Layers of Inspiration

I've had the same pieces of art hanging on the small wall next to my bed for the past three years now. I decided to change that yesterday. Armed with scotch tape, washi tape, stickers, pens and a collection of book and magazine clippings that I'd been saving, I went to work.  I carefully removed the art that was on the wall (which will be relocated elsewhere in the house) with the exception of my Edward Gorey print and my Lynda Barry sketch. Those are staying on the wall though you can't see Lynda's work in this photo.  I treated the wall as if it were one of my journal pages. Admittedly, I kept reaching for my glue stick. I used rolled up pieces of scotch tape stuck in each of the image's four corners. Washi tape and stickers were added for bits of color, visual interest and to try to bring the large piece together some more. I added some pen work as I went. There are little hidden notes to my husband in there. I want to add some poetry and some favorite quotes eventually. I was so happy working on the wall that I thought I was going to burst with excitement! It took me four hours to do and I loved every second of it. My plans are to keep adding images, tape and text. It can easily be removed from the wall (so the landlord doesn't have a cow.) I know that some folks have inspiration walls and cork boards and things like that. My kitchen walls and cabinets (both inside as well as out) have artwork from some of my favorite artists on them. Most of my walls are lined with bookshelves. This is the first time since I was a teenager that I've been able to truly collage and cover a wall.  My walls, ceiling and doors of my bedroom were COVERED with layers and layers of posters, magazine clippings, photos and flyers when I was a teen. (To this day, I refuse to have thumb tacks in my home. You think stepping on Lego is bad?! Ha! It's nothing compared to the amount of thumb tacks I stepped on growing up. Those damn things should be banned. They were always jumping out of my wall no matter how much I pushed them in.) My fascination with musicians started with the Monkees and the Beatles. It then moved onto hard rock with lots of long haired musicians (especially drummers) covering my walls. Bobby Rock, Paul Geary and Johnny Gioeli completely took over my walls. Bobby was the only one who remained on the wall over the years. Later, I became obsessed with film and a variety of film posters covered my wall into my late teens and early twenties. Funny that I don't remember my walls at that age as much as I do when I was a teenager into hair bands.  Last night brought me back. I loved the freedom of being able to add to the wall things that were of interest to me. As an artist, I'm always looking for visual inspiration. I truly believe that it is everywhere. It's just a matter of keeping your eyes open and being aware of your surroundings. Now when I wake up in the morning, all I have to do is look to my left!  It also has left me thinking that I may need to go even bigger with my journals at some point (even bigger than the Really Big Journal that I taught years ago.)