Sunday was cold and drizzly, and a perfect day, I thought, for updating my various "journals" and scrapbooks. Here is the thing, I have counted and I have
twelve books that I currently use to keep track of and process the various bits and pieces of information and visual imagery that I come into contact with. Is that a bit excessive, you think? The more creative ones are:
1) My Art Journal, although I hesitate to call it that. In fact, I call it Farewell Nikola, as that is the title of the book I am using as my art journal.
2) My 100 ideas journal.
3) My Doodle Book (a concertina moleskine for my doodles), and
4) "Oh Well" which was supposed to capture thoughts and daily events using drawings and words, but is now kind of defunct. It is almost full though, so I think I might finish it ...
Then there are my scrapbooks. Once I have finished with magazines, I tear out pictures, articles, quotes, etc. and keep them in a big pile in a box, waiting for a rainy Sunday. And then I update my scrapbooks:
5) Make - a book to capture things I see that I would like to make or try out. This is the third volume. Thing is, I have not actually
made anything yet.
6) It's Cool - a book of movies that I have seen. It is not exhaustive by any means - I have probably seen 100x more movies (I keep a list on computer), but when I see a review or description of a movie that I've seen and liked, I sometimes take the trouble to tear it out and paste it in.
7) Beautiful Inside - named thus because the outside is ugly, and secondly because it contains images of beautiful interiors.
8) A Book of Rather Nice Clothes - I am not really a fashion fan, but sometimes an image just catches my eye, maybe because of the colours, or sculptural style, or how an outfit is put together. I rarely want to own the pieces, I just like to look at them.
9) A book of Quotes - I write down quotes from books that I read. This is the second volume.
10) My Diary - If that is all I have with me I sometimes record quotes and drawings in here, apart from the usual to do lists and events.
11) A Book of Articles. I used to paste them into an old statistics textbook of mine - this is now full and bulging - so for the past couple of years I have been putting articles in a wicker basket. One day I will paste them in a book. I think.
12) A scrappy little book in which I record definitions of words. I also use it to write summaries of articles I read - my initial idea was so that I could remember the facts better and would become a master at the art of conversation, coming up with gems like" Oh yes, but you have to remember that Cioran was permanently in combat with the mores of enlightened society!" Or "But does environmentalism really involve sacrifice? I would call it competitive altruism!" Or "That is absolute Disneyfication of art! And Roger Scruton would agree with me!". People avoid me at parties, I have noticed.
I haven't yet mentioned the boxes of images I tear out and "file" away in envelopes with titles such as: Landscapes, Figurative, Patterns and Graphics, Flowers & Fruit & Vegetables, Well-known people, Letters & Words.
I do think I have a problem.
