100 in 100, Day 29

self portrait in the studio
pastel, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 28

self portrait in the studio
zig pens, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 27

self portrait in the studio
zig pens, crayola erasable colored pencils, prang metallic brush pens, pastel
9x12 inches

I wanted to start with the really thin line of a marker, but I didn't have the patience to make it work for the whole drawing, so I dumped out my art supply bag and scribbled and smudged until the paper cried for me to stop.

100 in 100, Day 26

self portrait in the studio
twist-up crayons, 9x12 inches

Well, the girls love drawing with the pastels. So while they were working with pastels, I went into the studio with their twist-up crayons to try my luck!

100 in 100, Day 25

self portrait in the Hollywood room
(quick sketch, showing the girls some of the marks pastels can make)
pastel, 9x12 inches

This is all I've got to show for yesterday. I had intended it to be a beginning, but never got back to it after yesterday morning.

Wreck this Journal, Week 4

Still making pretty things, I drew a picture on the cover.

Even my ugly drawing turned out kinda pretty.
(click to enlarge)

Since there were so many photographs of the wrecking I've been doing this week, I made a slide show. I don't know how to do anything video-fancy, though I have been inspired by some other folks' great videos to learn, so this is just a silent slide show...

I bought the girls each their own copy,
and their way of saying the title, Wreck This Journal,
rechristened mine, Wreckless Journal. I like it.

I love how different both girls are. The 8yo, as we left the store, kept saying, "I can't crack the spine. I don't want to wreck this book." Meanwhile, the 6yo was taking every opportunity to toss it and flap it.

Here's the 6yo drawing with her pet worm.

Here are both girls playing with cocoa.

The 6yo gleefully adding some jam.

I am still attached to this little book that I bring everywhere. We are having so much fun together. I have made a lot of art and a lot of mess, and I have been using it as a journal. I did tear out some of the things that I had been keeping attached like the airplane and crumple pages, but I made a little pocket in the back and stuck them in there, along with some other things I've torn out. I decided to stop keeping track of the order that I've finished pages because that got too boring. Wrecking with the girls has also brought out the crayons for me, so I have colored over many pages.



This is definitely a fun summer project for our whole family.

100 in 100, Day 24

self portrait in the studio
pastel, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 23

self portrait in the studio
pastel, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 22

self portrait in the studio
really old, gummy oil bars, 9x12 inches

Deep thought

If this is the alternative, wouldn't you rather have wrinkles?

100 in 100, Day 21

self portrait, after 10pm
prang metallic brush pens, 9x12 inches

I keep planning to switch to tree portraits, but I've gotten in the habit of sitting down to draw at night after the girls are asleep. I will have to make a new habit of going tree hunting by daylight.

100 in 100, Day 20

self portrait, after 10pm
pastel, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 19

Update: a better photograph in the morning light

self portrait, after 10pm
pastel, 9x12 inches

For Rowena

Flying Girls over the City
by the 8yo

My daughter has fallen in love with Rowena's Flying Girls. When I picked her up at school yesterday, she had made three flying girls and a city skyline. I put the three of them together over the city for this photograph to say thank you to Rowena for inspiring us to create art.

Wreck this Journal, Week 3

Did Jamie say "attachment"?? Well, yeah, that's an issue! That's why I mailed my journal first thing--to let it go. Of course, now that we're reunited and making art together, the attachment is even stronger! My daughter has already asked me if this page--the first two pictures below--will be my favorite page that I give away (I think she has her eyes on it :-)!

This is the tear this page, rip it up.
I ripped strips, then weaved them to themselves,
When I saw that the next page was glue/tape these pages together,
I ripped it, too, and wove and glued them together.

front

back
I also cut out the text and glued it to the next page.

I slept with the journal and this is where I found it in the morning.

I cut through a bunch of pages, but since I'm still choosing to make art from my destruction, I cut out a figure and glued the cut-outs back in on different pages.

(1)
I tore this page out and it's in my jeans pocket awaiting a wash.

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

For the crumple page, I decided to crumple an oval, then tape it back in.

For the wrap something page,
I chose to wrap all the pieces that I've cut or torn out of the journal so far.

I can keep adding them as I tear more.

A view of my crumple page, my paper airplane, and my package of wrapped scraps.

Yeah, I burned it. I'm glad I read about other people's experiences first,
so I was at the sink with the water running before I lit the match.

My dinner, documented.

In order to get the page in my mouth to chew it,
instead of just biting the edges, I tore a strip, and chewed that.

I had been neglecting part of the purpose of this book. I have been enjoying the wrecking, but I hadn't been using it as a journal at all. In an attempt to combine both, I'm choosing to use my write one word over and over page to write the word "peace" whenever I need a moment's peace.

Peace.

Another ongoing project is documenting a boring event. I am using someone else's idea of numbering the pages by when I finish them. The wrecking and creating are not at all boring, but the page numbering is. So this is where I will document it.

page numbers so far

I tore out and attached the Lose This Page so I will have more room for my page numbers list.

I plan on covering the text with blank paper as my way of losing it.

As you can see, I am still very attached to my journal. I haven't swung it and hit walls, I haven't dragged it behind me on a walk, I haven't dropped it from up high, I haven't asked anyone to do something destructive to a page. Perhaps I'll face those challenges in this coming week. For me, just finding all these new ways to make messes that make art has been freeing and rewarding.

100 in 100, Day 18

Update: Photograph by day light. The true colors are somewhere in between.

self portrait, after 10pm
pastel, 9x12 inches

100 in 100, Day 17

self portrait, drawn with my left hand
pastel, 9x12 inches

This one drove me gently crazy. Local color makes me get too fussy. I had to break down and grab the green.

100 in 100, Day 16

self portrait, drawn with my life* hand
pastel, 9x12 inches

This one I started at 11pm! I've got to try some daylight drawing again soon. I also have to figure out where the white balance button is on the camera, because I've gotten in the habit of posting an inaccurate photograph in the evening, then taking and posting a better photograph the next day.


*a freudian slip that I'm leaving in--while I was trying to post this new photograph, the 6yo was yelling at me from one room, and the 8yo was yelling at me from another. I was having a hard time concentrating, apparently.

100 in 100, Day 15

Update: a slightly more color-accurate morning photograph.

self portrait, drawn with my left hand
pastel, 9x12 inches

I'm still having fun drawing with my left hand, and having less fun trying to get a photograph that shows accurate colors.

100 in 100, Day 14

Update: new photo
taken this morning by daylight
it's a little closer to actual colors

self portrait, drawn with left hand
pastel, 9x12 inches

Well, maybe I am ambidextrous. This is the second one I've drawn with my left hand. The way to make marks is different with my left hand, and the way my brain communicates with my hand feels different, too.

I have noticed that the camera, taking these photographs at night by incandescent light, warms up the colors quite a bit. The colors, especially the skin tones, are much cooler greens in the drawing.

100 in 100, Day 13

self portrait, drawn with my left hand
pastel, 9x12 inches

Just for fun, I tried a left-handed portrait. I also restricted my palette to only blues.

Here's some music by request, not quite blues, but 222-blue...

Wreck this Journal, Week 2, Part 2

Though we often draw while waiting in restaurants, doctor's offices, etc., we have recently started a new routine: one of us starts a drawing with some squiggles, then passes it to the next person, who adds something and passes it on. We go around and around making the picture until we all decide it's done. Here are two we did at dinner last night.






After the girls finished eating their tiny kid burgers, they were still hungry. So while they were waiting for the second round, they wanted to draw. Since I was still eating, I didn't want to get out the sketchbook and my fancy pens, because I didn't want them to get wrecked!!! Of course you know what idea came to me then! I pulled out my Wreck This Journal, and looked through for the right page. I was trying to find the "draw an ugly picture" page, but when I came upon the ink blot page, I handed the book to the girls and told them they could Draw. In. The. Book. With ketchup! Then, we would close the book to make a print. They were delighted to help wreck.

I love that the mom and her daughter at the other table are watching!

The girls got into the finger painting aspect of it,
so the print is a bit faint, but still, some beautiful wrecking!

They really want me to get them there own books to wreck. I'll have to see if I can find two more copies in town. It seems like the perfect summer fun.