Wreck This Journal: Free

Today is the last day of school.  My students are long gone, finals are graded, the gradebook is done, and my classroom is locked up for the summer.  When the door closes behind me it feels a bit like this:

Summer Break feels a lot like bright, wild scribbles!

Every year, just before I leave, I set aside a moment for reflection. I stand in the middle of my classroom and marvel at how fast the year has gone.  I close my eyes and hold the memories close. This is how I say goodbye each year.  My classroom is full of so many trials and triumphs.  It’s been a difficult year full of change (many of which have me questioning where public education is headed), but it’s also been a year of eyes lighting up and creative minds finding their voice.  While the atmosphere outside of my classroom leaves me demoralized in many regards, my students are the reason why I can still say I love my job.

For the next two months I’m free to “scribble” with reckless abandon. Well, more so than usual!  I’ll be writing, creating, and listening to my muse with zero distraction.  The feeling of total inspiration is a lot like making those vibrant scribbles in my Wreck This Journal.  There are no rules and the release is exhilarating!  I’ve repeated this exercise a couple of times because it is so cathartic.  I highly recommend it for anyone with a stressful job or those who enjoy making a mess of color!

Happy Summer!

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Try it!  Make a page of scribbles and post the picture on your blog.  Put the link in my comments section so we can all share in the joy of wild scribbles!

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c.b. 2012

Wreck This Journal: Blank

Sometimes the hardest thing to do is nothing.  There is a page in Wreck This Journal that says, “Leave this page blank on purpose.”  It’s driving me nuts.

Oh, the possibilities!

Leave it blank?  Why put it in the journal if it has no purpose?  There’s nothing on the other side of the page, either!  For a doer such as myself, this was difficult to accept.  There I was with my tools of destruction at the ready and Keri Smith was asking me to leave them alone and do nothing.  My muse was ready to pop a gasket!

My fingers twitched as I considered the blank page in front of me.  I wanted to color in the letters – a pattern of green, blue, and purple – and I almost did it.  Then, it occurred to me that I was looking at this all wrong.  Instead of fighting the notion of nothing, I should be embracing it.

This is a big epiphany for a self-admitted busy body who has trouble letting an hour go by without filling it with some task, whether it be writing, creating, teaching, gardening, pondering, wondering, running, reading, watching movies, etc.  If any moment is filled with nothing, I feel like I’ve wasted something I can’t get back.  It took a stark page to get me to realize doing nothing is not the same as being lazy or wasting a moment.

Creativity isn’t about crossing things off a Wreck This Journal “to-do” list, but rather pitching the list altogether.  A page left untouched leaves the idea of possibilities infinitely open.  The same is true for an unfinished collage or a poem missing the last line.  Possibilities are in plentiful supply  if we slow down enough and regard them with patience.  Doing nothing is sometimes better than writing a thousand lines of words just to hit a word count goal or adding something to a painting just to call it done.  Sometimes doing nothing is what leads to the ultimate end.

My empty page still gives me an itch to color, bend, rip, or crumple, but it remains pristine. Meanwhile, my imagination continues to conjure new ways to wreck that page.  Every time I come across these instructions, I am reminded that without an empty canvas we have no reason to fill it.

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For previous Wreck This Journal posts please visit my tag cloud and sidebar. Stay inspired!

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c.b. 2012

Wreck This Journal: Make Your Mark

With spring in the air and a new garden blooming on my patio, bright colors and flowers seem to always be on my mind these days.  All the fresh air is also bringing out my inner child, who simply cannot wait to play, (hence my rather whimsical post, Hop and Seek).  Naturally, the inspiration of spring has found its way to the pages of Wreck This Journal.  When I came across a page that instructed me to make handprints or fingerprints, I pulled out my brightest markers and started coloring the tips of my fingers.

Instead of making a random Pollack-like smattering of prints, I decided to “draw” a little picture with only my fingers and thumbs.  As a child, I remember entertaining myself by inking up my fingers with magic markers and making prints all over construction paper.  For some reason, I was fascinated by how I had a built in stamping system on my little hands.  As an adult, I’m no less mesmerized.

My fingers danced across the page, pressing prints one oval at a time until I got a few flowers with a sun-filled sky in the background and a patch of green grass.

Fingerprints Galore!

While the page itself had a pretty clean outcome, the space around my journal was a disaster!  I left prints in places I never intended and my fingers were stained for days, (nails, too).  At the same time, I enjoyed walking around with what I call “artist hands.”  When there’s color left behind from ink or paint it means I’ve been creative and I’m bold enough to wear it proudly.  Art is meant to be seen and so is the creative soul.

From this standpoint, I’m proud to be an adult who isn’t afraid to play every once in a while.  I’ll leave my mark with words, photographs, art journals, and a slew of other creative creative pursuits, but I’m also ready to dabble in coloring books and fingerprint art.

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For previous Wreck This Journal posts please see my sidebar and tag cloud.

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c.b. 2012

Wreck This Journal: Back To Nature

As a child, I spent a lot of time wandering through the Northwoods of Wisconsin picking up leaves, sticks, acorns, rocks, and anything else I could find to add to my little collection.  Nature has always fascinated me from the largest trees to the smallest pebbles.  So, when Wreck This Journal gave directions to “press leaves and other found things,” I was ecstatic!

From the woods of Northern Wisconsin and the beaches of South Carolina

To complete this page, I went straight to my craft closet where, I have a drawer dedicated to “naturals” that has everything from rocks, pressed leaves, twigs and a slew of other things I’ve picked up over the years.

I paid homage to the Northwoods by representing Oak, Maple, Birch, and Popple trees with a pressed leaf for each.  Seeing as red maple leaves are my favorite, I made sure to include one on my page.  I ironed the leaves in between two sheets of wax paper to keep them safe, but to also relive a favorite childhood memory of making leaf “sun catchers” with the same technique.  I pasted it to the page and then set about adding a few more pieces of nature.  I glued some birch bark along the upper left corner and then attached a bag of  little keepsakes from a place other than the woods. The seashells and shark tooth are from the beaches of South Carolina, which always make me think of time I spent with my Dad.  He’s the one who taught me how to find shark teeth in the sand and that’s always been one of my favorite memories of him.

Once again, Wreck This Journal has conjured wonderful memories and returned me to a frame of mind where leaves rustle, trees sway, and waves crash against the shore.  Perhaps, I am drawn to natural beauty because it anchors me to the things that matter most.

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For previous Wreck This Journal posts, please visit my sidebar and tag cloud. Stay inspired!

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c.b. 2012

Wreck This Journal: Inner Child

I got so excited when I came across the page in Wreck This Journal, that says “Color this entire page.”  For a girl who never met a box of crayons she didn’t like, this page made me giddy right from the start.  While contemplating the blank page, I was instantly reminded of something my sister and I did when we were kids.  My grandmother showed us how to turn a boring piece of paper into a work of art by simply drawing an endless line of curves and curls until the whole page was filled with a random design.  Then, it was all about filling in the gaps with color, in any sequence or color palette.  Who needs a coloring book when you can make your own pictures?

With that in mind, I took a marker and reverted to my nine-year-old self for my journal page.  I made curves in random directions until I ran out of space and then I picked out the brightest colors from my crayon box.  One by one, I filled in all the spaces until the entire page glowed with color.

I went a little nuts with the crayons!

While I never really ignore my inner child for any extended period of time, this page was a nice reminder to hold onto that little girl inside of me.  Children always see the world with so much wonder and curiosity, as if every day is an adventure. I never want to lose that, no matter how old I get.  There is a such thing as having it both ways – I can be a responsible adult who goes to work every day and pays her bills, but I can also be a girl who plays with crayons and marvels at the world around her with an inherent sense of wonder.

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For previous Wreck This Journal entries, please visit my sidebar and tag cloud.  Stay inspired!

c.b. 2012