I have relatively few decisions to make about life because until March friends from Japan will be coming to stay with me, so that means I have to be living at my house to like... accomodate them.
Right now priorities are to:
- Build up the WP version of my homepage
- Fix up the missing links and overall add bits to my HTML homepage
- Then write up a resume and apply for jobs citing said homepage
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Now in terms of art, the other exciting thing about the end of 2011 is that I've pretty much finished my VISUAL DIARY, which is a sort of collage of the bits and pieces I've found over the years and a mix of notes, angsty prose and drawings of ideas and people I've had and met over the years. It's an A5 spiral bound book of cartridge paper, the kind that'll set you back maybe $5 at Officeworks.
This year marks the finishing of my third visual diary, which has been actively accepting submissions since about halfway through the 2nd year of uni until now. The first one began in 2006, and covers the time I spent travelling in Japan. The second started in 2008-9 once I got back, and covers my third winter there as well as the first year and a bit of uni.
They've been a great way to get things off my chest and to get ideas down on paper, as well as document my journey and bits and pieces of what I saw where. I find when all else stresses me out to no end and when I don't know what to do, collaging is a fantastic way to restart. Writing is great for getting things off your chest, and drawing sort of focuses you in too, but collaging lets me think about absolutely nothing while I fiddle with bits of scraps and arrange them on to a page.
Sometimes I'll make a page in one go, and sometimes I'll stick one or two things down to find a few months later that I want to stick more over the top. Old pages with bad drawings or irrelevant prose (I keep even the embarassing stuff, so long as it's compelling!) get pasted over with new cool things I've found and in the end the final product is always a little more than the sum of its parts.
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Some pages from the 3rd Visual Diary.
I've done something a bit different this year in keeping a bunch of POSTCARDS separate from the VD, where I usually would paste them. The problem with cards is that they're quite thick, and can expand the volume of the diary to something quite heavy and padded. As time passes it becomes a nuisance to carry around with you. And I don't mind that, because any old bit of paper will do - I can just stick things in aftewards anyway.
So now I also have a CARD WALLET, or an a5 display folder where I can keep just postcards. I used to have them on the wall but thanks to the inspections and revamping of our house for sale I've had to take them down.
Yeah, these books are a big part of what I do (to me anyway) and one day I'd like to digitize them and make them browsable on the internet. Maybe after my website is properly put together, that is.
