A Video Flip Through of Roz Stendahl's 2015 Fake Journal

Above is the video flip through of my 2015 Fake Journal, made for this year's celebration.
It has taken some time for me to put the flip through together because I was dealing with a series of respiratory infections. If the embedded video doesn't play please see it on YouTube.

In this video I talk about how my fake journal this year became something quite unexpected. (They usually do, but this one was "unexpected squared.")

I talk about how I came up with the image and tagline I used for this year's celebration and how the desire to get back to painting, after a shoulder injury, led to a focus on painting.

My fake journal this year was actually completed between February 17 and March 18. I was working on another group project and the fake journal took it over in the most serendipitous way.

I find that every year when I do a fake journal something like this happens. It's what keeps me "faking" it every April.

This year, it was not only serendipitous, but fortunate, that two projects merged in February and March to become this year's fake journal. April was a series of family health crises which needed as much attention as we could give them. Sometimes I find that I do my best work when the only time I can work is in the middle of a crisis, this was true in 2009, and again in 2013. But this year my own physical health was so depleted, that April was instead a reminder of limits, and a reminder to set limits to protect oneself.

The video also contains my thoughts about prompt-based projects.

I hope you'll take some time to sit and watch the video. I worked in a 6 x 6 inch journal containing gray Stonehenge paper. (This journal is not available commercially at this time.)

I set up a format of a smaller rectangle on the center of the right hand page. At the top and bottom of the image I stamped the text. On the opposite page, after the image had been posted to Facebook I printed out the text I'd posted with each image and added that to the left page of the spread. It's in that text where the character comes out most clearly.

My wrap-up for 2015 IFJM is contained within this video. I will repeat emphatically that I will never do another fake journal with a character so CLOSE to my actual self.

See my regular blog, Roz Wound Up, on Monday, June 8, 2015, for a closer look at my internal critic, a topic that came up within this project.

International Fake Journal Month 2015 Closes with a Look Back

Image ©2015 Ellen Ward, from her 2015
fake journal. 

At the end of each IFJM I ask participants to look back at what they have created during the month and do a bit of a project assessment. Some look at their goals and what were met and what stretched them, others look at how they mentally dealt with flopping in and out of character, others examine how time management got the better of them or how they fit it all in. The wrap-ups help us all by letting us have a peak at their process. It enables us to look for similar traps when we set up our own long-term projects, and allows us to savor their successes even as we plan new projects.

The following artists have all posted their fake journals publicly and listed their wraps ups in the same location. I encourage you to go and check them out and see what they have created, the characters who have come to live, and the discoveries the artists are sharing.

I hope you'll leave messages for the artists to let them know what you think.

And I also hope that next year you'll consider joining in on April 1, 2016 to begin creating your own fake journal!

In the following days there will be posts from other participants who didn't post their journals publicly but who nevertheless have completed a wrap-up. These will be shared here, with a couple images from their journals. Please check back to read those wrap-ups as well.

Participants with publicly posted wrap ups:

Ellen Ward (one of her journal entries starts this post) has returned to International Fake Journal this past April to create a color-filled journal "wandering through Breugel's Hunters in the Snow." You'll enjoy this exploration of another world.

Jan Blencowe joined the project for the first time in 2015. She made a journal full of media and color exploration. Her wrap up includes a list of her goals and a point-by-point examination of those goals. She also writes about her regular artistic process and how that process shifted during IFJM and what she hopes for going forward. She also has a video flip through of her journal at this post.

Lisa-Marie Greenly provides an explanation of her process and approach at this link in Facebook. She spent the month moving about the Cities seeing with new eyes and capturing what she saw there and the interesting folks (I can't say more without a spoiler alert). She spent April with another focus as well:

My go-to medium for the last year has been drawing with my handheld device [Galaxy Note2 w/S-Note program & stylus].  It fits my needs of being with me at all times, fits in my pocket, and has the added benefit of being a camera as well as being hooked to the internet for easy posting of images.  I am trying to explore the device to a stage where I feel fluent with creating on it .  Galaxy Note2 Phone= sketchpad, pens, pencil, highlighters, camera, and laptop.. The only thing to add is I have to remember to bring a charger cord with me at all times.  Having my drawing pad run out of juice makes it useless for actually making a phone call [remember... It’s also a phone.. Sometimes I forget].   

It's fun to see some digital work in this project!

Dianne B. Carey is another returning artist. She blended collage and sketching into daily pieces that departed from her usual aesthetic (again I don't want to have to do spoiler alerts). She thinks that the specific format and goals helped her complete more work in this year's journal. I found it interesting to see how she avoided the items she usually incorporated in her work in order to get into the character's mindset. And she embraced the "I have to fit some art time into my day," perspective.

©2015 Dana Burrell. The Wrap-up page in her 2015 fake Journal.

Dana Burrell has also been participating in IFJM for several years. You'll enjoy reading her illustrated wrap up which covers supplies, goals, and her approach.

Another frequent participant is Michelle Himes. You can see her wrap up for 2015 here. She kept her goals simple—completing a page for each day and using a medium she wasn't accustomed to using. She took a fun virtual trip to Hawaii. The project also allowed her to come to a decision about watercolor pencils. I think that's always a great insight we gain from fake journals—more information of media we use for an extended time!

Lily White joined in with a project that limited her media to new choices. She further immersed herself in these new choices by restricting herself to "unusual tools" like credit cards, plastic utensils, bottle caps…no brushes. And she ended with a new fun piece that I think qualifies for Journal Infiltration! (See below.)

Check back this week for more artist's wrap-ups of their 2015 International Fake Journal Month Journal!

Update May20, 2015: Katie Powell wrote a wrap up on her blog that can be found at this link. Despite some health issues, which she writes about, she was able to continue work on her fake journal and follow through on her focus and goals. She took frequent notes about her process along the way and I'll think you'll enjoy reading those reflections. If you would like to see all the pages from her fake journal she has a dedicated page on her blog here.

Joan Tavolott returned to the project this year after a "leave of absence" (my term not hers). She worked with flowers and has some interesting observations about how the whole project went for her on her blog here. I hope that you'll go and check it out.

"Thanks Roz for creating IFJM! What a brilliant idea!" writes Lily White writes on her wrap up collage. (I'm going to need to get some green glasses! I like them. (Image ©2015 Lily White.)

[considered] Truths: the 2015 slogan

What’s up with the yearly slogans for International Fake Journal Month you might ask? (People ask all the time and there have been several questions in the past week.)

Projects have to be fun for me and part of the way I make IFJM fun is to have a new slogan each year. In the past I would make them into buttons, now they are simply images, small “posters” to mark the year.

There is of course the main and on-going slogan for IFJM:

“Life’s so short, why live only one?”

That will always be there. It clearly states the point of the project.

But each year a new slogan is offered because of my love of commemorating events in this fashion. It helps me keep the years separate, “Oh, yeah, 2014 was the year of no explanations, how did that go for me?” That type of thing.

The slogans grow out of my own reflection on the process of fake journaling, an assessment of my current life, the selected image I want the slogan to work with, and the bubbling thoughts I have about the upcoming fake journal I’m going to be making.

It is not important or necessary that participants utilize the year’s slogan in any way, or even pay attention to it. Some participants do think about the slogan and find ways to apply it to their character. For instance in 2014 several people embraced “no explanations.” In this way slogans can help point and push participants to a deeper look at what they are trying to do, or give them focus if they get off track.

For others the slogans and yearly image remain merely decorative. And that’s fine.

For me, as I just wrote, the slogans grow out of my own creative process as I rev up for IFJM. In so many ways they set the psychological approach that I’ll take throughout the month. (I deliberately leave the slogans vague so that participants can interpret them freely and find meaning in them if they choose to do so.)

In February this year, just recovering from flu and bronchitis, I realized I’d better get busy thinking about my journal selection, character, media, etc. for this year’s celebration. What happened was I sat down and started thinking about which image I wanted to use for the “button” and then brainstormed slogans that held meanings for me. They just poured out onto a two-page spread in my journal. Some were too self-revelatory for a public project, others didn’t seem to go with the image, or when placed with the selected image created an implied tone I didn’t care for.

Once I made the slogan selection I completed the artwork you see on the top of the right-hand column (some past “buttons” can be seen at the very bottom of this column if you scroll all the way down). I used a painting made previously (that feels right to me for this type of project rather than creating a new image, this repurposing creates another level of distance and non-reality) and layered it with the text of the slogan, experimenting with various fonts and combinations. The style and bracketing are am important part of the interpretive content for me. “Truths” is obviously a loaded word when working with IJFM and all the attendant fakery, but I try in all my fake journals to keep close to some aspect of myself. In this way I am able to mine deeper and bring back useful insights to my regular journaling process.

“[considered]” for me is a little bit playful. So too is the image of the young boy which I made from a photo picked up at an estate sale. He is no relation to me, yet dear because of the time spent painting with him. That’s one level of “[considered]” for me.

Another level of “[considered]” is that I am explicitly asking participants to remember to focus on what is true in what they are creating. Even in the fake there is always, and must always be something that is absolutely true.  In a way it’s a comment on “Art” if you like, but more specifically for me (and I love to be specific) it is a comment on “Life.”

It is my hope that participants will enact their own level of analysis to consider either during or after, what truths they are finding in their work this month.

Once the words of the slogan and these thoughts were in my brain I couldn’t get them out. I posted the “button” to the blog and went back to my work, but the slogan stayed with me. You will see later how it directly impacts my 2015 fake journal, but that is a story for another day.

If you are participating this year remember only that the slogan is there as a place marker in the line of celebrations. If you want to delve into what it might mean for you, do so. Ask yourself how it might relate to what your character is up to and what his or her journey is about. If it doesn’t resonate with you, don’t waste time “trying to make it fit.”

Just keep it in your mind for a moment.

Many participants find that AFTER the month is over, something they thought they weren’t even paying attention to actually influenced their entire month. The creative mind is interesting that way. We put in seemingly random things and it spits out “[considered]” Truths.

Time to Start Thinking about Your 2015 Fake Journal

It’s time to start thinking about International Fake Journal Month. Yes, April is still more than a month away, but it’s time to keep your eyes open and antennae twitching for possibilities.

For the past few days, when I have a moment or two, I have been gathering the commercially bound journals I have on hand. While I usually bind my own books, the past two years a shoulder injury has prevented that and I’ve been using more and more commercially bound journals, while completing physical therapy so I can return to binding. Typically I complete my fake journal in a commercial bound journal because that’s the first and most obvious difference I can draw from reality to fake—but now that might not be the case. So along with a few commercially bound journals like the types found in this post from 2012.

I am pulling a few small journals that I hand bound several years ago, off the shelves as well.

Once the small selection has been laid out on the table I’ll start thinking about what medium I might want to devote 30 days to.  I’ll ask myself what my subject matter might be, what I might enjoy creating with that medium, how I might seek out that subject matter, which of the books seems most friendly to these emerging plans, and then I’ll walk away from the table to think it all over.

If I get it in my mind that I want to work in gouache, I probably wouldn’t pick a book with paper I know is unsuitable for gouache. I love a challenge, but I also want to have some fun.

I also usually like to select a topic that I know will hold my interest for the entire month of April, and be doable—so detailed 9 x 12 inch portraits of people, that’s too much a time commitment. Value studies of fruits and vegetables I can set up on the table and execute in 15 minutes, doable.

For the first example I have to round up 30 people to sketch, or enough people that I can keep asking them to sit for me long enough that I can do a detailed portrait of them. That’s easily a 2 to 3 hour a day undertaking I wouldn’t impose on friends or myself.

Last year, because I wanted to make goofy people sketches, I requested animated photos from readers. I worked from photos, creating loose images that were all done very quickly (and the model didn’t have to sit for the portrait). But I prefer working from life so there were drawbacks to that solution. It did however give me ample time to work with acrylic inks and brush pens in a large scale (22 x 30 inches) during the month.

Since I’m just starting to paint again after a long hiatus (due to the same shoulder injury that limited my binding) there is something appealing about working in gouache for the entire month. Then even if I work with pen and ink all day, at least once a day the paints will come out.

Another consideration for me is whether or not my character will be mobile. If she (and 90 percent of the time I keep with a female character) is then I have to work out what sort of medium would be easily transportable and enjoyable and where she might take that medium, e.g., to the zoo, but not an art museum perhaps.

But I’ll wait to think on that until I’ve found the book. I have a sense that this year the answer lies in finding the book. Some years my character comes to me as soon as I pick a medium.

I would suggest that you start thinking about options and approaches yourself. Start taking stock of what books and supplies you have on hand. I think the project works best if you spend zero money on it—so use what you have on hand and push your creative response to those materials and see who pops up as a character and what theme or thread comes to the surface.

If you’re looking at books and supplies you have on hand and a character isn’t coming to you within two weeks of casual thought about this close you’re eyes and pick a book.

Then walk around for a week thinking about the media you can use in that book, on the paper it contains. Is that something you want to work with for 30 days?

Next think of a subject matter. By now it’s only about a week away and something is beginning to percolate. Once it does, take a moment to write a couple things down about your character—name, sex, habitat, likes, dislikes, that sort of thing. You can even make a list of friends’ names and a little bit about them if you want. REMEMBER once you start working you’ll be jumping right in and you won’t be explaining backstory because in the REAL course of events if I’m going to write about my friend Tom I don’t need to write all about him and how I met him and what he does and what he looks like when I mention him in April. I already know all that. Now I can certainly get at some of that information if it’s important to my character, for instance if she wants to indicate that he doesn’t look well she will describe how he looks different from NORMAL, but no more.

Think about those natural limitations to the journaling process as you move along. You can either just go merrily along or you can take a moment, before you start, to write a couple things down about your character so you don’t forget that her best friend is named Tom and start calling him Bill at the end of the month…

You decide.

But whatever you decide it’s time to start deciding.

I hope you’ll all take a moment to consider joining in this year.

See the links at the top of the blog for an explanation of what a Fake journal is and what International Fake Journal Month is. Check out the Tips category for tips on keeping such a journal (though I’ve given you some good tips for starting in this post there are many more tips on the blog from past years).

As we approach April check back here to learn how to get on the participants list.

If you’re still on the fence check out “Thinking aboutParticipating in International Fake Journal Month?”

Remember this: Your fake journal doesn’t have to be elaborate—in fact it works better if it isn’t. Engineer a project that you can execute in a few minutes each day, a character you can get into with a minimum of fuss. Then you’ll be on your way.