Books I have and Books I want!

     I'm talking about visual journal books, ATC (artist trading cards) and the like. Here is what I have and what I'm using to play lately...

1.  Kaleidoscope by Suzanne Simanaitis has a lot of focus on collage with a myriad of techniques and lots of fun projects to really get your creative wheels spinning...I love this book. My favorite projects include Susan Tuttle's "Exploring the Landscape Within, a self portrait," and Jill Jones' "Set Your Brain On Fire," among so many. Other contributors you might recognize include: Traci Bunkers, Christine Cox, Juliana Coles, Kate Lyon and Pilar Isabel Pollack. It is a great book to sit and read through to get inspired or just pick a random article to read and technique to try. It is a fabulous book all the way around and I highly recommend it.


2.  Alphabetica by Lynne Perrella is another book I have and love. Full of techniques and inspiration through and through. My favorite part of this book are the Artists Workshops with the Masters. There are 14 "workshops," each just two pages, with great examples on one page, and the directions on the second page, along with a list of each artists' "Studio Essentials" and "Influences." The workshops includes "Composition" with Claudine Hellmuth, "Layering" with Lynne Perrella, "Building Outward" with Lisa Hoffman, "Using Vintage Photos" with Judi Riesch, "Attachments" with Lesley Jacobs, "Transparencies" with Sarah Fishburn, "Using Great Quotes" with Linn C. Jacobs, "Faux and Ancient Surfaces" with Lisa Renner, "Working with Fabric" with Lesley Riley, "Building a Surface with Patterning" with Shirley Ende-Saxe, "Metal Tape and Altered Images" with Karen Michel, "Creating with Recycled Papers" with Monica Riffe, "Constructions" with Michelle Ward and "Working Intuitively" with Teesha Moore. The entire book is bursting with inspiration and techniques to try, but the Workshops make it work every penny and then some! Again, I highly recommend this particular book, one of my top five.

3.  Visual Chronicles by Linda Woods and Karen Dinino is the first book I purchased when I wanted to learn how to create a visual journal. It is full of good basic techniques to get you started and offers answers to any excuses that would keep someone from trying to create a visual journal experience for themselves. The chapters are called "Fear Busters," and each offers several ways to expel that particular fear or excuse. Some of the chapters include: "I have no time," "I can't write," "I'm just not artistic," "I can't draw" and "Nothing happens in my life." I have fallen victim to several of these excuses, so this book was a wonderful starting point for me personally. So if you have never done anything with a visual journal, I highly recommend this book.



More tomorrow...