Fitting the Pieces into Place
In the spring of 2000 when my Asheville potter son, Josh was 20 years old, he came across an old journal he had kept when he was 16.
“Everything in it was silly. I hated it,” he said, in answer to the question I posed ‘when did you start journal collaging and why?’
“I wondered who was writing all this ridiculous stuff,” he continued, “but I also knew it was an important part of my history that I couldn’t just throw away.”
That first journal became Josh’s prototype to so many others. He explained how he covered up its contents with collage, in an attempt to disguise what was embarrassing, leaving only little snippets of the original text as hints into that time. 
“At that point, I had a sketchpad, was keeping a photo album, and a journal. I combined them all into only one book to carry around,” he explained.
“What a relief to put everything in one place!” I responded.
Josh went on to describe other details that fostered his interest in collage journal art. One particularly striking experience was when he discovered Dan Eldon’s published collage journal (Dan was a young photo-journalist who was killed tragically in Africa). Josh was at a friend’s college graduation party when he spotted the book and immediately became was transfixed. 
“I sat down with it. People wandered over to see what I was doing, looked at it some, and then went back to the party. I never got up. I looked at it for hours,” Josh said.
“But you know, mom,” he added, “the books that you made helped …”
“What books? The homemade ones we used to make?” I interrupted. I had forgotten for a moment that I kept scrapbooks and baby books that both my boys grew up looking at.
“I was fascinated looking at the baby books you made for me and Dylan. A lot of those pages were done in collage. You were definitely outside the box. And you told us more than once about the importance of keeping a journal.” Josh reminded me.
As he spoke, I began to remember. Indeed, when Josh was 11, he and a friend traveled around the country with alternative education pioneer Jerry Mintz, and the only academic practice I demanded of him was that he keep a journal of his experiences.
“Even a shopping list is interesting to me once it’s a year or two old.” Who said that? You did, mom! And now I’m always picking stuff up to use in my journals, scraps of garbage that other people don’t even notice,” Josh said.
Like mother like son? It’s true, except for the fact that when it comes to making art, Josh surpasses me by miles.
Post Notes: Collaging runs in our family here. View pages from my collage journal here. That’s Josh’s brother Dylan in the forefront with him looking at Josh’s art scrapbook sometime in the mid 80s. Some pages from Josh’s collage journals were recently featured in an art show in Winston Salem, NC.
May 5th, 2006 10:46 am
Nice site colleen…..josh sounds like a neat kid….my 15 year old daughter show signs of great creativity….i hope she gets into writing, as she has a very easy style and voice…….
take care….tom
May 5th, 2006 1:57 pm
Ah, you and your son practice the fine art of “altering” as the scrapbookers call it nowadays! I have yet to venture into altering books, although I know a lot of people who love to do that. I just alter personal items like cds, paint cans etc.
But the artwork is gorgeous, and you’ve given your kids an amazing legacy, which will, without a doubt, be passed on every generation to come!
Michele sent me!
May 5th, 2006 2:05 pm
Wow, I wish I’d thought of collage journaling when I was in high school…looking back on my written journal is painful (because the writing sucks so much.) I might actually *want* to take a look at collages of the past.
Here via Michele’s!
May 5th, 2006 2:11 pm
I love Xollage..and a million years ago I did a series of Collages which were shown in my very first One Woman show….They sold very well, I’m happy to say…but when I started doing them I don’t think I thought about “selling” at all…I love looking at other peolles collages and the idea of a Collage/Journal is really wonderful…Love yours (I loooked back at that post) and your sons, too! I think it is so wonderful that he remembered that you encouraged them to keep a journal but you didn’t emember that! LOL! It’s obvious, my dear Colleen, that art, in all it’s forms, hasbeen a huge part of your life forever! Wondeful, isn’t it? And that you have passed this on to your sons…More Wonderful!
May 5th, 2006 2:13 pm
LOL, LOL, LOL..Just here from reasding your comment on Michele, for me…NO! No real at all. Major Plastic Ones! Real ones would not be a joke, at all!
May 5th, 2006 7:37 pm
The apple didn’t fall far from the tree did it? I loved your pages…..what beautiful little boys they were. Just precious. I want to do a neat collage like that of my nephews and niece and what they’ve meant to me.
I met a friend of yours this morning shopping in Roanoke for this really cool blouse….at the Seeds of Light. I loved her store.
May 5th, 2006 9:25 pm
I love reading about your son, Josh. Isn’t it wonderful when we can say, “my child surpasses me by miles…”
May 5th, 2006 10:52 pm
Wow, what talent! You definitely have something to be proud of with his work!
Here from Michele’s!
May 6th, 2006 12:13 am
These pages your show are beautiful. Matisse-like, in a way. What a great record–even the ones where the writing is covered with images. Great art. Like Mother like son.
May 6th, 2006 6:42 am
I have been an on and off collage journalist type, but never stuck with is long enough to have a heritage. Maybe I will be more dedicated with my grandchildren!
May 6th, 2006 10:09 am
well done you! you both! you all! my mum used to make collages. i grew up making mixed media work. went on to art school and conyinued. now my medium is bodies, my blog, writing and photography and the wonderlets. quite a mixed media bag!
his journals llok wonderful.
beautiful post again*
May 6th, 2006 12:30 pm
I just found my high school scrapbook. Turns out my mother was right after all. I was waaaay silly.
May 6th, 2006 3:25 pm
I have started several journals and always felt that day to day life, at least mine was fairly boring. That’s one reason I started this, so Nyssa would have stories from her childhood, my childhood and a bit of her extended family history. Sometimes looking back on those old journals or diaries is a bit scary.
May 6th, 2006 3:44 pm
You earlier entries on this subject inspired me to try my hand at it. Although, I’m using large scale artist canvases, instead of journals. My mother used to keep shoe boxes full of buttons, pipe cleaners, construction paper, paper clips, toilet paper rolls, bottle caps, cotton balls, leaves…whatever. We made massive collages whenever the mood struck us, at an old dining room table in our cinder block basement. The walls of that room were covered with them. You’ve put me back in touch with a little piece of my childhood, through glue and imagination.
May 6th, 2006 5:09 pm
How brilliant! I love this idea. Your son sounds very talented. I wonder where he got that from? 😉
May 7th, 2006 6:04 am
Marvelous images! I would love to donate a heap o’ used ink jet cartridges, but they’re not mentioned on Marty’s site, only the cell phones. Is he still collecting cartridges? (Thanks.)
May 7th, 2006 7:34 am
Just a quickie* –
Where did the time go? I could just eat up that picture of Josh and Dylan.
*(and probably a big reason I love to keep history alive via photos/collages)
May 7th, 2006 11:11 am
I fixed the link to go to the one on Marty’s blog that talks about cartridges. Thanks, Elissa.
May 8th, 2006 8:08 am
I am so inspired by this post! For the past three years, I have given each of my daughters a notebook at the beginning of each summer in order to do the “free writing” exercises in “The Writers Way”.
If they had a block, I’d ask questions that they would answer in the journal. Their writing, of course, was neither judged or graded. They could show me the page if they wanted to, and once in a while, they would. 🙂
I hadn’t ever thought of collage at the time, and now, I wish I did! I’ll show this post to my girls and suggest we all try it this summer. The collages shown here are so inspirational. I think both of my girls will appreciate the use of mixed media as well.
Thanks for sharing this, Colleen!
August 6th, 2013 12:23 am
[…] photos of Josh’s work HERE. Read about his collage journals and how he started collage journaling HERE and […]