Drawing From Life: The Journal as Art (Paperback)

by Jennifer New (Author) "Close observation of a single subject, whether it is as tiny as Pasteur's microbes or as great as Einstein's universe, is the kind of work..." (more)
Key Phrases: visual journals, journal keepers, New York, Jenny Keller, Journals Project (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"Refreshes the power, beauty and possibility of knowing ourselves through daily chronicle and tactile sensation." -- Santa Fe Reporter, September 7, 2005

A richly illustrated exploration of 31 list-, chart-, and sketch-filled journals by painters, filmakers, engineers, designers, and other visual thinkers. -- The Boston Globe, August 2005

A window into the creative minds of people from all walks of life. -- Anthem, May 2005

Shows how various talented people use their journals as a record and rough draft for their lives and work. -- Metro New York, July 2005

Product Description
Who hasn't, at one time or other, kept a journal? The impulse to record our daily lives on paper is nothing if not universal. Still, only a few of us have the discipline to make it past the first few entries, and fewer still manage to create diaries whose insight and visual beauty can inspire anyone but their authors. Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art is an exploration of these exceptions—books of obsessive wonder filled to their borders with drawings, sketches, watercolors, graphs, charts, lists, collages, portraits, and photographs. Jennifer New takes readers on a spirited tour into the private worlds of journal keepers—an architect, a traveler, a film director, an archeologist, a cancer patient, a songwriter, a quiltmaker, a gardener, an artist, a cyclist, and a scientist, to name just a few—illustrating a broad range of journaling styles and techniques that in the end show how each of us can go about documenting our everyday lives. Excerpts from journals by such artists as Maira Kalman, Steven Holl, David Byrne, and Mike Figgis give us a peek at how creative souls observe, reflect, and explore. For those who already keep a journal, Drawing from Life will be an inspiration. For those who have always wanted to—or tried and failed—it might just be the motivation needed to get past that first week.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press (June 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1568984456
• ISBN-13: 978-1568984452
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #118,499 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 78 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great inspiration! , June 21, 2005

By	A. McDonald (New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is really inspiring! Its subject is the visual journal or notebook, but this isn't limited to just artists. An anthology of several pages out of people's journals, each accompanied by a brief backstory, it's about a diversity of techniques, mainly visual, that a whole variety of people use to record their reflections on the world around them. It includes travel journals, a songwriter's notebook, architect's sketchbooks, naturalists, even a volcanologist.

What pulls them all together is the fearlessness with which each uses the journal -- each entry is a compelling illustration of the idea of the journal as a tool for discovery. It's not that the drawings or collages in a particular journal are necessarily works of art in themselves, but that all are visual spaces for the mind to explore ideas out loud.

As a final point, I find the excellence of all the examples to be encouraging rather than intimidating. It's the kind of thing that makes you want to run out and by a new sketch book to scribble in.

75 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It'll have you reaching for some art supplies, October 27, 2005

By	Bron Mitchell "bronm" (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews

As an avid journaler, I'm always intrigued to see what other people write about, draw about or observe in their own journals. There's nothing quite so personal as seeing what someone else has created at their most free - there's a certain kind of vulnerability and exposure on display that you don't get to see in a piece of artwork that has been created with the hope that it will have an audience.

Jennifer New has assembled an interesting and inspired collection of journals by people from all walks of life. Only a few of them are artists by profession, but this book demonstrates how many people keep an art journal, and how different their purposes are for doing so. Most of the journals feature sketching, sometimes with the addition of watercolour, although there are also collages, photo montages and pages comprised of found items and ephemera.

I like the way the author has grouped the journals by how she sees their primary function: observation, reflection, exploration or creation. Among the 'observation' journalers are an illustrator who works alongside a marine biologist, a vulcanologist, and a man who embarked on a self-portrait photographic project he called "I Learn Something New Every Single Day" in which he took a daily photo of himself and annotated it with one thing he learned that day, whether it was something important, or trivia about the lives of his friends. In the 'creation' category the author has put those who use their journals primarily for developing their ideas into larger creative projects, including an architect, a quilter, and someone remodeling their garden. The categories in between include travel journals, dream journals, and all sorts of books filled with random collections of thoughts and materials.

I think anyone who keeps a journal (or would like to) will be inspired by this book, not just by the images but also by the introduction to each theme and artist. There's a great balance of text and photographs, and I enjoyed reading each person's thoughts on the part that journalling plays in their lives.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Your Inspiration-no technique included but visually very pleasing, March 1, 2006

By	Kathy "Lifetime lover of children's lit. Mot... (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This book is a great glimpse into how people from different fields treat their journals. From putting them up on a pedestal to utilitarian jotting down of memos and thoughts.

If you are looking for techniques this book does not have them. If you are looking for inspiration-this book certainly has it. The dimensions of the book is also quite nice as is the weight of the papers within. Includes a great variety of contributors-now I just want to see the rest of their personal journals.

I received this as a gift for Christmas and I think I have looked at it every day since. I would recommend this for a gift for yourself or family and friends.

If you love love looking at journal arts this is a book worth putting in your rotation.