Introduction
Hey you crazy people! Otherwise known as artists. If you are anything like me and have a ton of artistic blood running though your veins, you may often do things that have people looking at you strangely. But in our world of art, that’s a good thing. It must mean that we are noticing things that most people do not. An example of this “weirdness” is displayed in the story a design professor of mine once told us about grabbing a burger wrapper that had been thrown in the trash because he liked the type on it. Ever caught yourself doing something like that? Have you ever not been able to turn away from something that most people would consider garbage because you liked the look of it?
This brings me to the main reason I decided to start blogging here. I am a stay at home mom who has a degree in graphic design. I’ve always been more attracted to the fine art side of having an art degree, but at the time I was in college I was too chicken to pursue a career in that field because I was scared of starving to death. Now, however, I wish I had gone that route after all and gotten a teaching degree. Lately, I’ve felt the need to be more productive. I can’t stop creating and have started getting into altering books. Although, that is not the only artistic pursuit I’ve been interested in, this is just my current obsession.
I’ve always been obsessed with “junk.” I always seem to be drawn to stuff that other people are throwing away, which also makes me a terrible pack rat. I always think, when I see certain objects, “maybe I could make something out of that.” I had heard about making altered books quite a long time ago, but never got one done because I could never settle on a theme. When you think about it, altering a book takes a lot more idea wise than a painting or drawing because you have so much area to cover! But that is also the great and exciting thing about it. I fell back into the altered book world when I was looking for a binder to hold my notes from the insert in the Sunday bulletins at church. I found one at an office store that was the right size, but the price $5.29 was way too steep for me. Did I mention that I’m cheap too? Or should I say “thrifty?” That is one reason I love altered art, you can use all sorts of found (i.e. free) material that you can use to produce your art. That steep price tag for a simple binder made me remember the book I had seen at the library that reintroduced me to the altered book process. Then I thought… that is the perfect place to put my notes, in an altered book. So it was off to the thrift store where I purchased the perfect sized hardback book for 75 cents… much more in my price range. So there it began.
Since I had a theme… Sunday Sermon’s to go on for this book, it was easy to get started, and as I worked on this book, other ideas started to pop into my head for other altered book ideas. Currently, I’m working on about 5 altered books. And of course, this is a great thing because while one book is in a drying stage I can work on one of my other books instead of twiddling my thumbs or pulling out my hair. I’m not really great at waiting.
As I got stuck on certain projects though I started to search the internet for ideas for themes and supplies and such. This is where I got a bit bogged down. Most of the blogging sites or sites in general people have focused on their altered art. While I would like to do this too, I would like this blog to become much more than that. I would really love for this to become a site where all artists, mainly ones interested in any form of altered art, can come and exchange ideas, supply ideas, sources, etc. So, I figure I’ll be back daily to post about what I’m working on, what new techniques I’ve found and where I’ve found some of the items I’ve used in my projects and anything else of interest. Plus, it will also serve as a sort of personal idea dumping ground.
That’s one thing that is great about art, you don’t have to worry about people stealing your “ideas.” Not only because there are very few truly original ideas and also because everyone has a different style that can not be duplicated by anyone else, your artistic fingerprint, as I call it. Give one theme to 100 people and tell them to go out and make something based on it and no two will be the same.
Stay tuned for further musings from Altered Art Antics.
