I've written a handful of blogs about my art but I haven't necessarily covered the story of my art. As an Artist who is trying to sell a piece of my heart, I want to be known and to tell that story.
I began making journals late in 2012, November-ish. My first journal was an experiment. I saw these journal-making kits in a craft store, which came with bookboard, the binding, the cover paper, and the pages. They didn't have the tools included. I was at a point where I found myself running out of notebooks and wanted something special to replace them. I am the kind of person who is always writing things down. If someone recommends a book, or a restaurant, or an event, or a band, I write it down. If I discover something I want to buy but am uncertain about, I take notes so I can look it up later or remember it. I pretty much always need a notebook in my purse. I didn't want to spend $15 on a kit to make a journal with a cover I wasn't keen on, so I decided to look for materials on my own.
My first journal was made out of a stiff bookboard with a cover of deep blue with gold bodhi leaves. I still have it (I mean, it's only 6-7 months old). It's running out of pages but I intend to refill it when it does. Since that first journal, I have made about 30 hand-stitched journals, and I am about to make about 100 more. I'm trying to build up a good inventory so that I can sell in stores, plus I need to fill some custom orders.
I decided to take journals seriously in January of 2013. To make a long story short, I had reached a point in my life where not being creative was physically and emotionally painful. I realized that I needed to honor the Artist spirit in me, because I had been pushing it aside for a long time, for many reasons, some good and some bad. I grew up around art and creativity and creating has always been a part of my life. My mother is an amazingly versatile artist who has made clothes, jewelry, pottery, soap, candles, preserves, cooked and baked food, oil paintings, watercolors, quilts, and other art. I got her crafty gene, which just never quits. Somewhere there is a photo of my mom, her mom, her mom, and I all crafting together. Creating is a family trait. I also have four brothers, all of whom are amazingly creative people too. They all draw very well, and in completely different styles. One brother is a good actor and voice-actor, another has done some amazing logos, another creates playlists and is a radio deejay, another is a club deejay and also creates these hilarious knitted coasters that say "F*ck You." In my short life, I have drawn, painted, made jewelry, embossed leather, sewn quilts, made amazing collages, and sewn and hand-embroidered/beaded pillow covers, in addition to the stuff I am now doing.
Like my mother, I see a craft and I learn how to do it. Learning new skills is what keeps life interesting for me. All of my favorite jobs have included a learning component, and despite my deep loathing of homework, there's a reason I went so far academically, which is that learning is fun for me. I'm not the best at everything. For instance my paintings were pretty grim. My pillow-case business survived one art show and then fizzled out. It's a work in progress. I am a work in progress. However, paper crafts are an area where I shine. I first began working with fine papers in 2009, crafting trinket boxes for storing things in the house. It's been great fun making trinket boxes, and I think they are a seriously underestimated commodity. My latest paper project is making landscapes and pastoral scenes with fine papers. It unites my talents with paper and my talents as a collage artist, and gives me an outlet for my pastoral-landscape-loving side.
A big part of where my art comes from, be it journals, skincare, or scarves, is a belief in a softer side of life, where small luxuries are appreciated. I am a big fan of microluxuries: the little things that add a personal touch, that add color and brightness, that soothe the eyes, and that appeal to the senses. The modern world is very hard and geometric. It's full of smooth, straight lines and flat, unyielding surfaces. I like to think of my art as being like a powder puff in a container of scented talc. It's soft, feminine, old-fashioned, glamorous, and kind. It slows you down in a hectic world. I get inspired by nature, and by culture. Most of the papers I work with come from Asia, and that's no mere coincidence. The papers made in Asia are made from a mindset where beauty is highly valued, especially the beauty and brilliance of nature. These papers are the bright magentas, turquoises, golds, blues, greens, silvers, and reds that I work with. They have floral patterns, vegetal patterns, patterns taken from nature. The colors are unapologetically vivid.
While I can appreciate a pastel or something sleek and neutral, nothing excites me more than color that is alive and vibrant; purples that bleed out and browns as rich as freshly-tilled soil (or freshly-melted chocolate, yum!) My journals and trinket boxes reflect this more than anything else that I make. I consider the journals the core of what I do, because they are also about inspiring creativity in others. The second journal I ever made was for a writer, to inspire her to write more.
In the skincare, I've gone for clean, fresh scents, and of course, it is all-natural. The honey-hibiscus lip balm is luscious and shiny, and I used honey and hibiscus because they are rich in flavor and scent, Mother Nature's mouthwatering best. The cuticle/all-over balm has rosemary for a clean and gender-neutral scent.
With the scarves I chose cool blue batiks because hot summer days demand coolness and soft, breathable fabric.
The magnets are a different kind of art, stemming from a deep joy. I love and cherish my refrigerator magnets, and they are to me the kind of microluxuries that exemplify quality of life in little things. You can have a staunch, boring fridge with bills, to-do-lists, and magnets you picked up from your credit union's tent at the whatever festival, but that's boring and sad. I aim to create happy little pieces of art that hold up whatever needs holding up on your fridge door- and hopefully make you smile whenever you go to the fridge. The magnets are less personal for me because I try to make them appeal to a broad audience. I am currently working on some more styles and hope they make my customers as happy as they make me. I won't say what they are but I will say they are inspiring and uplifting.
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