Thursday, August 1, 2013

"Pearls" from Jessica Helfand

I was glancing at my inspiration bulletin board last night and came across an article I had pinned by Jessica Helfand called:
 Life on 
THE PAGE
I don't know what magazine I tore it from as the identifying information is not there.  Jessica Helfand has a wonderful book called Scrapbooks:  An American History.  I have a copy.  It's not scrapbooking as some people think of "scrapbooking"....I'm going to give you an excerpt from the article.  The book, by the way, is fabulous...very inspirational.  So, here goes...hope you're inspired:

"I travel everywhere with a little notebook, double-stick tape, and a date stamp.  That's all you need.  A few months ago a giant dragonfly, which had lived for a very long time in my studio, dropped down on the table, dead.  I was fascinated by its wings; they're so rarely--if ever--not in motion.  I taped it into my sketchbook; it resembled a piece of delicate brown lace.  I know some people don't trust their ability to express themselves in words, but if they grab something and paste it down in a scrapbook, they can make sense of their life as it changes.  The gesture--not just saving something in a box but cementing it into place, saying, "I was here, this happened, here's the date"--that's really what it's all about."

Now this article is no longer on my inspiration board...it's slipped into a clear pocket in the back of my latest art journal...all about my "artful journey." To say I love art journaling...is an understatement...

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