Moleskine Monday #1

Today's pages in my altered art journal, are both dedicated to a project i'm working on with a friend.

"snail mail"

"Snail mail makes me happy" - mixed medias.
Pretty self-explanatory page: I've always been into snail mail, and receiving and sending letters makes me happy like only a very other few things do. During my second year of middle school, since I was fluent enough in english to be able to write a whole letter, I started having many penpals all over the world. One of those, a girl from Canada, is still currently my pen pal, and I consider her one of my best friends, even if we've never met. We've been writing to each other for 9 years and I'm pretty sure I can claim to know her better than many of my "real life" friends, and the same is for her. Apart from her, for a reason or another I've lost contacts with all the others, and only recently I've started looking for new people to exchange letters with.

Inspirational Sunday #1

To inaugurate my new blog schedule (see sidebar >) I decided to start by doing an 'Inspirational Sunday', since this week keywords have been inspiration & brain storming.

source (x)

source (x)

#5

The first - completed - page in my new Wreck This Journal that I've been able to do so far, bacause of the Uni stuff I had to do and the rush to complete and send the sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project, is the 'bring this book in the shower with you' page.
I was a little uneasy about taking a shower with it.. Infact, with my first Wreck This Journal I tried to figure out a way around it, and in the end I put it on the shelf in my shower and I only barely squirted some water on it with the shower jet. The result wasn't really outstanding. The watercolors I used were of very poor quality, and they didn't really dripped on the page as I was expercting them to do. Anyway, the colors dissolved in a pretty pastel shade, so I didn't mind too much.

#4

So then: my entry for the Sketchbook Project 2012 is finally complete and I felt like ranting about it.

Quick recap about what is the Sketchbook Project: after signing up for the project and paying a *little* sum of money, the Brooklyn Art Library sends you a blank sketchbook which you're supposed to fill in according to a theme you've chosen at the moment that you joined it. Once your sketchbook is complete, you send it back at the Brooklyn Art Library and it will be collected along with all the other participants' sketchbooks and be exhibited to the public. (There are still a few sketchbook available if you happen to be interested; click.)

#3

A year ago, I stumbled upon Wreck This Journal for the first time. Probably like half of the people who sees it for the first time, I was a bit confused about its purpose. Long story short, I googled it and a flash of inspiration hit me; it had to be mine. Being a bookworm and a desperate wannabe artist it was the perfect union of everything I love. As soon as I ordered it, I already started planning in my head all the amazing thing I could have done on the pages, all my ideas seemed like pure gold and I was beyond excited to start working on it. It wasn't long until I could finally have it in my hand and it was the same moment when my mind went completely blank: all my golden ideas turned out to be predictable and boring and for some unknown reason my creative boost faded away. My poor WTJ got dusty on a shelf for a while before I was able to work on it being fully aware of what I was doing. (Yeah, I know. Sometimes I tend to analyze things too much - but I hate sloppy things, I can't help it.)

I could honestly write a book about how amazing WTJ is and as stupid, obvious or whatever it may sound, on how deeply it changed my approach on art and creativity. I owe a lot to Keri Smith and this book; I've always loved art and such things, though I abandoned this passion during my life due to lack of inspiration and a very low self confidence. If lately my drawers are getting filled with art supplies and my sketchbooks have few blank pages left, it's also largely thanks to them. (Having a lovely super supportive boyfriend is not bad either!)

This WTJ has been my loyal companion for a little less than a year, and now that it's complete I feel like a part of me is missing. However this feeling won't last long since I already  have a brand new WTJ that awaits me, yay! I'm afraid I developed an addiction, but I regret nothing.