Kids and Moms, Wreck This Journal and 59-63

Cover Page/Wreck This Journal/Draw Popsiple trees, Mommy!
59/100 in 100 creative challenge
pitt artist pens
(this and all following pictures from Wreck This Journal, by Keri Smith)

I'm trying to finish my book this week. I don't think I will totally finish, but I'm making a good effort. A lot of the pages are half done, so I just need to find my focus and wreck with intention. Or wreck randomly, really.

This post is child directed.

These are all pages that have been wrecked by my children or pages that have been directed by my children.

The cover page, for instance, was created because Ivy required that I draw "popsiple trees." She is obsessed with them.

As you will see by the following pages.

More Popsiple Trees, Mommy!/Instructions
60/100 in 100 creative challenge
pitt artist pens, diptych

Red!

Green!

Black!

They told me, and I had to figure out a way to make it work. Kind of interesting being instructed by bother Keri Smith and my children.

I particularly like the gray/black/green page.

Nice color combo. And the trees growing out of the words are whimsical and graphic at the same time. I could see using this somewhere else in the future.

Number Page
61/100 in 100 creative challenge
collage, newspaper, gold paint pen

It says here 1234canihavealittlemore5678910iloveyou... I don't know if my lyrics are wrong. I don't care.

Okay. This isn't child directed, oh well.
BLANK (double sided)
62/100 in 100 creative challenge
acrylic, pitt artist pen
BLANK (back side)

Kind of a post modern take on the instructions. She said to leave it blank.

Rather than ignore it. I blanked it. And I traced the blankness on the other side.

What does it really mean to be blank, anyway? What if your intention is blankness?

The opposite page is my intention of moving on and letting go of the past. Moving forward. It is awaiting the flame.

1st Ave Riding Sketch
63/100 in 100 creative challenge
pen, watercolor, pitt artist pen

Also not child driven. But drawn with them in the back seat on the way to the grocery store. don't worry I wasn't driving.

When things slide past you so fast, it's hard to capture exactly what's there. However, it wasn't as bumpy as I thought it would be. Watercolor was added later, as was the writing.
not counting this one in my creativity totals.

I couldn't bear to chew on the page. So I had Ivy do it. She didn't like it much, but she enjoyed doodling on the page. I think this is kind of her "writing." I think she might have signed it.
This is Ivy's page, too. Also not counting it in my totals, as it's hers.

She's been working on it for a while. She wants to use my markers, which she isn't allowed to usually. I don't know what she's trying to convey here, quite.

Here is Gabriel's page. Not my creative challenge, either, but I do know what he is trying to convey. He's into designing houses, lately. He wants to build a dog house, but this is a people house. Oh, we have no dog.

He's got kitchens and living rooms and gardens and bedrooms and a reading room for mama. :)

What have I been learning from this Wreck This Journal?

I think I have been learning to loosen up and let go and stop putting so many constraints around my creativity. Freedom? Not a bad thing.

I think I have also discovered that I miss my personal journal. I think I'd like to take it up again, not just journaling on my blog but in my pen and paper journal.

And I think I want to get back to artjournaling.

You wouldn't believe how long I've been painting in books. I should share some of the stuff I've done over the years. I even made my own chapbook of art and poetry one year. Before all the digital photography and my own blogging. Old school photocopies and hand binding. It took forever.

There are fewer boundaries than we would think. We have more freedom than we know.

Of course, true freedom is scary as hell.