Last year Vanessa asked if I wanted to do a collaborative art journal project with her. We were both going through hard changes & uncertain futures at the time. We really wanted to talk & get to know each other better, but that can sometimes be awkward online (particularly for me - I get myself all tied up in knots trying to talk to people & end up sounding like some kind of Awkward Robot Girl...). Art-ing it out seemed perfect.
Vanessa had the idea to make the journal “a visual conversation” - one of us putting something down on a page & the other one “responding” by adding to the page & then starting pages of their own. It was so fascinating to see how the pages would change as the journal went back & forth, & what spilled out of me when “replying” to what was on the page. I had never worked on a collaboration before, & I was so surprised at how much I loved it. And in the end, I got to keep this beautiful journal (thank you so much, V!!!).
Getting out all my fears, being able to take all this to the page - especially when I knew there was someone on the other side who would “hear” me - helped immensely. That all this happened with someone I admire - an artist I look up to - is almost too good to describe.
It's amazing how much we could express, how much better we really got to know each other through these pages.
I just love this page. Those colors! - so good.
I love how our styles have some similarities, yet they are also quite different - & I love seeing how they work together on all these pages.
This page with the sewing ephemera is one of my favorites - especially when I found out that we both had great-great aunts who made their living by their sewing, were spinsters, & took in their nieces (our grandmothers)!
I added the thread to this page. It took soooo long to make all those knots! It ended up being strangely therapeutic though, & captures exactly how I felt about the situation I was in.
I was quite nervous at times throughout this project (worried that I would "ruin" all of V's gorgeous work, wondering if I'd really be able to get my emotions down on the page...), but I am SO glad that I pushed through. This journal is so expressive, so full of meaning & I can’t believe how amazingly beautiful it turned out. I am forever grateful to Vanessa for asking me to do this.
