Traveling Canvases Make Their Mark Near and Far

When people take trips abroad, they proudly show their passports with stamps from different countries.

The La Grange Art League Gallery and Studio, located at 122 Calendar Ave., is gathering journals that have been all over the United States and around the world. Inside, the journals contain unique “stamps” of their own.

Starting today and running through Sept. 24, the nonprofit league will present an exhibit where members showcase about 45, 5x8-inch journals from its Make Your Mark journal project. There will be an artist’s reception from 2 to 4 p.m. at the league’s studio on Sept. 24.

About 200 blank journals, donated by Blick Art Materials in Wheaton, became traveling canvases of sorts as members, friends and strangers filled pages with doodles, sketches, drawings, paintings, collage work, poetry, stories and stitch work. After the LaGrange event closes, the journals make their way to Blick for an exhibit in October.

The idea came from Darien league member and art teacher Laura Lein-Svencner. Last year, she took part in the Sketchbook project where the books traveled around the United States with people filling the pages with writing, or artwork. She thought she could do a similar project with other league members.

Bringing out creativity

In her research, she found The 1000 Journals Project. According to www.1000Journals.com, the project, launched by a San Francisco artist and designer named Someguy in 2000, is an ongoing collaborative experiment which attempts to follow 1,000 journals throughout their travels. People who find the circulating journals add something to them, such as drawings, photos or artwork and then they pass them along to friends or strangers.

“His belief was to get more people to be creative,” Lein-Svencner said. “Taking part of a traveling journal project and then reading about The 1000 Journals Project, I thought of different ways to help people be more creative.”

Taking its cue, Lein-Svencner and other members formed a committee to oversee its own journal project.

“We wanted to bring attention to the arts again at a time where the economy [is not doing well] which is still isn’t,” she said. “People still have the need to express themselves.”

To make the project work, members needed blank journals. Burr Ridge league member Eve Ozer, who works for Morgan Design Group, said the league contacted Blick Art Materials in Wheaton to see if it would donate journals. The store accepted the group’s proposal. Other contributions came from league members Sandra Bacon and Annamaria Castellucci who taught project workshops and the Morgan Design Group, an Westmont-based automotive design company.

The league then contacted members to garner interest. Ozer said members were impressed after seeing The 1000 Journals Project documentary where Someguy asks kindergarten, seventh-grade and high school students the question of, “Who’s an artist?” 

The kindergarten students were the most confident, saying they were all artists. When it came to the older groups, the answers were few to none. To her, each person has creative streak, no matter if he or she can make stick figures or artistic masterpieces.

“When people see these journals on display later this month, they see people doodle and write,” Ozer said. “Creativity takes a lot of different venues and you don’t have to be Michelangelo or DaVinci. Everybody’s creative and to let that creativity out seems good.” 

Documenting the adventures

The journals have been in local and international hands. Ozer decorated the cover of her book Graphic Exposition with block lettering, denim and the peace sign. She was worried that she would not have her journal back. The committee discussed the idea of controlling the journals so that they would come back to their owners. Some members had a different idea.

“A big part of creativity is letting go,” she said. “The more you try to control things, at least in my world, the worse my work gets. I let the journal go and I hoped that I would get it back. I did because I sent mine to Atlanta to another artist. I did communicate with her via email and she kept track of the journal. It also went with me as [I visited] the Tuscan region of Italy. Last year, [my husband, Fred, and I] went for our 21st wedding anniversary and took a road trip there.”

Nancy Green, a La Grange Park league member, art teacher and framer, took a journal and encouraged friends and family to add their artistic touches. One friend, who teaches watercolor to cancer patients, added artwork. On Green’s trip to Paris, friends wrote haikus and in her excursion to Belgium, relatives wrote other poetry. Her husband wrote about the things he brought for their trip.

“All these books (in the exhibit) have different stories,” she said. 

Lein-Svencner’s book went to Australia, New York, Washington and New Zealand. She also met an original artist associated with The 1000 Journals documentary and asked her to fill a page or two. She kept up with other contributors through email. She added that some journals came to the Aurora-based Hesed House which helps the poor and homeless. 

La Grange member Barb Boland found that sketchbooks, like these journals, were intimidating to her since she specializes in abstract paintings and collages.

“When you think of sketchbooks, you think of Michelangelo, drawing, or very realistic things,” she said. “This was very freeing even to me, knowing that you could do anything in it. You could glue things or sew.”

She wrote and created collages in her journal along with having 15 other contributors.

“The other thing that I found valuable was seeing pieces of a lot of people who are dear to me in the book, and seeing what they have to share, whether they are artists or writers,” Boland said. “In a way, it’s kind of like a memory book.”

Lein-Svencner wants visitors to feel free to look at the journals in a personal way.

“A lot of times when you see artwork on the wall, we been taught not to touch it and to be respectful,” she said. “With the journals, we want people to pick them up, hold them in their hands, and look through and experience what the artist or non-artist put into them.”

For information, visit the league’s website as www.lagrangeartleague.org, or call 708-352-3101.