I have been perusing through the flickr page of Kim Ripley a.k.a. Stoopidgerl for the past couple of days, and she’s been very actively “wrecking her journal”. Now that may sound a little weird to you, if you’ve never seen it, but there’s actually a book called Wreck This Journal by Keri Smith. I know I’ve come upon this journal online at some point or in a bookstore and didn’t really think too much of it; however her posts have made me really want one! I actually went to Joseph Beth (a really cool bookstore in Lexington) tonight and attempted to purchase my copy, but the only copy there was not to be found. The clerk said it had probably been stolen. Seriously? Well, I wasn’t too miffed by it, but I do plan on ordering one.
The very cool thing about this journal is that you are supposed to actually WRECK it. There’s crazy things inside, from covering pages with office supplies to making lots of random stains to rubbing the pages with dirt. As a designer, I am often very rigid in what I design…I stay very blocky/in the lines. I don’t break beyond my barriers. It’s one thing I’ve actually always struggled with in my art. On a couple of occasions, like in my fibers class in college, I was able to break free from this. We did projects in bleaching and silk painting, where the dye/bleach totally did it’s own thing and you had to just deal with the outcome. I love the idea of using this journal as a way to let myself just be free to create without boundaries and with wreckless abandonment. I just think it’s a really super cool concept!
Just to give you an idea of what Kim’s doing, check out these fun photos that she took to document her wreckage. So fabulous! Her photos just by themselves inspire me!
The last photo is of her pulling her journal by a string…she posted an awesome video of this. I think it’s a pretty entertaining clip! Here it is:
So does this kinda wanna make you wanna do this too? I think it looks like so much fun! Thanks Stoopidgerl for inspiring me to want to try 🙂
Until next time Swellions!
Alexa
