Haircut Reminder

I have short hair. Really short hair. Which requires frequent haircuts to keep from looking too shaggy and unkempt. I sometimes forget when was the last time I got a haircut, so I attached the Supercuts' receipt to a page in my notebook so I could look back and see how long it's been. Then, there I was yesterday morning, looking at that silly receipt pasted there and realized I'd never find it again if I didn't do something to make it memorable. With pen, rubber stamp and watercolors, here's what I did. {This may be my first ever self portrait.}

What constitutes an "art journal?"

I've been pondering this subject for quite some time now.

For several months I have been visiting blogs and web sites of those gifted artists who make beautiful art journal pages and I've just been drooling all over myself. I've purchased a couple of Stampington publications devoted to art journaling and the images within those pages are a huge source of inspiration.

I've begun tinkering, so to speak, and I decided today was the day. To share, that is.

Here are a couple of my journal pages, although I'm not exactly sure you'd call them "art."

I have a cabinet full of spiral bound notebooks dating back to the 1990s. I have used them to keep up at work and in life. There are always lists. Memos to myself so I don't forget something important. Tags and scraps from throughout my day or week that I want to keep for whatever reasons. Little drawings and doodles that often appear during phone conversations. Song titles, book titles, web sites ... things I want to remember ... writing them down helps me to remember. Sometimes it helps transfer the information from short term memory to long term memory. Other times, I'll remember where on the page I wrote it down, making it easier to find later.

So, there you are. My first "public" art journal pages.

I like doing this a lot these days. It took over a week to fill these two pages, I think because summer is a slow time in my neighborhood. Other times I've filled a page in one or two days. I think as I do this more and see what other artists are doing, I'll become more adventurous. In the meantime, I'm having fun and I'm sure that's the most important thing.