By keeping them, I mean, I drew, cut and pasted magazines and images into large volumes to serve as a pop culture scrapbook of memories and inspiration. I moved them from coast to coast repeatedly and constantly added to them.
Though the project ended up filling out about a dozen heavy, hardcover books, my intention was always to someday repurpose and self-publish these journals into one book, mixed with my tales of living in NYC and Southern California as a struggling artist.
The books are sometimes personal and intense, perverse and playful, and a reflection of the artists and images that shaped my own artistic aesthetic.
Today, for nearly six hours, I scanned and photographed the pages of the journals and destroyed them. They now live on digitally, but will soon live on as a single, massive volume.
This is my year to disengage from the traditional forms of social media like Facebook and Instagram, to give away or recycle the majority of my belongings, and embark on a journey I consider to be the second chapter of my life. (Check out the Netflix documentary, The Minimalists and their blog for some insight into the direction I am moving in personally.)
I have chosen this blog to replace my regular social media rants, and it has been so liberating.
I am not a religious man, but I feel more connected to nature and the earth than I have in some time, and the pull of the outdoors is calling me. Nature has been my doorway to spirituality and I am longing for the California deserts which became my playgrounds for so many years.
The projects I am working on this year have been stewing and gestating for a very long time and are a celebration of the years I have survived, and the wisdom I have gained from my struggles, pain and joy.
I look forward to sharing my new ventures with you.
Here are some sample pages from my journals.
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