1000 Journals Project

1000 Journals ProjectThe other day I met my friend Sharon at San Francisco’s Modern Museum of Art to see the 1000 Journals Project. In 2000, an anonymous SF-based artist began leaving blank journals around the city, each with a message inviting participants to draw, paste, rip, or write on its pages, and then pass it on when finished. Some of the completed books have made their way back to him, and he’s displayed the results on a website, as a book, in a documentary film, and now a museum exhibit. At the exhibition are several actual journals viewers can page through, as well as reproductions of many spreads. There’s also a table covered with pens, crayons, markers, scissors and magazines, where visitors can contribute to several on-going journals.
Last year I started a journal with the idea of making a collage a day. I kept at it a few months, although not every day. It never got easier — I hoped that I’d find them relaxing to make, but I often wasn’t able to find time in the day and constructing them seemed too much like a chore. Sharon suggested I try again, and even bought cheap blank books for both of us to use. One of her ideas is to incorporate found objects, using the found thing as a jumping off point for the collage.
What did I think of the exhibition? Looking at the pages I was struck by how messy they seemed to me and how all my own work is tidy and mostly on grids (or a least lined up) and so much more constrained and you might even say uptight. Maybe that’s why I give up on paper journals but surprise myself by continuing to blog. The blog/journal entries are neat and orderly and that all important constrained thing — which suits my temperament.

4 thoughts on “1000 Journals Project”

  1. Sounds like an interesting show. As to you and journals and messiness….well… time to purchase that laser cutting machine. You could put away the glue stick and do a die cut a day.

  2. I got to see the documentary and hear one of the film’s producers speak last summer. It is an imaginative project with huge impact. One of the things I enjoy about coming here to see what you are up to is the contrast from the messiness of the altered art that I enjoy to the crisp and intricate. Don’t change!

  3. I have that book, and love it. I too have the same problem I tried to journal, but I like things in order and cant make it all messed up, I try and it still looks like its in order.

  4. What an incredible concept. I’ve also always sort of meant to do collage in my journals, and have never really been able to find time, either. And I completely agree about tidy-versus-messy collage. Some of the art that I admire most is chaotic (not necessarily in a sloppy way, but wild in some way), but I can never seem to find it in myself to relinquish that level of exacting control. I’m not comfortable in that idiom, I guess. It’s something I’ve been trying to force myself to do (though mostly in writing and not in visual media)–just experiment, let myself run with things and not worry about a polished result. I think it’s important to push yourself to do things that make you slightly uncomfortable, so maybe the daily journal collaging would be good for you, an opportunity to force yourself not to worry about neatly lining everything up. This is actually something I’ve been thinking a lot about recently, so sorry if I’m projecting a bit–just thinking out loud.

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