Paperback, colour and black and white illustrations, 192 pages, W200mm x H250mm
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. Drawing from Life: The Journal as Art,
is an exploration of these 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 illustrate 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.