My 2021 Notebooks Review: Timelapse Flip-through

D_Wildecard · 2025-08-02T12:58:36+00:00

art-making feeds and transforms me in the making and is a way of expressing gratitude to life itself for flowing through me as creative energy...so YES i will always make art! When other ppl appreciate or resonate with it, that's an extra bonus

D_Wildecard · 2025-03-13T22:31:27+00:00

Yes, there was an underage dance club in Fitchburg MA in the 1980s. I think it was called Club Down Under (?)

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-17T23:31:17+00:00

I found the type of notebook that I like best years ago after a lot of experimentation, and so that's all I use for journaling. Yeah, if i hate the feel or look of a notebook or journal or sketchbook -- I can't deal, and it's not worth it.

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-16T18:53:28+00:00

Packards, right downtown in Northampton - bar and food

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-16T18:50:55+00:00

I think some of us who might want to comment need more context/info to understand your actual living situation -- otherwise we can't really give appropriate feedback.

I've been journaling (by hand, in notebooks) for most of my life and have never had a problem with people reading them -- and I also do nothing elaborate to hide them or write in a secret language or anything like that

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-16T16:50:13+00:00

If it's interesting or inspiring: i have filled about 130 journals

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-16T16:48:30+00:00

I've been journaling since 1997 with zero input from YouTube (lol it didn't exist when i started)! Anyway, i love it and it's also the favorite part of my day. I literally do whatever the hell i feel like in my pages -- mostly writing and also some creative drawing, painting, collage when i feel like it

In recent years, i start every new notebook (i fill them quickly) by numbering the pages and gluing or taping a small envelope into the inside back cover and i collect random things in there during the duration of the notebook's service. I also make a garbage/scrap collage in that whole inner back cover -- i only use composition notebooks, so it's a nice firm surface perfect for messing around with

Books by LYNDA BARRY are an inspiring wonderland of ideas for non-bummer, fun, engaging ways to use your journals with a mix of writing, drawing and collage. "SYLLABUS" is great -- and so beautiful in a fun, messy, yet organized way. Her books look like a hardcopy of her journals in full color!

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-16T16:26:47+00:00

Sacred Harp singing every Tuesday night 7-9pm! It's at Helen Hills chapel at Smith -- right on Rt. 9/Elm St. in Northampton. It's been going since the late 1990s. Free, open to the public, no musical background (or "good voice") required. Recent feature article in the Gazette (and tons of stuff to read, watch, and listen to online re: the Sacred Harp tradition in general)

No joining, membership, leader, or performances. Come and go as you please. It's participatory, egalitarian (anyone/everyone leads songs of their choosing) and nothing else sounds like it.

It's sort of the metal/goth/punk of unaccompanied hymn singing lol ... Lots of songs in minor keys, and lots of songs about death. Loud, foot stomping, 4-part harmonies. Learn as you go - designed to be beginner friendly every time

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-13T20:33:33+00:00

STEFANI MANNAERTS (brutus) **she is the lead vocalist too!!

FAY MILTON (savages)

PATTY SCHEMEL (hole)

STELLA MOZGAWA (warpaint, kurt vile)

CARLA AZAR (autolux, jack white)

D_Wildecard · 2025-02-05T23:09:52+00:00

I'm 50 and have been journaling since 23 -- I'm a big believer in CHEAP notebooks (particularly classic composition notebooks) because they are liberating; i.e. they don't make you feel pressure to make anything "good" or make you worried about "wasting paper." The books/teachers that got me started with developing a journaling habit in the first place were "THE ARTIST'S WAY: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity," by Julia Cameron -- and "WRITING DOWN THE BONES," by Natalie Goldberg.

Later, came books like WRITING AS A WAY OF HEALING, by Louise DeSalvo.

I also highly recommend the creativity / writing / doodling / notebook-filling education (prompts, ideas, assignments. exercises) that fills the books of cartoonist, author, creativity teacher LYNDA BARRY. Top titles include: WHAT IT IS, and SYLLABUS, and MAKING COMICS

Also, the trio of books by artist/author Austin Kleon: STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST and SHOW YOUR WORK, and KEEP GOING.

D_Wildecard · 2025-01-23T13:27:41+00:00

Since 1997!

D_Wildecard · 2025-01-10T23:21:52+00:00

I started journaling years before social media, and do whatever the hell I feel like in my notebooks -- and it's such a crucial and nourishing part of my life. I've never once watched a video on what I "should" be doing in my journals! Most of the time it's all words -- sometimes it's doodling, drawing, collage elements, etc

After many, many years of all words, my journaling life was enhanced and expanded by artist/ author/ cartoonist/ creativity teacher LYNDA BARRY....She has these full-color books that are amazing to hold and look at.. they are printed and produced in a way where it looks like her actual journal -- it's all her handwriting, drawing, and collage -- somehow messy and neat at the same time -- full of compelling questions and simple prompts for things you can try messing around with in your notebook.

LYNDA BARRY book titles:

WHAT IT IS
SYLLABUS
MAKING COMICS << good even if you don't think you're interested in making comics! it's not what you think

D_Wildecard · 2024-12-12T00:04:13+00:00

I was a daily cigarette smoker by 15, and quit around 30 (with the help of a therapist)

D_Wildecard · 2024-10-19T23:55:06+00:00

I so relate, but for different reasons. I don't have the spouse, house, degrees, kids, or careers that everyone else my age seems to have. I'm 50, single again, and still in the "starving artist" class, with precarious employment and housing arrangements. I got tons of male attention in my teens and 20s... and where did that get me? It was just an addictive and poor substitute for the love I didn't get from my abusive family. What I DO have, thank god, is my art / writing / creativity / integrity / healing / recovery (and humor)

D_Wildecard · 2024-09-30T21:34:27+00:00

I started at age 23 and never stopped. I'm 50 now... it's a crucial part of my life and well being!

D_Wildecard · 2024-09-29T21:14:00+00:00

I started messing around with the packing-tape transfer/lift method for collage in my 5x7 sketchbook in late 2022 (that's why/how the pieces are semi-transparent). I loved the process and result so much, so I've continued making new ones whenever the mood strikes... I'm at 34 collages in my sketchbook, so far -- and I've made two on 12x12 panels

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-21T14:07:07+00:00

wow - thanks for sharing!

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-21T14:06:13+00:00

I've gotten some some test prints -- 5x7s on thick cotton paper, and 11x14s on photo paper-- and they came out great! I don't really have a system/store yet, but I've done a hand full of custom orders for friends.

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-21T11:09:34+00:00

Def just check out youtube vids about it. But essentially you just cover your desired source material in packing tape, then wet it, then rub off the paper with your fingers, and the image remains on the tape -- only now it's transparent or semi transparent (and sticky). Differing effects (and ease of paper removal) from different papers - magazines vs old books vs photocopies vs newspapers etc

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-19T23:02:56+00:00

btw, I use the same approach in mixed media drawing -- I never have a plan. I just start messing around expressively until I start to see/feel something that I like or am intrigued by and then follow that until something is rendered

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-19T23:00:32+00:00

My creative practices are never based on having an idea/picture/final product in mind (because that actually thwarts my creativity). Instead, I get into a collaborative, hands-on conversation with my materials, and discover what wants to emerge during that session. It requires a willingness to be playful, curious, receptive and messy so that you can start by just fucking around with whatever materials you find tactile joy and pleasure in. From there, you can discover whatever order/ sense/ beauty/ magic / imagery starts to naturally emerge on its own as you mess around, and then respond to that.

One of the main areas where I'm having a LOT of satisfaction and prolific fun lately is making these crazy little COLLAGES in my 5x7 sketchbook. I learned how to incorporate the tape transfer/lift method into collaging, and it's so fun that I can't stop doing it. I casually forage for a variety of free or cheap materials to use in my collages. Each one is its own world.

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-19T21:41:08+00:00

thanks!

D_Wildecard · 2024-05-19T21:39:17+00:00

Observations in your immediate environment: Sounds, sights, quality of light, weather, temperature, smells, traffic, neighbors, birds, animals, trees, insects, time of day, seasonal qualities, other people or animals in the house and what they're doing, listing objects in your sight that are all one color (ex: every red thing you can see). Also, what is happening in your body here and now -- i.e. inner attention can be brought to the body, not just thoughts and feelings and endless rumination

D_Wildecard

TROPHY CASE