13 Days: An Art Journaling Collaboration Project and then Some
13 Days is an art journal created by me for a StencilGirl Stencils collaboration blog post by Tina Walker. A group of artists were tasked with deconstructing a booklet written by M. Stanley McLean in 1943 titled 13 Days Adrift. Not only did Tina give the collaborators the challenge of working completely in black and white but we were to only use StencilGirl Stencils and select a “theme” shape to run through the entire journal. The original booklet would also prove to be a challenge to work with.
Photo by Tina Walker
The cover was printed on textured paper, that appeared to be off white, or possibly very aged. The image and text were printed in a bright blue ink. The first thing I did was make a scan of the front cover and convert it to a completely black and white image. It took three conversions to get the image below.
Although, I didn’t end up using the converted image. I did use the original booklet covers as the inside of my final covers. If you’d like to see the original blog post by Tina Walker on the StencilGirl Blog, StencilGirl Talk you can find it HERE.
I did film the creation of this art journal. I submitted my photos to Tina and thought it was done. However, I sat it on a shelf and never edited the original footage. It just kept calling to me and then Strawberry Moon Magazine’s Fall 2022 issue 4 was announced to have the theme of collaboration and I felt it needed to be sent in. I made some minor changes and submitted it under the title, Thirteen. This is the first page of the article.
Thirteen as I was then calling it went back onto its shelf. She just didn’t feel complete. Nearly 5 months later I woke up in the night thinking about how much “Thirteen” reminded me of how I felt reading “Crossing to Safety” by Wallace Stenger. Stenger wrote Crossing to Safety in 1987. I went back to my reading journal and discovered that it took me 13 days to read it. I knew immediately I was onto something.
The next day I pulled out my dog-eared copy and began to make a list of the quotes that I had noted in my journal. I created a watercolor background using some greyish watercolor. I scanned the watercolor. I used it as a background and typed out all the quotes and an introduction to the journal. I then printed it out onto a piece of rice paper.
I finally finished her and she was ready to be reviled. I started to edit the videos and upload them to my YouTube channel and I took her into the Southern Arizona Artist Guild Gallery where I have my art on display. There are nine video’s in total. Only the last and final flip through video shows the finished and complete work. 13 Days as she is now titled is available for purchase in my shop.
Here is the playlist which starts with the creation of all the papers that went into creating the journal. Using a gel plate, some black and white alcohol inks and a handful of StencilGirl Stencils. The playlist will end with a quick final flip through of the journal, 13 Days as it looks on display at the Southern Arizona Artist Guild Gallery.
