The Traveling Art Journal Project - 2016

Acorn painting the cover of my traveling journal.

For the past year, I had toyed with the idea of starting an art swapping circle of some sort. I love making art, but I'm running out of places to store it all, and I love other people's art, but lack the funds to buy it. And don't have a lot of space to store it. ;)

So, I opted to try out a traveling journal circle. I invited my friends who work in any form of 2d art - writing, painting, collage, recipes, doodling, you get the idea - to join up and invite a friend. In the end, I gathered 18 participants including myself, which feels like the perfect number to have this work out in a year's time.

We've had a few snags here and there with communication, but for the most part, so far so good. All the journals are still accounted for after their 3rd mailing and that was my biggest fear. I can communicate with poor communicators, I can spot money to have journals sent on if I need to... I cannot replace it if it's lost in the mail. So, fingers crossed we've ironed things out in the talky talky department and that the postal gods see all of our journals safely to all 18 of their destinations over this next year!

If all goes well, maybe I'll organize a 2nd round in 2017. I'm not a born organizer or space holder, so this is a new, sometimes trying, growing experience for me. I'm a little bit of a control freak, so this is a good exercise in letting go to a certain extent, as well.

I'm currently working on my 4th journal (including my own). My journal has the theme "Exploring the Feminine", another journal had the theme "intentions and wishes for 2016", and the last two were artist's choice.

If you're in the project and don't want to see spoilers, avert your eyes! ;)

The cover of my journal after Acorn finger painted it.


The page I did in my journal before sending it on.


Page from the first visiting journal, which was artist's choice. This was the same week David Bowie died and I couldn't get space or the Starman out of my head.


Detail of one of the pages I did in the 2nd visiting journal, with the theme "2016 Intentions and Wishes." This was an extra page I did in the book, I neglected to take a photo of my main spread. I had written down my wishes and intentions, then painted and oil pasteled over them.


This is the 3rd visiting journal, which showed up yesterday and is another artist's choice. This is the 1st layer of paint and some pencil doodles. It's still fresh, so we'll see where it takes me.

This has been an excellent way for me to keep the intuitive painting juices flowing without the time or energy needed to complete large pieces. I haven't felt much like hanging out in my studio, I started an 18 x 24" canvas the week that Bowie and Alan Rickman passed as a way to work through the grief of losing two of my favorite artists. But it's been in a state of somewhat completion for a bit and aside from that, I've been happier working on smaller stuff these days.

While a part of me is pouting over this, for the most part, I'm just accepting that this is how I need to create right now and embracing it.