Week 1
Welcome!
Let’s get connected! Tell us a little about yourself. What brings you on this journey? What are your thoughts before you break into this new experience?
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Remember: This is time for you to explore! Everything you experience is yours and right and true! Enjoy the journey…and let us know what you notice as you do:)
I am trying to banish the “what’s the point of wrecking this book” thought out of my head, and let in the creativity. I need this stretch and am looking forward to it.
Dana
This sounds like a big step. Wondering what you will do and what you will notice:)
I have witnessed someone “keeping a wreckless journal”. I was enthralled with the great abandon with which she went “wrecking”. I thought…”I can do this…it looks like an artistic adventure…pure in it’s creativity.”
In the 5th grade I joined a lunchtime book club. I joined it because each month we would get a new paperback trade book. I joined the club for that simple reason…I wanted new books. I wanted to smell them, hold them, feel their uncreased bindings, their shiny covers, their cleanly cut pages and fan them in my half closed eyes. I didn’t read a single one. At the end of each month I sat eating my lunch while the teacher discussed the book with those who had read it. It was my own dirty little secret (I thought). I tried to read a couple of the books, but after I read a chapter or two, I went out to play or went off to build something.
I never pick up a new book without sneaking a smell of it. Some new books smell wonderful, others, a bit disappointing.
I’m not sure why, but I guess the creative artist in me is more powerful than my infatuation with a new pristine book. I haven’t started yet but I don’t believe I will have any trouble wrecking my journal. Like a new set of Crayola water colors, as pristine as each of those rectangular pads of paint look…shiny and smooth with a few tiny popped air bubbles, the idea of dipping in and making art is far stronger than leaving the set untouched. Although, I do love that moment of adoration when I open a new paint set and run my fingers across the pads of paint, I’m ready to dip my brush in water and dig in.
I’m ready to wreck this journal!!!!
Hi Chris,
Loving the image of you with your books…not reading, just enjoying the experince of being around books! All the sensations of the book itself, smell, sight, feeling….
How does this journal smell to you? Will you add new smells to it???
Looking forward to hearing more about your journal wrecking!
Susan
OK, I thought I was just as confident as Chris (“I don’t believe I will have any trouble wrecking my journal…”) until I got to the 2nd page, the evil “Crack the Spine” page. I have never, never, never in my life cracked a book spine (in fact, do you remember in school when you got a brand new textbook, you had to lay the book covers flat, hold all the pages vertically, and then gently press down the pages a few at a time, working on the left, then right, then left side until you finally had all the pages lying flat?) Cracking the spine was actually painfully difficult for me to do: first I tried folding the book in half and squeezing it together (wouldn’t crack), then I stepped on the folded book (still wouldn’t crack), then I opened the journal and held each side with my thumb and index finger and pushed until I could see where the pages were glued. And then I worried that all of the pages would now fall out…….
PS I knew I was in trouble when the dedication was to “perfectionists all over the world”. This may well be the beginning of my journey to recovery
Yes…the feeling of cracking a book spine…you did it!! I can picture you stepping on it…what was that like? What are you noticing now that you have actually taken this step? Curious…
…reading the dedication page…thanks for sharing this! It will be exciting to be on this journey with you, Connie!
[...] your thoughts! Click HERE. It is good to hear what others experience, as it may be similar to our own…or maybe very [...]
I hid mine at work and forgot about it, so didn’t get started until last night. As I was looking through the pages and ready to begin, I accidentally cracked the spine. It was a painful sound…until I saw the page that “allowed” me to do it! It was tough for me to dive in and begin, because as a perfectionist, I want to make sure that I do it right. I did begin with the less risky page of writing one word over and over again, and of course, by filling out my information at the beginning of the book. What perfectionist can go out of order?!
CCCCC—RRRR—AAAA—-CCCC—KKKKK! Great image. Laura! the worry, the upset…the joy! What would it mean to “do it right”?
Hey! you wrote in your journal! Will you share the word you wrote?
I forgot my journal at work last Friday (my daughter was running a vaccine-induced fever Thursday night, so woo hoo, three-day quarantine weekend!) so I was a bit behind as well. I did the information page too, but I made myself do it in pencil. What if I… (gasp)… wrote something that didn’t look right? Oh dear, I’d better get over THAT real quick, yeah? I just bought myself a wicked new set of my favorite felt-tip pens to help me bridge that gap.
My book has a slight scent of chocolate, thanks to the fundraising chocolate bars that I had piled on top of it. I wonder how long that will last…
I actually took my book into the shower last night! Put it on the edge of the tub, where it didn’t get totally wet, but I did it! Books have always been “sacred” things. I remember being taught that in school as well, Connie. So, I am going to go at this from the perspective of not thinking of the book, but of the activity. Duh!
Ruby,
….pens…pens…pens….wondering how that will feel…felt tipped! sounds permanent!
Stepping on a book just felt wrong…you notice that I didn’t JUMP on it or even grind my heel….baby steps! Actually, after cracking the spine, I don’t think that anything will be harder than that!
Dana,
Your book in the shower! What does it look like now? What inspired you to begin with the shower activity????
Yes, a shift in thinking…your words at the end of your post (…an activity), perspective changing…change…
OK, so maybe this is a bit more difficult for us perfectionists as I thought. I am grateful that the author, Keri Smith chose to use print conventions, as the first pages at least give you an overview (she could have stuck it in the middle somewhere, which would have put me in fight or flight.) So I used whiteout to write my name in white (white grease pencil didn’t show up), of course it doesn’t NEED to show up does it. Anyway, I went ahead and cracked the binding from a random page…so I decided I would start where I cracked the binding. It said “Sew this page”. So much for something quick and easy. I got out my sewing machine (yes I own one, and I sew), discovered the thread on the machine was white, which simply would not do. I put on a spool of red and went at it! I almost tore out the page trying to make a turn…Sewing paper is fun:) Got a few pictures to document the event! I am hoping that this will get easier…telling myself…”one page at a time, one page at a time, one page at a time…”
I bought a book a little ways back for doodling – it had pages of art, but only a tiny piece of a famous painting. The idea was for you to finish the picture. I still haven’t touched it – I’m afraid of messing it up. I was going to photocopy the pages first and then doodle on the copied page. How sad is that? Maybe this new book will help me get over that so I can enjoy the Art Doodle book.
Hi Chris…will show how to post photos on Friday (or soon there-after). One page at a time…how is that going?
jgeuder-
It appears you are in good company with all of us here! …one page at a time, baby steps, the activities are the work…these are the ideas I am hearing from others, here:)
Wondering what you will work on first…? Wondering how the work on this journal will transition to your Art Doodle book…?
I do not consider myself a perfectionist by any means but when it comes to books and magazines I HAVE to have them crisp and clean……. so cracking the spine was sooooo difficult for me! I am shocked by how perfectionistic I am when it comes to books and “assignments” I did 5 pages the first day and yes of course I had to start at the beginning and go one by one- I think it must be my inner child student in my wanting to please the teacher that I am having to overcome.
Once I get started on a page I want to do more and more and have embellished some of my pages as I liked what the destruction had started to form – the Fat and thin line page I added oil pastel to and patterned lines, but my favorite page so far has been the one I burned! I plan to embellish this page once the design inspiration comes to me.
I am terrified to take this book into the shower as I am already attached to some of the creations I have made with in it!
This is very good therapy- learning to let GOOOOOOOO! Who knew I was a closet perfectionist!
Hi Angie,
Thanks for your message! Yes…wanting to please seems to be so intrenched in our minds and learning…will you continue to go page by page?
Burning the page sounds like a break from the “follow the rules”, what did that feel like? So from the “burning destruction” you will create a new piece…looking forward to hearing about that!
Attachment…yep, therapy is written all over this journaling process!
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by organicsyes. organicsyes said: Began the ArtsEd book study last week! http://bit.ly/7zgvf Wreck This Journal:) [...]
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One of the things I noticed in the first few days of engaging with the ‘wreckage’, was my tendency to just do what the page said. Now I find myself thinking about ‘how’ to do what it asks…more into what process or what ways could i do it rather than the obvious.
Cathy