“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” — Audre Lorde
HI! My name is Brenda and welcome to my blog. A little about myself, I am a Parsons student majoring in photography, and I commute back and forth from New Jersey. WOO!
I wanted to BLOG about an interesting project I had in integrated design which is Bridge one, care. In our first project, we were required to make a physical object that would help us in our self care. The object, we decide to make, should assist us in the long run. It could have been anything like;
-healthy eating,
-exercise,
– inner peace
-spirituality
-health management
-self-improvement,
-hygiene
-appearance
– self-regulation
– sleep & rest, and leisure.
I chose to improve myself and take care of my mental health. So I came up with the idea of making a personal journal for myself. weird huh? Well as a photographer I critique my photos a bit too harsh. However, I wanted to change that about my self. Therefore creating this journal, was the best idea for me because I was able to create with my own photos and somehow create new art and grow my artistry.
My Inspiration for this photo journal was Keri Smith who created Wreck This Journal. It is a creative your journal that you can LITERALLY do whatever you want with it. You can paint on it, spit it, eat with it, shower with it, step on it, create more art, and obviously even write your deepest secrets. Smith also adds some instructions to some of the pages so you can follow easily.
I don’t necessarily want to shower with my own journal, but I did want to create new art, to see the good in the bad pictures. I want to see my potential as an artist to grow bigger and not stay at the same level for many more years to come.
So this is where I started. I decided to use the print photos that I took using my film camera. The reason why I only wanted to use film photos was that taking pictures with your film camera makes you patient about choosing your subject. I also believe that film cameras are a better understanding of all the mechanical techniques. also … I LOVE MY FILM CAMERA! Anyways, you can see that I didn’t like a lot of my photos. This kind of gave me a challenge while choosing which photos will go in my VOL.1 journal. The more I looked at my bad pictures the more I started to like them. In a way I was happy but then I wanted to get this project going.
Next, I decided what materials I should have used.
Different types of sketch papers.
A SELF HEALING MAT! (I thought that fit so well with this project, to be honest..) he bad prints, Exacto knife, glue, I also used cardboard and canvas paper.
First, I decided to bind my papers together because gluing was pretty messy. I don’t know if the bookbinding was down correctly, but it did hold up its shape. I know there’s a lot of video on YOUTUBE but ya girl did not have internet that day.
Second, I made a hardcover to my book because I love hardcover and it would last a little longer than just being all paper. What I did was to cut 2 pieces of cardboard and 2 pieces of canvas paper that were a little larger than the cardboard so I could wrap it all around and would look nice and clean. I decided to also go with matte black paint so it could look fancy.
Lastly, I glued the covers and the paper together, then later added the photos. When adding the photos I was hesitant on how I was able to do it. I didn’t want it to be in a certain order, so I blindly chose each photo, and then placed them on each page.
TADA! tHIS IS MY OUTCOME!
Unfortunately: I won’t be able to show you what’s inside my personal diary. However, this will help me explore new ideas of art. Create new art through my “bad” photos. Be less critical about my own photography and to hopefully help with improving myself mentally with the overthinking about my photos.
Where Could Improve:
- The paper: I think I should have chosen a better paper for this journal. Maybe bristle, board, next time.
- I would also like to make a little bit bigger. Like 11 by 9. therefore I have more room to create.
- Overall I would give my self a 2.5. out of 3. This project was a lot of fun, and during the process, I did a lot of self-reflection which was great. I will continue on doing these types of photo journals because now I will enjoy my imperfections.
