filmed 05.14.09
This video is a peek into how I work in my visual journal. It took a little under an hour and a half for me to complete, and I sped up and edited the film so you can watch the whole thing in 10 minutes. I did not plan out what I was going to journal about–I work as I normally do, just letting come out what needs to come out without censoring myself or being concerned with the final product. I’m not trying to make a piece of art because the process is what’s important to me.
I positioned the camera so that you could best see the journal while I worked, which meant you couldn’t always tell what my hands were doing outside of the journal. This doesn’t affect the video or watching my process other than you can’t tell at times that I’ve applied gel medium to a piece that I’m gluing down, or that I’m dipping my paintbrush, watercolor pencils or crayons in water.
The materials that I used in this piece are gesso, Golden’s Heavy Acrylics and Golden Fluid Acrylics,
watercolor pencils and crayons, crayons, Portfolio Watersoluble Oil Pastels,
markers, pens, rubber stamps (both hand-carved and stamps from my line of art rubber stamps that I sell), and ephemera (a self-portrait, an incense box, and a candy bar wrapper).
I frequently receive questions about how I am able to write on top of paint, so I will answer here to keep from getting deluged with more questions about it. I can write on top of my painted journal pages with just about any kind of writing tools–pens, markers, etc. The key is to not apply too thick of a layer of paint. As you will see in the video, I use several (sometimes many) light layers of paint. That is better than one thick layer. If you can’t write on your page after painting, the paint is too thick, or maybe try something different to write with.
The large alphabet stamp I used is Blind Melon, the stamp I used for the lines is from my Journaling stamp sheet. I also used a monkey stamp and a hand stamp from my Evidence stamp sheet.
The music that is played while I’m working is recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations, all from the Conet Project created by Akin Fernandez. The mysterious sounds and voices are believed to be encrypted messages from short-wave radio stations operated by government agencies as a way to communicate with spies. Just like my visual work, I layered many different recordings from the Conet Project to create the final soundtrack. Many thanks to Akin Fernandez for allowing me permission to use these recordings in my video. You can find the Conet Project here.