“Ephemera are items that were not originally intended to be preserved or kept, but have been collected or kept anyway.”
Jasmin Linton (she/her) // Contributor
Jordan Richert (he/him) // Illustrator
I come from a very artistic family. From my grandma’s potter’s workshop; the walls of my home covered in family-made paintings; to painting dates on my sister’s front porch, I have always been surrounded with art and creativity. I think this is why my experiences throughout my life are so closely linked to my creative endeavors.
Along the way, the media and process of my art shifted. There was always something lacking in just painting on a canvas. Even the limitlessness of digital art didn’t seem to fulfill what I wanted out of my art: to focus on the process rather than the finished product, and to always have a challenge—and I’m very fond of colours and textures. The first journal spread I completed was covered in different kinds of coloured paper, dots of red paint and a bunch of purple yarn. It looked more like craft cupboard vomit than anything, but the creation of it was where I felt fulfilled rather than the final product. It made me want to keep making more.
It was the beginning of ninth grade in my high school when I found the memory-keeping, challenge-creating, ultra-creative art form of ~creative journaling~. Using anything I could stick in a notebook to collage, I started creating art spreads with literal trash—ephemera. It started with stealing skiing magazines from the coffee table (sorry dad), and ended with a meticulously organized craft cupboard of creations waiting to be made.With my supplies, grew my techniques that I was using to create. In my second journal, the first 5 pages are just covered in loops and swishes as I practiced learning calligraphy and other lettering styles. This skill developed and grew so now I use my lettering for titles and headings throughout my current journals. Just please don’t make me look back at that second edition…the calligraphy was horrendous!
The trash and scraps I end up using in my journals come from my life. Movie tickets, candy wrappers, product packaging, I even save my grocery lists and every recipe I bring home—those are the best for backgrounds. My friends and family, knowing that I save everything under the earth for my journal, keep bits and pieces for me too. If we go to a movie, a play or even just out for coffee, my sister always asks me, “do you want this for your journal?” It’s become so frequent that the question has just gone down to “journal?” The types of materials I use hold memories of my life, so the ways I am creative are wound up tightly with my journey and experiences. I can look at a page from a journal I completed years ago and remember an amazing concert through the crinkled paper wristband I plastered in it, regardless of if I’ve written anything or not. Journaling for me is simultaneously an artform and memory preservation.
I’m currently working on my 21st journal—crazy I know. When I first started, of course I didn’t have as many materials and had no idea what I was doing, so my style has changed drastically over the years. The pages will mirror what I’m feeling and reflecting on when I create them. As I get new materials, I also associate them with different volumes of journals, and therefore, different aspects of my life. Certain stickers or paint will remind me of my birthday in the summer when I received them as a gift; or more writing will signify I’ve found a new favourite pen I couldn’t stop using.
Journaling is not only a creative outlet (and now an all consuming hobby…in a good way), but also like regular journaling, is extremely beneficial to mental wellbeing. My initial intentions when getting into creative journaling were creatively motivated, but it’s also helped me process hard experiences and quietly reflect. Even now, during my busy school year, I find the time–when i’m very overwhelmed–to cover a page in random stickers, break out my paints, or even just use the page and a pen to do something with all that overwhelm-ness. There is no wrong way to create in a journal either. Some of my pages are rants of messy writing, while others are collages of friends and family. The fluidity of journaling is both why I love it so much and why my journey is so intertwined with my art.