press pause

i’ve been keeping visual journals for 21 years. i call them visual journals because they are 80 percent visual. i do write in my journals too, mostly lists and notes from whatever i am reading or listening to, but the vast majority of what is in them is visual–mostly collage and other creative experiments. i typically fill about one journal per year, although in good years i can fill two or more. last year during the pandemic, with our house full of five adults all distance working and learning, i made very little art other than STILL and my summer experiments into natural ink making. last night i took an hour to leaf through my journal from 2 years ago. what a delight that was! and wow, how little has changed. i mean, the whole world changed last year, but how little my creative thoughts, plans, and ideas had changed. it’s as if i pressed pause last year in march, and now i am just returning to my creative self. anyway, while leafing through said journal from 2019, this pressed botanical fell out. i think it might be some form of bougainvillea. the color, shapes, and translucence is gorgeous.

unidentified pressed botanical (bougainvillea?)