorations
so I was thrilled to see this was the theme for Northwords Creative Writers Adult Retreat. What a fun day! Jesse Dafoe led us through some writing exercises, which we later incorporated in the visual aspects of the journal. Mo Hamilton, Prince George artist, shared a variety of techniques for building up our pages.
I found a magazine article on Gardening in Winter, which became a theme for my explorations. I cut out a few paragraphs throughout the article and created Blackout or Erasure Poetry, leaving only the words that I wanted to form into the poem. It is a great exercise as well for writers block when you are looking for an extra source for inspiration.
One of the exercises that Mo shared was creating positive and negative images. I love how the snippets of poems work so well with these images.
From the many books provided I chose music sheets from a discarded guitar magazine. This became the background to add found words, mark making, texturing, photo transfer, and stencils
From these pages I created an Accordion Book.Here are the front and back pages.
What an amazing team effort (Jess Dafoe – Terrace Public Library, Melanie Wilke- N.W.C.C. and Anna Beddie- Misty River Books) for creating these yearly camps; I believe this was the 13th annual. As well, what a fun day with Artist Mo Hamilton. You can find her working at her studio above Books and Company in Prince George.
Happy Creating!
Well I wish I’d been there too.!
You’ve done an amazing piece there Joanie! You’re so able to run with inspiration and then to pass it on!
👍🏾💚
It was amazing to watch your process. I saw you pondering the sheets of music, but I had no idea what was gestating in your fertile imagination! Your book is beautiful, Joan. Thanks for sharing your process.
It was great to be part of the process, seeing everyone’s interpretation including your own, neighbour creator.
Thanks for sharing the step-by-step images – it really brings the process to light. Of course we can’t see what’s going on inside your head, but this brings us pretty close. Gorgeous.
Thanks for your appreciation Sheila, words and images are such a great relationship