Sharon Michaelson (left) and Toni Newman (right) working on their journal pages, October 20, 2012.
I had a great time with students Toni Newman and Sharon Michaelson in my October 2012 collage journaling workshop. Toni, a professional speaker who specializes in innovation as a competitive advantage in business, wished to expand her creative side to include visual journaling. An experienced journaler and budding artist who’s dabbled in mixed media, she describes herself as being both an organized and creative spirit. Although she had never collaged before (except on Pinterest: a great collaging tool), I instinctively felt that she would be a great collagist because of her skill set and personality. Sharon, a former bookkeeper, also a very creative soul, knit the very socks she wore to class! An experienced collagist and tole painter who also works magic with colour pencils, she’d never journaled before and was interested in learning more about the craft as well as loosening herself up artistically.
Toni Newman proudly displaying her first collage journal page.
The Benefits of Timed Journaling…
One of the biggest beefs about journaling I encounter is how little time students have to incorporate it into their daily lives. So I feel it’s important to show them just how much they can accomplish in a modest amount of time. During the workshop students made two collage journal pages with daily ephemera materials they’d collected. I timed the creation of each page; one at 30 minutes and the other at 20. Limiting time for the creation of a page is a great way to challenge one’s sense of control; in split seconds one must choose key images, arrange and adhere them … there’s precious little time for over-thinking composition. I’ve found the best strategy to deal with this is to totally trust your gut in helping you to create. Going into a kind of “stream of consciousness” style of choosing and laying out images and words will also help. Letting ideas spew or “spill”* forth from yourself is totally the aim. Far from being an exercise in perfection; this method tests your faith in yourself and your ability to trust the knowledge and experience you have hidden inside. Now it’s true, that this may not always result in a “masterpiece” of a page, it will most certainly expose precious insight into your psyche as well as your ability to express yourself. The best part of the process, as many of my former students inform me, is the feeling of satisfaction they get upon seeing their completed journal pages and personal stories emerging from them. Now on to Toni’s and Sharon’s pages!
Toni Newman, 30-minute journal page (Flashback), 5 x 7 inches, October 2012
Flashback…
I was worried when 20 minutes into our 30-minute session, Toni hadn’t even begun to assemble fragments onto her page! When I informed her she’d better get some composition going, she dazzled me by instantly corralling some fragments together. Toni’s love for warm colours shows through the pieces she’s chosen as does her vibrant, inquisitive personality through the words (“who knew what?”) on a florescent green tag. The latter, along with the bird’s head peeking through, and the play of letters of the word “Flashback”, also reveal her brilliant sense of humour and wit. Giving the piece a personal edge she included an image of a rubber-stamped butterfly, a symbol of her late father (she told us a beautiful story related to this) which completed the page. This latter element, along with the nostalgic image of the man unravelling the woman’s skirt, made me ponder what personal stories lay behind the dynamics of this blast from the past. It’s a wonderful first visual journal page.
Toni Newman, 20-minute journal page (A Dream), 5 x 7 inches, October 2012
A Dream: Real or Imagined…
During her 20-minute session, more acquainted with time restraints, Toni swiftly chose several elements which “spoke” to each other brilliantly. A photo of two dreaming children**; a map fragment; a stamped dragonfly tag; a postage stamp; a luggage claim ticket and foreign texts, all work to indicate an intriguing journey of some kind… whether this journey is real or imagined I don’t know… perhaps it’s a dream… or a dream within a dream. I wondered if the children referenced her own. I love the way the pieces at the bottom of the page encircle the dragonfly tag below them … and the way the arrow-like map drawing signals the children (the heart of her tale) out as her focal image. Toni describes herself as a story teller and I feel this second page, created in virtually a blink of an eye, shows she has the skills and the intuitive sense to be a great visual story teller. I really felt a kind of stream of consciousness style at work in the making of this page.
Sharon Michaelson, 30-minute journal page (A Lover's Retreat), 5 x 7 inches, October 2012
A Lover’s Retreat…
In Sharon’s 30-minute session, I learned she was a daring journal maker! I admired her for choosing fragments not only from her own collection of daily ephemera but also some challenging ones I’d included for students. Using commercial and natural elements (a leaf she’d pressed), she melded the two into an intimate space. Her use of the image of embroidered lettering added a soft, feminine touch to her page. Sharon’s strong composition skills are also evident. Note the way she beautifully integrates not-so-romantic textural fragments like a grocery bill and the inside of an envelope into her piece… leaving spaces for the eye to rest and consider the idyllic scene. She skilfully uses the image of the angled bench to draw the viewer’s eye into her romantic vista. What pleases me most about this page is the story behind the making of one of its elements. The fluttering butterfly in the top-right corner emerged from a mistake Sharon made. Her first stamped impression of the insect didn’t take. Instead of lamenting this mishap, she decided to double-stamp the image. Now rather than being static, the butterfly appears to move giving the page a spark of life. It was such a dazzling move on Sharon’s part! It’s in moments like this, when we realize every mistake is an opportunity to try something new, that we can begin to grow creatively. As we reviewed Sharon’s finished page, Toni and I noted the elegance of her imagery and compositional style… her second page further revealed these as being important markers of her visual voice…
Sharon Michaelson, 20-minute journal page (Timeless Beauties), 5 x 7 inches, October 2012
Timeless Beauties…
Sharon’s 20-minute page yielded another wonderful lesson. More accustomed to working at a slower pace, carefully considering cutting, tearing and composing each element on her page, I felt the shorter time limit proved challenging for Sharon. Deciding to work with a few images, she spent the bulk of her time re-positioning them in interesting ways. A stunning trio of beauties; bits of hand made paper; fragments of an Asian newspaper; a strip of artificial green diamonds and a rubber stamped star design convey her theme of pin-up girls through the centuries. When the session was over, however, Sharon felt something was missing from her page so we three brain-stormed what that might be. I mentioned it might need a good pop of colour… perhaps red? We all agreed. Toni handed Sharon a red sticky star which Sharon reluctantly picked up… let’s face it – we don’t always think of the sticky stars we got in grade school as precious imagery we’d use to accent eternal beauty! But, one had to admit, its red hue was alluring. The wheels in Sharon’s brain turned; she picked up the star and had a rush of insight… she placed it at the centre of her rubber stamp design completing its star shape – giving it a nice modern edge! The ladies high-fived each other in triumph while I watched happily, regretting I hadn’t captured that beautiful Kodak moment on camera! This is why I promote journaling in groups – we can learn so much from each other and become more daring with the gentle nudges and quirky creative ideas of fellow journalers.
Toni Newman (left), Michelle Casey (centre) and Sharon Michaelson (right) celebrating the end of the workshop!
It was a great class – I learned much from Toni and Sharon and look forward to seeing their future journal pages! Thanks too to Toni’s urgings I’m now finally on Pinterest… I invite you readers to join me there as well! Yay Diane and Wendy – I finally stopped procrastinating!!! My Pinterest Page
Bonus Messy Tip: Loosening up takes time and much courage to develop, so I suggested Sharon read Keri Smith’s activity book “Mess” along with recommending workshops with one of my favourite expressive visual journaling artist Juliana Coles.
* Note: Diana Trout also uses the term “spilling” in her book: Journal Spilling: Mixed-Media Techniques for Free Expression… lots of great ideas in this one.
**Note: This stunning image is from a postcard of Jonathan Hobin’s “Attic Urchin’s” Exhibition held in Ottawa in the fall. For more on this see Jonathan Hobin’s website.
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