Creative Buddy

I have been wanting to make an "Altered Book" for...forever! An altered book is basically where you get an old book, and alter it in a way- thru collaging, painting, writing, etc.- so that it becomes yours. I've bought books about doing it, I've read blogs about it, and thought about it for nearly a year now. But beyond buying the book at the used book store, I never did anything about it.

BUT, the other day, my friend Willie and I made a date to have some "creative time" together. I decided to bring my book over to his studio and get cracking on it once and for all.

So today, we got together and I actually started painting the first page of my book. And I started gathering pictures from books and magazines. And now I've got all these cool ideas running around in my head about what I want to do next. It feels so good to have finally started this project.

I think I've been putting it off because I was afraid I'd do it "wrong". But Willie reminded me, "THERE IS NO WRONG".

So we worked (or rather, played!) in his studio, side by side, working on our separate projects. Meeting up with a buddy to work creatively was a great idea for so many reasons. First of all, it was a DATE- If I hadn't set a time and place with him, I'm positive I wouldn't have started on that book today. (and "If not now, WHEN?") Secondly, it was fun to bounce our ideas off of each other and say, "Cool!" and hear it back. Thirdly, he had lots of cool art supplies for me to rummage around in.

We decided this was such a great success that we're going to start doing this regularly. And next time, I'm going into it minus the fear. I'm over the hurdle of the BEGINNING. And now, I'm off...