Creative explorations: Vol #3

My fun new art journal making course, plus some interesting articles on illustrated journals and note taking, and a short documentary on an inspiring abstract painter.

For this month’s edition of curated art and creativity resources, I’m sharing my latest e-course, along with some interesting articles, and a short, 3-minute documentary on 93-year old artist Dorothea Rockburne. Enjoy!

Learn: The Unbound Journal — a brand new course!

One of the things that has fast become a favorite part of my creative practice is making hand made books. Not fancy, “serious” books, but scrappy journals filled with recycled paper, under paper that's already inked up with yummy paints and marks, book pages, and even some sketchbook pages.

One of the journals that I recently put together started with a carboard box, a pile of lace and old earrings, and was inspired, in part, by my love for traveler’s notebooks. It's so deliciously tactile that just holding it and looking at it makes my heart sing! 

The best thing? I filmed the entire process — showing you exactly how I wove all of the strands of inspiration together to create a journal that is highly customizable, easy, and fun to put together.

I call it The Unbound Journal, and I'd love for you to join me in class and create your own one-of-a-kind journal. 

Watch the trailer

You need very simple supplies to put this journal together — in fact, I’m willing to bet that you already have most of these supplies in your stash! I also share a variety of different options and ideas to help you to really make this journal your own.

This class is perfect for beginners and intermediate artists. If you’ve been intimidated by book binding, or drool over gorgeously bound messy looking junk journals and cannot figure out how to make your own handmade journals, my no-stress approach to book binding will have you creating along with me in no time!

---

Read: A round-up of interesting articles to fuel your creativity

Feeding Sketchbooks, Notebooks

by

Sue Clancy

of A.M. Sketching

Every day I hear or read stuff, in real life, online and in printed forms. I make note in my notebook in a category labled “overheard/read" of something that caught my attention. Sometimes I paraphrase in my own words what I read or heard. Sometimes I quote directly with attribution. Each day in my notebook on the same page I also record 7 things I saw or noticed and I make notes of 7 things I did.

I’m endlessly fascinated by how people take notes — and not just take them, but use them. I really enjoyed artist Sue Clancy’s process of taking notes, and seeing how those notes feed her sketchbook practice.

She’s included links to a few other posts on keeping notebooks, including this one by

Ted Gioia

which is an absolute gem.

The discipline of taking notes can evolve into taking notice—which is a much higher level activity. - Ted Gioia

John Lennon’s Childhood Notebooks

by

Jillian Hess

of Noted

Continuing with the notebook theme, I really loved this look into John Lennon’s notebooks.

As he read great works of literature in school, Lennon not only copied quotations into a notebook, he illustrated them. In 1951, at 11 years of age, John created a notebook called “My Anthology.” It includes excerpts from the following works:

• “The Walrus and The Carpenter” by Lewis Carroll

• “The Inchcape Rock” by Robert Southey

• “Hiawatha’s Fasting” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

• “The Diverting History of John Gilpin” by William Cowper

• “Morte D’Arthur” by Alfred Lord Tennyson

• “Agincourt” by Michael Drayton

Filled with weird and whacky poems and limericks, quotes, and sketches, his journals are a pure treat!

Know Yourself. Know Your Worth

by

Alex Elle

of Gratitude Journal

social media and its algorithms can trick us into thinking that our art, writing, craft, and creativity suck if we aren't getting validation from likes, follows, and comments.

This is such an important reminder — numbers don’t validate your worth as an artist, though it’s so easy to get tripped up by them!

I’m also sitting with the ideas in this post, and part of my own personal enquiry of life beyond social media, of our desire for “discoverability” — because let’s be honest, if we are sharing our work online, we do want to be discovered — and how to re-orient towards internal validation (which, can sometimes be difficult).

---

---

Watch: Inside the Life of Artist Dorothea Rockburne

93-year-old abstract painter Dorothea Rockburne has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, DIA: Beacon, and many more galleries. In this short documentary, she welcomes us into her light-filled studio and shares her life-long journey as a painter.

It makes me feel that my life is a part of the universe. I have to paint. It’s like breathing. No paint, no life. - Dorothea Rockburne

---

If you enjoyed this month’s edition of Creative Explorations, forward it to your friends, or click on the button below for more sharing options!