Why I Don't Journal with Words

The idea of sitting down with a notebook and writing out how I was feeling was really off-putting to me. In fact, it was really unachievable for me. I found it difficult to get what was going on in my head into a tidy stream of sentences.

The thoughts were there. The effort to put the words on to paper was too much of a task.

Drawing, however, felt completely different.

I could start with a shape, a colour, a word, a face or something that had been going round in my head and just put it down. It did not need to make complete sense straight away.

That was the point where I realised that journalling in this way was a really useful tool for me.

A Different Kind of Journal

My version of a journal is not really a diary. It's not even a single daily entry.

It is more like a visual record of whatever has got hold of my attention at that moment.

Sometimes it's something personal. Sometimes it comes from music. Sometimes it is a phrase I cannot stop thinking about. There might be handwritten words, drawings, colours, characters or bits of an idea that do not seem connected at first and I do not always know where they are going.

The freedom to just go with the flow is important and if I had to explain the idea before I started, I would probably never start.

Ideas Arrive Quickly

Often I wake up with something already in my head. A colour, a line, a word, a visual, a bit of a song. It's all just fast flashing thoughts at the end of the day and I can work very quickly when something grabs me.

Sometimes that means a piece appears almost fully formed. Other times I make something, look at it, change it, redraw it, add to it, take bits away and come back to it again later. One idea can easily turn into several.

Why Drawing Works Better for Me

Drawing lets me get an idea out before I have had time to overthink it whereas words can feel too fixed. Although I do use words, but I like to use hand-drawn words and these can be messy, stretched out, loud, awkward, funny and still make sense. That is probably why typography has become such a big part of my work. The words are not there just to be read. They are part of the picture.

They can move, overlap and change the mood of the piece.

Sometimes the way a word looks says as much as the word itself.

You can read more about my background and how I found my way back to making art on the Who is Ze? page.

From Visual Journal to Artwork

A lot of what starts in my journalling process does not stay there. I may turn a rough drawing into a digital print or even a silk screen print. An idea can be reworked several times before I feel it is something I want to put out into the world. Essentially the journal is where a lot of the art begins.

It Does Not Have to Make Sense to Anyone Else

For me, it is not about documenting every day or writing down exactly what happened. Its about getting something out of my head and giving it somewhere else to exist.

Sometimes I understand it straight away.

Sometimes I do not.

Sometimes it becomes artwork.

Sometimes it becomes nothing at all.

And that is fine too.

I still would not describe myself as someone who journals properly.

I just found a version of it that works for me.

You can read more about how the visual journal became ZeTrunk in Welcome to What Ze Says.