Exploring embedding!

The journal prompt on embedding and superimposing has been the most rewarding for me so far. (I also created entries in response to the prompts on random stimulation and color exploration, and those posts are forthcoming.) The image above is an example of how I began this entry, using forms cut from black paper, and momentarily I'll explain what I did and how it worked out.

But first I want to mention that this week I really thought a lot about the process and purpose of making exploratory journal entries. As I mentioned in response to some helpful feedback I received on the Bb discussion board, it is really hard for me, as an illustrator, to set aside my results-driven approach to making work. When I'm making images, two questions are always in my mind: what will this will be used for? and who are my clients/audience? But I realize that these questions do not serve the same purposes in making a journal, so I really tried this week to create journal entries that are purposefully incomplete -- in process -- exploratory.

To create an entry that considers the possibilities of embedding* and superimposing, I cut out about ten forms from black paper. Some of the forms are ones associated with my journal theme -- my pregnancy -- and a few were more intuitive, freehand, and abstract. The uterus (above) is the most literal one. Below is the full set of original forms, without any superimposing.



















Then I spent some time exploring how the forms could be layered and superimposed to create new forms with different meanings (or, if not "meanings," then at least different feelings -- very subjective, I know). I really couldn't have predicted how interesting and satisfying I was going to find this process, but it was weirdly liberating to just piece these forms together with no real plan -- just finding my way with what felt right and, importantly, not worrying about making something beautiful or finished. Below are some of my favorite results from this process.


















From the original simple forms that might invoke ideas of body parts, babies, and simple plant forms, I ended up finding references to science (at atom?), water animals, and cell clusters. I also found an unexpected decorative element in the form of some (roughly) bisymmetrical ornamental shapes and borders, as well as decorative forms created by the white space caught within repeated forms.

* Incidentally, "embedding" is also a pregnancy word!

Title page, map, and gathering

Welcome to my visual journal for the Space of Possibility class! This journal will document the second trimester of my pregnancy, a time when I am feeling very reflective and inspired -- the perfect time to make a visual journal. Above is my "title page," an illustration I made this week using acrylic, cut paper, and digital media. I often work with this combination of media in my illustration work (more here!), so I chose to publish my journal online to accommodate the digital element of my work. You can click each image to see a bit larger.

Below is documentation of the "mind mapping" activity we've been asked to try out. It does sort of get the ideas flowing, and mine is suggestive of a tool that I use practically every day as an illustrator: word lists. A word-based approach to brainstorming really works for me, I've found. This mind map actually begins on the right-hand side of the page, ending on the left page with a list of miscellaneous ideas that didn't happen to fit into the other parts of my word web.













The "gathering" feature of this assignment is the one that I struggled with the most. I knew I didn't have many tangible things that represent my pregnancy, so I simply started with what I do have -- ultrasound photos:














And then I decided to create a visual list of the variety of objects that have played a special role in my life over the last four and a half months. I decided to do this as a way of "gathering" these elements into one space. They include many things that don't lend themselves to being pasted onto illustration board, like chocolate soy milk and my mother-in-law's rocking chair. This visual list was done with ink and Photoshop.














Until next time!