Daily Journal: Images and Words

Image and Word Journal from magazine cutouts.

At the beginning of 2021, I began a page-a-day journal with one image and a word or phrase added at the end of each day. Gathering a pile of old magazines, along with scissors, glue, and a blank book, I was ready to go. I made a commitment to complete a page every day until the book was filled… which took about 5-1/2 months. At the end of each day, I chose a magazine image that stood out to me at the time. Often it was a reflection of a thought, a theme, or something about that day. Then I cut out a word or phrase to add to the image page.

Pages from the Image and Word Journal

I found comfort in this daily ritual and the process of flipping through the magazines in search of an image and word. Some of the themes revolved around feelings of peace, light, and space, of the appreciation for home, family, and community. Others focused on the magnificence and beauty of the natural world, an interest in history, or just the love of shapes and color.

Family Page of Image and Word Journal

This is a simple and enjoyable way for anyone to reflect on a day and keep a diary of a period of time. I could have chosen to begin another blank book but I felt complete when the last page was filled. Of course, after 5 months, I felt the loss of this nightly activity in the days following its completion.

The inspiration for this project came from a video of Shelley Klammer describing the process as a daily checkin on your feelings and emotions. Shelley is a Counseling Therapist and Expressive Arts Educator.

And here are three more pages from the journal… Shade, Inner Life, and Lightness of Being:

The Explorations Mini Series

“Explorations” mini series, paintings on paper.

I began a new mini series on the first day of April… the “Explorations series.” This group of small paintings was inspired because of spring cleaning. After spending time clearing out my parent’s home, I came back to my house and immediately began to clean out drawers and cabinets.

One cabinet was filled with magazines. I don’t think I’ve ever thrown out a magazine. There must have been somewhere around 70 magazines in that cabinet. Many of them had been cut up and used when my daughter was younger, for collages and creative projects. It was time for that pile to go. They’ve been taking up space for years. But first I wanted to flip through the pages of each magazine… and as I did so, I was inspired to create one more project with them.

“Explorations” series in process.

I began pulling out any page with an image or part of an image that I found interesting. The magazines went into the recycle bin and I ended up with a fairly good sized pile of pages to consider using in some way. Before I knew it, I had glued one or more pieces of an image onto eight 6” x 6” sheets of canvas paper. They were ready to be painted.

The Goal: for the attached magazine image to inspire and challenge me to create something new each day. The “Explorations” give me an opportunity to shake things up, experience a personal art exercise. and see where it might lead.

“Explorations #12” 6” x 6” mixed media on paper.

My original intention was to complete ten of these and then decide if I wanted to continue. But the day I posted the first one, I decided to join the 100 day project on Instagram and made a commitment to create 25 in the series.

Posts for the 100 day project and the “Explorations” can be found and followed on Instagram and on my Facebook artist page.

In the next blog-post, I will share more about the project.