The Makings of a new Journal

In 2008 I took a class called Lyrical Resistance, a class that I thought would teach me about the history of art and protest in this nation but instead was a class that encouraged the thinking of how to incorporate your art into activism.

In this class everyone was encouraged to keep a journal or diary which we constantly wrote in or drew in, or whatever. They were personal things so what we did in them didn't matter, only that we did something in them.

I, skeptically, bought a giant book and kept it with me at all times but never expected to fill it. The cover had the date 2008 - 20 written on it, my logic being that the year I filled the book I would write the end numbers after the incomplete "20". I wrote in it every now and then and even took it with me to Prague when I studied abroad that summer and over time I realized how important that book was to me. In it housed ideas, journal entries and drawings; it had become an integral part of my life and creative growth.

Earlier this year I finally put the end date on it, completing the 2008-2010, in doing so closing out a 2 year chapter of my life, but since then, I have had nothing to write in, no notebook to take its place, no paper-bound building in which to house my thoughts, ideas and doodles.

Last night I decided to go ahead with my plan that I had put off for the past two years and bind my own book for this purpose. I've always wanted to try it ever since I heard how to do it from my friend Sheila. I've gotten my first stack of 5 pages bound together (which makes 10 pages for me since I folded them in half) and I managed to bend the sewing needle while doing it, but that's ok, I bent it back. Pictures and updates as it develops. Hopefully I'll have this done in the not too distant future.