Families Journal Page

This is a family.

What is a family?

People need families.

People need people.

Some of the layers I used in this art journal collage were:

ink doodles on deli paper

scrapbook paper

rub on images

a losing powerball ticket, lol

patterned tape

cut outs from a vintage children's book

I visited my old college town a few weeks ago (Normal, IL).  My friend, Beth, took me to a charity book sale.  The sale ran all weekend, with books donated from bookstores and other people.  On the last day of the sale they had a $5 bag book deal.  You could fill a paper grocery bag with as many books as you'd like for $5.  They had so many books.  There were a lot of brand-new good quality books, plus an equal amount of used books. If you are a fan of Dean Koontz, Mary Higgins Clark or Danielle Steele you would have been very happy.  I picked up about 10-15 novels (including a couple MHC, Jodi Picoult, some true crime, and some chick lit books).  I found about 4 books for my sister-in-law who is collecting all of the Stephen King books.  Daria picked out a stack of children's books.  My husband found only one book he wanted.  He's a little bit more discriminate about his reading.  Then, there were so many vintage children's books.  I spent a long time debating about which ones to choose.  In retrospect I should have filled another bag, but my husband was already not entirely happy about me picking up over 30 books to add to our already full book shelves.  I found 4 vintage picture books that I thought would be interesting to add to collages.  That is where these words about families came from.  It was a children's "family studies/social studies" type of book.  There is charming writing on various pages of the book, which I enjoyed looking at.

Currently, I am reading (and almost finished with) The Jungle, by Upton Sinclair.  Wow, is it a powerful book!  If you ever think your life is hard or your job is stressful, read this book!  You will totally think your life is easy after reading it.  If you don't know what it's about it is a classic novel about the early years of the 20th century in the meatpacking industry.  It follows the life of a hard-working struggling immigrant who encounters difficulty and tragedy.  It exposed the terrible working conditions and led to massive change in America.