Skip to main content

Altered Book {Intern Edition}: Work in Progress Preview 2


In my last post I gave a few suggestions on selecting a book and prepping it. If you still haven't selected a book take a peek here Altered Book {Intern Edition}: Work in Progress Preview 1 before proceeding.

Over the last few years I have had the opportunity to work with and supervise some very creative and motivated art therapy students. Each having to come face-2-face with the good the bad and the hairy of an internship site. That is the reason for this altered book. Advice, inspiration, motivations from myself and prior students for internship survival... tho maybe it will be much more.... Maybe it will be:

...an informal guide to thriving at an art therapy internship site...
(remember, the title is still a work in progress so bare with me here)

On this post we will pick-up after the children's book was prepped (see Work in Progress Preview 1) and a theme selected... 

Magazine images can be added-to and extended in order to facilitate incorporation into the page/theme. 
  • Research! Research! Research! Scour the net for ideas (unless you're having one of those inspiring days). I have several go-to Pinterest collections for quotes, typographical references, etc. 

  • Book Layout (organization helps)... I wrote my ideas/thoughts on post-its which I placed throughout the book (1 per double page spread). With that part done I could select a specific post-it entry and use it to guide my collage pile diving. ie. peek at the note several times as you sift through media and collected images it will help keep you focused.


  • Don't hesitate to experiment with various medias and processes and with that said, if you have some safe go-to medias employ them too.  If it's all (or mostly) about the process make sure to have fun with it. While my book is meant for future interns it is currently my self-care venue.  

I love mixing traditional medias with organics (ie. flower petals, leaves, butterfly or beetle wings, etc) and layering of the two. In the example above I layered translucent African Violet flower petals I had previously used to naturally stain paper. The image below shows a collage where I extended some of the images with acrylic paint and superimposed my selected quote by using a translucent strip of tea-bag paper.


Next post I'll elaborate a bit more on layering and mixed media.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

March Days of #creativedeed365

and it continues! #creativedeed365 continued through the struggles of march with lots of support from the Facebook group, family, friends, and even spouse. After the first 2 months of #creativedeed365  with Gretchen Miller , March began with a plan. Using the stained cards from Murphy in the Art Space  which were already cut into 3"x 3" squares I set out to conquer Marchs' 31 days. One day  card at a time. Much like the prior months I prepared the back of the cards with the # of the card and date plus a blip about the creativedeeds. Each day I found a few minutes to create the entry. Saving the cards for distribution once I was in public spaces such as the local university, coffee shops, or restaurants. This month I saw a couple pop-up on Instagram from people who found them and then found me through the #creativedeed365 tag. I was surprised by how exited I was at realizing where these cards had made-it to. Glad they were in good hands. Through the making of ...

Leftover Tie Dye? Work with it!

Summer seems to be the time for tie dye and outdoor activities -- in Florida that also means spontaneous monsoon-like thunderstorms and zillions (yes, zillions) of mosquitoes. So, if you’re stuck indoors with weeks old (or older) tie dye, this post is for you! As seen in previous posts I love re-purposing and up-cycling, however believe me when I say that I do not go looking for these opportunities. I just go with it when the muse calls and sometimes it works out and others it does not. This was one of those creative opportunities that paid off. 1 First, I happen to find some tie dye left by my students (maybe as far back as April or early May). It had been mixed ages ago (months) and packaging instructions say to discard after a few hours...umm. OK so I couldn't bring myself to pouring it down the drain. 2 Finding some pieces of light color or white absorbent cloth (mine were about 4”x4” bed sheet cloth) I set to purposefully experiment. I folded & wrapped e...

Layered {Response} Art

Inchies in process of being stained. I recently read artist Seth Apter ’s post on a question we artists are often asked: How long did it take you? The following blog post will be my response to his thought provoking post which I found rang a few bells for me. Seth’s post for October 20th, 2014 can be reached via this link: The Surface of my Work So, how long does it take to create? ...the art therapist’s perspective. I will give voice to some accumulated thoughts on the particular topic of response art. I feel it is important to make the distinction between response art and other artwork I may engage-in for the purpose of “creating something pretty”. Response art to me indicates a creative process (and/or artifact) that seeks to process an experience; usually to do with intense experiences encountered as a part of carrying out the duties of our profession [for more on response art in art therapy see Fish, 2006, 2008, 2012]. Beginning. When the creative bug cal...