Tuesday, September 26, 2006

More about my Art Idea Journal...

I know that is possible some of my readers may be wondering why I am writing all this about my art idea journal. The answer is a simple one, I desire to capture the experience and be able to look back years from now and to be able to remember how it felt when we {all of us who participated} were going through the process of it all.

I want to include those feelings, the anticipation of a journal being in the processes of the postal system and knowing that yet another is one its way to me, and to capture the excitement of seeing one of them within my mailbox --- eg. in an huge envelope or priority box sitting on my porch. I want to capture the excitement and the sigh of relief that I experience as I realize and say a prayer of gratitude that not one of them was ever lost of misdirected. It isn't so much about my own experiences either, it is in the knowing that 16 other artists experienced the same thing and interpreted the experience slightly differently. Also, I can honestly say that if a survey or questionaire was formed that asked each and everyone of us if we'd do it again, knowing what we know and have experienced throughout it all, that I believe the answer would be a reasonating, "Yes!" Sort of like the angels in the heavens, singing, "Halluelah! Halleulah!"

It is this that I desire to look back upon and remember. It is the excitement, the wonderment, the astonishing feeling that another artist's artwork reasonates within each of us. It is in the magic of all the possibilities that travel through your mind when you see one or all of the techniques and know that you will one day desire to create it and use that knowledge within your own artwork. In fact, that has already been done! In a recent post on the byhand group, one of the participants, Yogi, informed me that she has used the Whimsical Writing alphabet and technique that I've provided within these journals on some of the artwork that she recently created. It is that feeling! that I contributed to the knowledge of another artist and that the technique will live on and on in another artist's artwork that makes this journey a bit more special.

Another reason is fear. Fear? Yep, fear. The fear that if I don't capture those feelings now that somehow they will be lost and never remembered with quite the same clarity that I am experiencing now. And as my own art idea journal makes it way home to me, I am beginning to think and consider how it will be bound and I've decided that within the pages I want to capture the essence of this journey and the journals by including this information. Why? Because one day when I am no longer on the face of this earth and as my family goes through all my worldly possessions, they will one day come across this journal. I want them to know how special this project was, how much it meant to me, how much planning and work and a piece of each artist's heart that has poured out upon its pages, and I want my grand-daughter Alexxis to have it and to know the love, the caring, the concern that went into each of them. I hope she finds that within those pages and not only cherishes the journal for what it is but somehow finds some amazement in the knowledge that there 16 more journals, similar to mine, out there being enjoyed somewhere in the world. Who knows maybe she'll be excited enough about this project to one day wonder where the remaining 16 of them are and do her own search to find them; not the journals themselves, but the relatives of those of us who participated within them. You got to admit that it is a wonderful concept!

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