Choice Made!

Did you see my post about what sketchbook to use?  You'll be pleased to know that I made a decision!  This one:

Yes, the octopus one.  Mostly because it resembles - admittedly vaguely - the way maps fold up and maps are my inspiration for my next project.

I think calling it a sketchbook from now on is probably incorrect.  It's going to be a workbook, as it's the place I'm going to record my research and hhow my work is progressing.

I spent a few days researching maps and artists who use maps as inspiration and then assembled it all in the workbook.  There are lot of photographs as I have photographed the whole 4 page folded section plus double page closeups.  I hope it isn't too many.

The right hand page above opens up to reveal pages on the history of maps.  It's very incomplete - just the bits that interested me - the Mappa Mundi, Nolli, John Ogilby and the Ordnance Survey.

I found various poems and quotes about maps.

Alongside looking at artists' work, I asked the question What is a map?  They all had different replies in their artist's statement.

I started with Jill K Berry in her book Personal Geographies.

The right hand page unfolds to reveal the work of Alicia Merrett, Diane Savona and Valerie S Goodwin.

Turning over the page we come to the amazing work of Eszter Bornemisza.

Moving on now towards how I might approach the topic.

This was from a Jeanne Oliver workshop.  Is this a map?  There's room for me to answer that!

And then more on my response to the work of the artists I found.

 

Where all this will lead me I have no idea.

As I don't usually work in this way it will be interesting to see where it all takes me.

If you've made it all the way to the end with me, thank you.

Thanks for joining me today
Bernice

Day 12 My Attitude of Gratitude Journal

If you want to join in with making an Attitude of Gratitude Journal through the month of November click through to the Challenge blog.

Here on this blog I am going to share how I made the page for today's prompt on My Neighbourhood.

Today's art challenge was to 'include a map on your page today'.

I tore a piece from an old map of the area I live in which includes my road and stuck it onto the paper with gel medium.

I put a layer of gesso over the whole page with a lighter scraping across the map itself.

I sprayed the whole page with Lime spray ink and wiped it with a baby wipe.

I sprayed orange ink and some water at the top of the page and let it drip down.  I dabbed the ink with my cloth which meant it doesn't show up very much.  Then I did the same thing with turquoise.

I randomly printed onto the page with a map stamp and then added my verse and my journaling.

 

I really like how layered this looks despite the fact it really doesn't have that many layers.

I hope you are finding my interpretations of the challenges useful.

See you tomorrow.