Well . . . International Fake Journal Month 2011 has come and gone, and like last year, I’m very glad to have participated. My character this year was a seeker and a bricoleur. Her deep passions included a love of and strong connection to dogs and an interest in street art. Her visual journal was a place where she recorded observations from the day and captured quotes and images she wanted to be sure to remember or to think about. I wanted her to record *something* in the journal every day, but the record didn’t necessarily have to be a narrative account of the day’s events. My goal was for the focus to be on the process — being in character and recording things as the character would record them — not on producing a coherent account that would make sense from the “outside.”
There were several positive things that came out of this year’s IFJM experience. One thing was that I got to explore “graffiti type” drawing which I enjoyed very much. It caused me to think in color and in terms of overall page (or piece) design in a way that I don’t normally do. It also helped me explore the visual impact of marks and symbols that lie beyond the primary image (something that in turn led me to think more about the lines and marks used in the primary image itself).
The pressure of having to come up with something each day was also useful in pushing me to be more creative – especially since my project wasn’t plot driven in the way it was last year. The point turned out to be to come up with an interesting visual image rather than to illustrate the elements of that day’s portion of the plot. I was surprised at some of the results, and that was exhilarating.
The experience also allowed me to learn much more than I ever knew about street art and street culture. I looked at lots of examples of graffiti and learned about its history and the people who are currently taking it in new directions.
Next year, I would like to find a balance between 2010′s IFJM experience and this year’s. While I ended up feeling constrained by the story line I set out to develop for my character last year, I ended up feeling a little too aimless with my character this year. I think the ideal balance might be to have a clearly defined character (perhaps even one approaching some sort of crossroads or facing some kind of important decision), but for the character’s path to be open-ended in the way my character’s was this year. That would let me get more out of living as someone else for a month without tying me to a certain outcome with the potential to strip the spontaneity from the experience as it did last year.
To anyone thinking about participating in IFJM 2012, I strongly encourage you to do so. My participation over the last two years has pushed me to try new things and work outside of my comfort zone. I consider the experience invaluable.
So what next? Why, Every Day in May, of course! I’ll be joining the Every Day in May 2011 Group in drawing the Everyday Matters challenges from #101 to #131. I probably won’t post all of these drawings here, but check in to see some of them, and check the Every Day in May Group or my Flickr stream for the whole set. Today’s challenge is to “Draw a bar of soap.”
