Thursday, June 18, 2009

Wreck This Journal Week #3 (and Creative Every Day)

This week I worked on doodling and coloring and marking up my introduction pages.......



This week I worked on doodling and coloring and marking up my introduction pages.......




I also did the BURN THIS PAGE page with my woodburner...tried to burn holes in the paper....and the words "I'm On Fire" which was really hard to do and I pretty much burned it up. Oh well. I used the black from the ashes to mark the background and liked it so well I went back in and added more black. I will do the page opposite it too next.



I had a BIG entry here....and now it is gone. Oh well....I will start over again.

This week I worked on doodling, and coloring, and altering the introduction pages of my journal. I also did the BURN THIS PAGE page (see above).

This week has been a welcome creative outlet for me. I guess I am still struggling with the "WRECKING" part of WRECK THIS JOURNAL (as you can probably tell). I have looked at other posts and see where everyone is interpreting "WRECKING" as "DESTROYING" ...or at least that is how I am taking it. I don't look at "wrecking" as necessarily destroying.....whether creatively or not. I look at "wrecking" as more like "creatively altering" ....I imagine even for me that will be hard enough to accomplish each week.

I looked up the word WRECKING in the dictionary and found synonyms of "TO DESTROY, TO DEVASTATE, TO SHATTER" and I am having a very hard time accepting that.

I have very little time in my life to have any creative outlets. To PURPOSEFULLY turn around then and DESTROY any of my creativity or work WOULD be shattering to me..which I guess is the "WRECKING" part. BUT also on the other hand.....just marking this book up even with GOOD art is DEVASTATING TO ME. I mean it goes against everything I have ever done! SO isn't that WRECKING for me?

I don't know. I am thinking the WRECKING part of WRECK THIS JOURNAL will be very different for many of us....it will be the way we PERCEIVE it to be. What may be WRECKING to one....will not be to another. What I am doing so far is wrecking to me. My goal all along was to WRECK this journal (alter it) but in a creative/artsy way.....even when I rub dirt on the page that says to rub dirt on it. I will do that.....but then I still want to try to make something GOOD out of the BAD! SO I imagine when I RUB that dirt on the page I will add and embelish and use other methods to then create something "creative" and "pleasing" to my inner being.

Does that still qualify as wrecking? I think it does....because I did the wrecking part....but then I took it a step further.

I am starting to get a headache thinking this through...but I will continue to think on this. I am sure this also is a reflection of my life in general and how I always want to make even something BAD into something GOOD. Yes...I can see that....because in my mind even I am never quite GOOD enough...you know? I could always be better....my work could always be better...my art could always be better.....so even if something is crappy...I always want to bring it up a notch on the standards of what is "acceptable" or "pleasing" to the eye. MY eyes...others' eyes...

hum.......this journal may be opening my eyes

IN MY HEAD: ("Oh there's a dab of dirt there you can't remove? Well let me see if I can make a tree out of it!" Make it look like something else....something MORE than just a dab of dirt. Is that wrong? Am I obsessive compulsive....have I been a recluse too long and have nothing better to do with my time? I don't know. The biggest part of me does not think so or see anything wrong with this way of thinking.) I guess I am a fixer....UPPER.....

but this journal is about tearing down.....

so I struggle...I want to tear down first......and then build back up. In my mind I justify the wrecking part that way I suppose....cause I wrecked it....but then FIXED it....

man...now I need some Tylenol

16 comments:

Kara Chipoletti Jones of GriefAndCreativity dot com said...

:) I'll share that tylenol with you! I did messy stuff this week finally, but haven't brought myself to do truly destructive stuff yet... aiming for some of it this week, but we'll see.

Happy wrecking to you -- however you decide to define "wrecking"!!
k-

Nellie said...

Gosh Melinda... You said everthing that I've been thinking through this last week. I had such a headache, and heartache, about the "wrecking" part, that I actually put my journal back on the book shelf!

Not sure if it's going to be a permanent move or just until I have more positive thoughts about it.

I like that you "fix" after you "wreck". Your pages are wonderful and are an inspiration.

Barb:-)

Snap said...

Your wrecking is very pretty! :D

l said...

beautiful art!

Sherri said...

Wrecking is a surprisingly difficult thing. Even though we are defacing, sometimes it is still pretty. I think that's okay. Maybe the further we get into this process the easier it will be to truly wreck. Love what you've done so far.

gma said...

Your pages are awesome!!!! Yay!

Kristin - The Goat said...

I really like those intro pages that you did. Fantastic!!

Rose said...

I agree with you. Having wrecked my journal, I want to fix it. Personally this is fine. I am redefining my rules for this book as including fixing any damage I do in order to make it so I like it....

Genie Sea said...

The beautiful thing about this book, this process and this group is that there are no rules.

Each person will wreck in his/her own way. One can take a drill and drill a hole into the whole book and someone else will poke holes with a knitting needle and draw patterns around it. They are both magnificent destruction!

I love your embellishment!

It's ingenious to smear the burned page with the ashes. :)

Anonymous said...

Very cool. Very creative.

Paz

Anonymous said...

....because I did the wrecking part....but then I took it a step further.

I like how you think!

Have a nice weekend, and keep the creativity alive.
-elin-

Melissa said...

I had no idea what this was when I saw you write it on Facebook until I looked it up on Amazon. I think it looks like fun. I might have to buy one and give it a whirl!

Heather Plett said...

You're making a beautiful "wreck" out of it!

You'll be surprised how good it feels when you let go and get really destructive. It took the urging of my kids to help me get to that stage. Now there's no turning back.

Jamie Ridler said...

There's a lot of stuff in this journal wrecking, isn't there? It's amazing what gets stirred. Yay you for stepping past your boundaries to create in your book!

I really hear what you said about having the time for your creative outlets. Everybody's landscape is different. Just like with your own bodies, only you can decide what a good stretch looks like for you. There's no supposed to's here - only sharing our adventures.

I'm glad you're here.

Barbara Martin (@Reptitude) said...

You really truly are "on fire" with this wrecking thing. How wonderful to have a safe place to experiment!! Wreck on!!!

Melinda said...

thanks for all the visits and comments and encouragement and insight!