So, What Do You Call It?
Art journal. Scrapbook. Catch All. Diary. Glue Book. Books. Happy Place. Why are we obsessed with naming and labeling things? Does everything have to fit into little compartments with clearly defined labels stuck to it? Does it matter? What do you call your book where you cut and paste things into? An inquiring reader wants to know.
I call my books my books or my art journals. "I'm going to work in my books." You either get it or you don't. To me, it's past art making. It's definitely on a whole different level than crafting (crafting to me means finding something to do to fill your time. This doesn't fill my time, it fills ME.) It's my place of sanctuary, my place to process and ruminate. It's my Church, my Temple, my forest, my quiet place all rolled into one.
Who am I doing it for? For me, honestly. It's my one place where I can be selfish in a healthy way. I make my books for me. Sure, I hope that my son will enjoy them but they're for me and they're for me RIGHT NOW. It's what keeps me happy, sane and present all at once.
What do you call what you do? Inquiring minds want to know.
Comments
lol Anyway, to answer your question: my "official" title for my notebooks that I use when I am trying to explain them is that they are "hybrid visual journals".. since their primary purpose is journaling & recording.. and they very visual with some pages looking like scrapbook pages, or art journal pages or sketchbook pages.
Usually though I just call them my notebooks. On the first page of each one it just says "Anne's Notebook, Vol #.."
lol Hope you don't mind my "War & Peace" length comment :)
here is the dictionary definition:
adjective
1.
of or pertaining to the recording of intimate personal and psychological experiences as a basis for art, literature, etc.: an intimist novel.
noun
2.
an intimist painter, writer,
I prefer to think of what I do as art journaling or visual journaling.
I have always simply called them my journals -- even though they are visual.
And then I started calling them sketchbooks, because I've always worked in blank (unlined paper please!!) artist sketchbooks. Even though they have tons of writing.
As a teacher and writer, I have always struggled with what to call them - because I think the terms are important when trying to transmit info to others.
I never think of them as "art journals" because they are for my and my process only and I only share them for the sake of teaching...
art to me, means product - and I need some place to work free of product pressures.
anyway...very good food for thought.
ps. I was JUST thinking about you...time for a class!
However I do have a lot of other books I work in. Those I call sketchbooks and/or ideabooks or playbooks, or whatever else one can do in books. I don't consider those journals.
My journal is a distinct thing. It's the account of my life as it unfolds from day to day, like a diary. A book of days.
The other books are simply for art making in every form I like. I have more than one because I like to have different sizes, papers and shapes to work in.
It's nice to see how different people have different approaches to this. And in the end all that matters is what works for you, right?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and process...so Creative!!!!
@Brian -- intimist ... oh my god, I love that. I'm very introverted (I could fill 20 columns of comments with what I've read about what 'introverted' really means, as opposed to the labels it's acquired in this Reality TV culture ours has become) ... the only way I can make sense of my world, myself in it, others circling me, is through my journal. Intimist really describes the process, though doesn't 'name' my journals, quite, for me.
@Anne - 'my notebooks' -- that's fabulous! sounds friendly, kind of scientific too!
lol it's funny that you said it sounds it scientific cuz several of my notebooks include stuff like lists of butterfly species, phyllotactic patterns & all kinds of fun nerdy stuff >.<