CAJournals

Journaling has long been a practice of mine. I’ve filled sketchbooks, collaged diaries, hand-bound notebooks, abstract books – the book becomes the container allowing me to move freely between writing, collaging and painting. There’s something endlessly inviting about a blank journal, that wide-open space of possibilities, contained in a special volume.

For a recent Rome Art Week Studio event, it struck me to flip my usual formula: I would paint the covers and keep the insides blank. Inspired by words and phrases, I translated these into painted abstractions on the faces of colored, slim booklets. Thus was born a new series of hand-painted journals. These are called CAJournals – the CA stands for Calligraphic Abstractions.

In my style of works called Calligraphic Abstractions, I begin with a phrase or word, and as I paint it, the form of it dissolves into a new form. The words remain in essence, while a brush strokes form its own, new shape. These have taken form as works on paper, layers in my Iconics series, and even as an ArTshirt.