From Trash to Treasure: Revisiting an Old Art Journal

In a recent "decluttering" expedition in my studio, I stumbled across an art journal I filled in 2003. It's a 5x7 inch wire coiled hard cover unruled journal with around sixty pages. The paper was high quality, so I decided to experiment with water color paints and some text. Compared to my usual style, these paintings were very "loose" and were done while I was sitting on my porch in at the part observing nature.

I've always hated this journal. Not the journal, itself, but what I did to the poor thing. Even though I was satisfied with the fact that I filled it with a month's worth of art, I wasn't proud of the pages or anything else about the contents of this book. It went with me everywhere I went (I didn't use my favorite watercolor medium pencils, but rather cakes and brushes) and it kept me inspired to create on a whim. That's all it did, though.

So, away this book went into the shuffle of mish-mosh I have floating from one part of my studio to another. Over the years, I've moved several times and, with each move, I've contemplated throwing it away instead of packing it in a box. I didn't, though, and this decision to keep something I really didn't like baffled me. Why was I holding on to this thing? It's trash.

I forgot about it over the past two years until stumbling on to it the other day. I looked through, as I've done so many times, and still didn't like what I saw. What was I thinking when producing these pages? Why didn't I get into detail with this, why did I just blob the paint on with that, why did I write about absolutely nothing of interest of there? The questions poured through my mind as I revisited this time in my life when things seemed as simple as the pages I was creating in this little book.

Then it occurred to me exactly WHY I was holding this book in my hand. This book wasn't finished. Yes, the book was FULL . . . but it wasn't complete. Okay, this brought on a flood of inspiration, thoughts, ideas and concepts. My hands started hurrying through the book as I looked at each page with a new set of eyes. It was amazing. This revelation of unfinished-ness.

What was I holding? Simply put: the bases for more creation. My simplistic brush strokes, blobs of paint, uninteresting text and lack of detail (though, no white was showing on the paint filled pages) provided the perfect back drop for more interesting work. I could collage, create found object assemblage art, create "altered book style" pages, create interesting text entries with mixed media elements . . . my goodness, the ideas wages on faster than I could write them all down.

My first step was to layer something over each and every page. Something simple that I could jump off from was what I had in mind. So, out came my favorite black gel pen. I love this thing. It's ability to create a "sharpie style" look without bleeding through the page is what keeps me grabbing for it time and time again. With this pen, I swirled doodles over every painted page. I love swirls and doodles. Not only are they fun, but they provide that sort of "instant gratification" I was looking for when working these pages.

Before I knew it, this book was transforming into something different. I couldn't believe how different each page looked just by adding ONE new element. The rest of the day was, of course, shot because I wanted to work in this book. Out came the magazine clippings, old book pages, rubber stamps, distress ink, hole punches and handmade envelopes. Where's my glue stick!? Once I had all my "tools of the trade" in front of me (along with my scribbles in my notebook - I'm forever forgetting ideas, so I have to write them quickly in my idea notebook), I was ready for a day of creation.

This is still a work in progress, but it's no longer trash. Looking at this book in a different way brought on a new appreciation, new inspiration and new gratification for work I had already started. I tend to wonder if there are other things I've thrown out over the years that could've been transformed into something better? See, this is why I don't like throwing things away. Now, when people ask why I'm keeping such a silly (or ugly) thing, I can use this story as an example is EXACTLY why.