Amber Gibbs - Art Journals, Collage Art & Mixed Media Adventures

Books

Ooh-la-la (Max in Love)

I can never pick an all time favorite book, but I often have a Favorite of the Moment book. And Ooh-la-la (Max in Love) by Maira Kalman is my current often read book. I adore the illustrations in this children's book, but more so I love faking all the accents and reading the fun wordplay. Soon, I think Kavya will be able to sit through more of this book.

Wishlist Books
I've had my eye on these books, but I haven't been able to commit to buying them.

Lulu

Contemporary collage work. An expensive book tho.

Tragic Kingdom: The Art of Camille Rose Garcia

I really adore Camille Rose Garcia's new work, which I saw in High Fructose Magazine. The article was entirely depressing tho as she reflected on the state of our environment.

New Art Journal Project

I feel rather crazy, but I started a new art journal. I have never actually finished an art journal, I have several that I work on here and there. I don't work chronologically and I don't work in just one. But I decided I wanted a small journal with work that documents this last month before the Baby is born.

I started by cutting out paper for the pages and creating the backgrounds using this book:

Kaleidoscope: Projects and Ideas to Spark Your Creativity
by Suzanne Simanaitis

I worked with the article in this book by Juliana Coles. She basically walks you through several steps to create art to be more creative and free. I altered the instructions a bit for my purpose. The result is some really wild and fun backgrounds.

I'm trying to work with more of my own sketches and drawings.

This is the first page I've done:

I don't think I'll have many words in this art journal. I know what I feel when I look at this, but I don't feel the desire to explain it.

When I get done with all the pages, I'll bind up the loose pages and hopefully have something interesting from this last month of swollen stomach and hormones.

Cool Art Journaling Book

Wide Open: Creativity Notebook & Card Set: Inspiration & Techniques for Art Journaling on the Edge
by Randi Feuerhelm-watts

First . . . this is a deck of cards, not a book. I wasn't really crazy about that idea - a deck of cards for me conjures up perky sayings on cards. But then I saw this deck of cards at Artfest and fell in love. And after I bought it, I really understood why the author chose this format. On the front of each card, is an image from her art journals and on the back is a thought provoking story. Mixed into her stories, she has a lot of creative techniques. And since it's in a card format, you can pull out the cards that inspire you most or have techniques you want to try and lay them out on your work table (instead of trying to balance a huge book somewhere).

The author focuses on drawing and photography techniques (in a mixed media format), but don't let that scare you. You don't have to be a card carrying member of the "I can draw" club to use the ideas and techniques. And even if you throw out all the drawing and photography, you will still find a lot of mixed media ideas in this card deck.

Where Women Create (Very Neatly)

Where Women Create: Inspiring Work Spaces of Extraordinary Women
by Jo Packham

If, like me, your art space space tends to be disorganized and even at times, a disaster area, this book might give you a bad complex. Where Women Create in this book are in very neat studios overflowing with all their treasures organized in artistic yet tidy glass jars and picturesque shelves. No offending piles of paper or discarded projects litter the floor. Many of the women confess to be very neat and tidy so I suspect that somewhere out there in the universe that there really are very neat artists who can somehow fit all their treasures into organized bins and keep them that way. They fill their studios with antique tables and postal boxes and they aren't afraid of getting paint on them!

I'm happy for them. No, really, I am. No sarcasm intended.

But for me . . . I cannot even aspire to these wonderful spaces because I know it will never happen. If someone ever features my studio in such a glossy book and I haven't spent weeks preparing for it - I am no longer Amber and am actually a pod person. So call the FBI and have them haul me off to Area 51.

My studio is filled with IKEA furniture. I don't think I could ever create near an antique table, much less on one. My $45 IKEA table has layers and layers of paint. My IKEA shelves are overflowing with stuff and the drawers don't shut anymore. I have piles of stuff around my work desk that I don't want to put in the drawers because I might need them and yet all I do is trip over them. No matter how many times I clear off my work desk, I still end up with 12 inches of space to work in.

And so my point is that while this book is very enjoyable and filled with gorgeous pictures, do not feel guilt. We stand together in our art mess solidarity.

My Favorite Art Journaling Books

Artists' Journals & Sketchbooks by Lynne Perrella

As the title suggests, this book is all about art journaling. Full of good eye candy (art journals) and lots of techniques, this book is sure to inspire you. Perrella alternates between showing techniques/giving ideas and showing examples of art journals from a variety of artists. The photographs are very colorful and crisp. I break this book out whenever I need some new ideas.

Everyday Matters: A New York Diary by Danny Gregory

This wonderful book gives us a peek inside Danny Gregory's sketchbooks which he started keeping after his wife was in a bad accident that forced him to reconsider his life. I love his loose style of drawing that is quirky but holds so much detail. He has inspired me to pick up the pen again and give sketching another try. But I doubt anyone will ever see my funky sketches. If you aren't convinced you need this book, visit his website for a good dose of his drawing style and some thoughts on the NY state of mind.

The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon by Dan Eldon

I'd heard about this book and Dan Eldon's journals some time ago. But I'd never done more than flip through this book at a bookstore because I mistakenly thought this book would be depressing. But the journal pages included seem much more life affirming than negative. I loved seeing these pages and imagining the fun he must have had on his incredible adventures.

Visual Chronicles: The No-Fear Guide to Creating Art Journals, Creative Manifestos and Altered Books by Linda Woods & Karen Dinino

I love the freedom and no-fuss approach to art journaling that Linda and Karen espouse in this book. You don't need fancy tools or fancy art journal pages to make lasting memories in your art journal. I think sometimes we get too caught up in making pretty pages that we forget to just record our lives. The authors share a lot of fun techniques and ideas that won't break the bank. If you want eye candy, this is not the book for you. But if you want down-to-earth ideas on art journaling and humorous comments on purses and cookies - this book will make you smile. I highly recommend this book for people who are just beginning to dip their toes in the waters of art journals.

Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art by Jennifer New

Drawing from Life features sketchbooks and journals from a variety of different people - artists, geologists, designers and more. Unlike many of the books on this page, this book focuses more on sketchbooks - rather than a mixed media/collage approach. But don't shy away from this book because you are afraid of drawing. You'll find that even professional artists don't have sketchbooks that look like DaVinci's famous and precise sketches. This is more of an academic look at art journaling than a how-to book. But I find it inspirational.

The Complete Guide to Altered Imagery: Mixed Media Techniques for Collage, Altered Books, Artists Journals and More by Karen Michel While this is not just a book about art journaling, I included in this section because the techniques that Michel gives work wonderfully in an art journal. She has an entire section on how to alter your own photographs. If you get stuck in your art journal process, this is a great book to plop open and use for inspiration. The only caution I would say is that she does use some rather toxic materials. She does have warnings in her book, but I'd stress that some of these techniques aren't for everyone. Still, there's plenty of other techniques in this book that are safe for everyone.