This documentary inspired a (far more modest) project for me in 2009. I couldn't afford to travel, so I decorated the covers of 20 blank journals and passed them along to creative friends & family, with instructions to reflect and add a note, poem, drawing, artifact --whatever their preferred medium might be-- to describe their "happy place", then hand the journal off to someone else they thought would appreciate the process. The idea was, these journals got to "travel" on my behalf down a chain of random links, eventually coming back to me full of joyful, surprising, enlightening, and grateful perspectives. Ahhh, the anticipation...
Only, most never returned. I begged for years, but lost all but 5 or 6 journals, (two of which were handed back empty, and I got the others only because the users didn't follow the instructions.) It tortured me for a long while, knowing that the fantastic entries of talented friends would remain buried and forgotten under someone else's junk pile.
You might consider it a blessing, then, to know that your selfless little birds are appreciated wherever they land, without the sting of unrequited material returns.
I'm guessing you're familiar with the 1000 journals project? (If not, go asap: https://someguy.is/1000-Journals-Project )
This documentary inspired a (far more modest) project for me in 2009. I couldn't afford to travel, so I decorated the covers of 20 blank journals and passed them along to creative friends & family, with instructions to reflect and add a note, poem, drawing, artifact --whatever their preferred medium might be-- to describe their "happy place", then hand the journal off to someone else they thought would appreciate the process. The idea was, these journals got to "travel" on my behalf down a chain of random links, eventually coming back to me full of joyful, surprising, enlightening, and grateful perspectives. Ahhh, the anticipation...
Only, most never returned. I begged for years, but lost all but 5 or 6 journals, (two of which were handed back empty, and I got the others only because the users didn't follow the instructions.) It tortured me for a long while, knowing that the fantastic entries of talented friends would remain buried and forgotten under someone else's junk pile.
You might consider it a blessing, then, to know that your selfless little birds are appreciated wherever they land, without the sting of unrequited material returns.
And hell yeah, it's art. :)
-Jenny