Project ONE Life: Share It - The GUIDELINES

Here's how Project ONE Life works! 

• It's annonymous - be open, share!

• Take a pic of the book in it's location and post on facebook so we can follow it's journey. Don't want to post with your name? Email me and I will post it without your info.

• Be RESPECTFUL & SINCERE: If you find a book but it's not for you please respect the value/worth of others words and feelings and leave it as you found it so that someone else may have the opportunity to participate. If you do participate, please make a sincere entry. Do no disrespect the nature/intention of this book by making a mockery of it.

• PASS IT ON: Write in it, then leave it in a indoor (it's paper and needs to be protected from the elements) public place, preferrably a place you think people will be receptive to this project.

• DON'T KEEP IT! Yes, it would be a cool thing for your collection but that goes against the very reason for the book!

• LAST PERSON to write in it? Drop it in the mail or Contact me! It's on you I pin most of my faith... Please RETURN this traveling book of honesty, love, inspiration, and courage HOME so I can share all the entries and truly share and connect others!

Project ONE LIFE: Share It.

The idea behind Project ONE Life: Share It is simple.  I create blank books each with a varying theme such as "a dream you want to achieve" and I leave them in various public places throughout Chicago. Then, the book lies in wait for someone to find it, and respond annonymously to the prompt.  After doing so that person leaves the book in another spot for someone else to find it and the cycle repeats until the book is filled.  The process is: find it, read it, share in it, and pass it on.  I also ask people who find the book (regardless if they write in it or not) to take a quick pic of it in it's location and post it to facebook or email it to me so that we can follow it's journey.  Once a book is complete, the finder contacts me so it can be returned home and I can share the contents with the world.  Click here for the Guidelines.

The Inspiration behind Project ONE Life: Share It. is based upon the belief that there is power in putting your feelings/thoughts down on paper and a belief that it is our feelings that bind us together as human beings. In sharing our ideas, loves, joy, and sorrows we become connected on a larger scale - you are not alone.

Project ONE Life strives to connect strangers together on a small, local scale. As books travel through the city and people share a piece of themselves for others to see, we are reminded that the strangers you pass on the street, the person who makes your coffee, the person waiting behind you in line, are just like us. The feelings and thoughts we experience on a daily basis are universal. So this project attempts to expose those similiarities. To pull back the  cleverly crafted barriers that often serve to isolate us from one another (cell phones, emails, false pleasantries,   social media, etc). The goal is to strip away artifice, to be open, to share, to feel connected. To be ONE.

Lastly, this project requires a leap of faith. Faith that people WILL share, will want to connect and most importantly that these mini books WILL find their way back home. 

Read more about the books and
Follow the Journey on Facebook!

MUSINGS: The Beauty of Creative Risks

Risks.   We’re always faced with risks, personally and creatively.   No matter what the situation is when you take a risk there may also be an underlying fear.  There is fear to be uncomfortable, vulnerable, or simply not being accepted.  It’s the same when you create something from your soul. It requires you to be vulnerable...to take a risk. To stand naked and hope for acceptance and understanding...and with art many times we are asking to be judged. How terrifying!

Now, of course I can make a journal that requires very little thought...very little of myself and of course...very little risk. That also involves very little satisfaction. Of course, I cannot cater to everyone, so when I set out to make something, I make it for myself. I make things that I find beautiful, inspiring, and that speak to me... and as a result, when I create something I give a piece of myself  (Of course this has a dual benefit, if it doesn't sell...it's something I will use myself!).  For the most part, when you create something you are putting a sliver of yourself on display for the world to see. And if you are selling said item you are asking for another to judge its worth.

The same is true for custom made journals.  In creating a custom book, I try to put together the perfect quotes, images, etc, all to reflect the recipients’ beliefs, values and ideals.  A custom journal is suppose to completely reflect the owner, but I realized, while that is my aim, I am imprinted on every page of the book. What I put in...or leave out, where I place things, the materials used, the construction, the way I conceive the book and therefore that person...is all on me. It is through my lens; MY PERCEPTIONS.   No matter what is created you are offering yourself. You’re vulnerable.

Sometimes that vulnerability causes me to hold back.  It’s like lifting a veil to offer a sneak peek and so you have to decide, what should they see?  Like staring unflinchingly into a camera lens or into the eyes of another without looking away and asking the viewer to look in...to see YOU. I try to push those thoughts back when I am working and to create only for myself.  In the end that is when it is most satisfying... the pieces that I am most proud of are the ones that reflect me in some way… the ones in which I lifted the veil and beckoned the viewer to look in.  Maybe they will see a part of themselves as well; it will speak to them. If there is recognition, a connection, however small, is made. And when that happens and I have to ship a journal off.... there is a small tug inside. I send it off and think, "I wonder where you will end up?" ...I take that sliver of myself and send it off into the universe...and in that, there is vulnerability. There is risk. There is satisfaction. There is beauty.

MY JOURNALING ADVENTURES: A timeline

Sometimes you have to look back to where you've been to appreciate where you are.  In a recent urge to declutter my life, I have been sifting through old letters, cards, and yes, journals.  

I pulled them out and lost myself in them for hours.  Lost myself in the girl I was and where I used to be.  Parts were embarrassing, parts were hilarious, parts were sad, and some parts were simply lovely.  And as I went through each book, I saw an evolution. The evolution of who I am as a person... and as a creative spirit.
           

My first journal is about 10 years old.  A simple book I bought from the now defunct Borders bookstore.  The binding is kinda busted and pages are falling out.  It's decorated in a simple and straightforward way.  Some artwork, tons of quotes, LOTS of writing. 

My current journal is a handmade Celio Designs journal.  It's handbound with a coptic stitch and  features rich imagery on the front.  Like the first one, it has some artwork, tons of quotes, and LOTS of writing.  

That was then.

This is now.

What a difference. I laugh at my old one, like the crude writing of a child first learning how to hold a pencil and applaud myself for my advancements. It's fun to see the difference and wonder what my journal will look like in the next ten years...We shall see!!