A Passport Journal





Passport

Recently in an Orly Avineri workshop Orly displayed a journal example that I absolutely had to make.  Orly used an expired passport to create a journal with art on and in flips, pockets, folds, envelopes, add-ons, and who knows what all.  The completed journal looks like a "fat" book....a real journal term by the way.  Two weeks ago my new passport arrived and no better time than the present to use the expired one to create my own passport journal.  It is far from done and will be a work in progress for some time, but I have worked on it for six days and here is where I am at with it today.  Many people have been curious about this type of journal and so I share.

Freedom

Freedom

In Orly's class we were asked to name our journals.  I had already collaged the word Freedom into the piece as it represents how I felt in this class, free.  Orly was able to instill a sense of artistic freedom that I needed last week.  I am indebted to her for that.

Jack Sparrow

Jack Sparrow

I love Johnny Depp's character, Jack Sparrow, in Pirates of the Carribean.  The skeleton reminds me of the film and thus honors Johnny as his character Jack.  Placing a skeleton in a odd location next to the Trans-America building in San Francisco makes me smile.  I love disparate things brought together.

In Orly's class we were asked to make a closure for our journal.  Since I am making two more signatures and will bind three to make the total journal my clasp was temporary.  Hence the ripped white irregular shapes on this piece.  I may leave them alone or add more color to them sometime.

Gaucho

Gaucho

I love making backgrounds and when they are finally done I have the problem of finding something to make the whole thing pop.  Sometimes that takes quite a long time.  In this case, the gaucho had been motivation for another piece in the Orly workshop.  I just happened to lay him on top of the background and voila, it was what was needed.  The striations on the gaucho's portrait come from the uneven background.  I sanded the face and got the lines.

Innocence?

Innocence?

What dog would not steal your heart with this look?  But actually he is trouble!  Careful don't turn your back on your dinner or it will be gone before you can blink!

This piece is the third in a journal created in the Orly Avineri workshop I took last week.  I love how we used gesso, distress ink, and matte varnish to achieve a unifying effect.

Eye of the Forest

Eye on the Forest

This was another piece created in the Orly Avineri workshop on Whidbey Island.  In this piece we wrote in our journals, added color using spray inks and matte varnish.  Then we added torn masking tape to make the trees. We painted the whole piece with black gesso.  Once the journal spread dried we removed the masking tape.

Earlier in the week we had collected items from the forest to add to our collage.  Here you see parts of leaves and moss and bird egg shell.  Later in the week I cut a small hole in the journal and increased its size by burning it with a candle.  Hence the eye from another journal page comes through to create the piece Eye on the Forest.

Lotus

Lotus

This past week I took a class at the Pacific NW Art School in Coupeville, Washington, A Luxuriant Nature Journaling Adventure instructed by Orly Avineri.  It was truly an amazing five days of art journaling, camaraderie, amazing instruction, and just plain fun!

Lotus was one of six journal spreads completed during the class.  I will post the others and/or parts of all the others in the next few days.