a morgue of my own

I have my very own morgue. I actually have a few, filled to bursting.

Do you have a morgue?  If not, you should.  Every artist should have a morgue of their very own... 

No, not a collection of dead bodies, although the study of those served Leonardo da Vinci well; didn't they?

I am speaking of the sort of morgue many of us had to keep in various art classes- the sketchbooks we filled to bursting with reference images, postcards of paintings, quotes, bits of poetry, photographs we liked, photographs we made, scribbled sketches so we could recall some idea, something we saw, images clipped from magazines that drew in our eye because of the color palette, the aesthetic sense, the visual appeal, the intruiging idea... glorious visual fodder all jammed into a book. 

The name, morgue, for these in a sketchbook or binder form that art, theatre, stagecraft, design people... and others keep as a reference file came our way via newspapers who kept extensive files, and sometimes rooms, full of reference materials, they called morgues.

(the one on the left is a handmade journal - with braile paper, and corrugated cardboard covers.  It only has quotes and poetry inside and is full now. The center book is a graph paper lab book, and the right hand side is Michael's cheapest black hardbound sketchbook with some paint on the cover, and a good bit of gaffer's tape on the burst-open spine.)

I still keep these movable visual feasts, and I would guess that many of my peers do also.  Since I'm not turning them in for review for a grade these days, I am broader in what I include: clothing, shoes, jewelry, book reviews, & musical performers that have caught my attention, websites I want to visit, apps for which I need to check out reviews, products to try, art supplies to research, paint cards from the home store done around various color palettes, pictures of stuff I wanted to remember that I've taken with my iPhone, ideas for activites to do with the littles, vacation dreams, things to look up at the library...  You know, all that stuff you find and stuff into a manila file folder, that will never again see the light of day? 

For a few  years, I used books that were 6x9 or so, but I found the small size limiting sometimes.  I had to fold stuff up to get it in there, so I moved to back to the 9x12-ish size I used in school.  I kept far more notes, to do lists, grocery lists, phone numbers etc, in the smaller size ones- something I miss, and am trying to recreate digitally on my iPad.

I also browse magazines, pull articles I want to read, and staple them along one edge of a page, creating a sort of personalized, homemade magazine of my own. I like to go through the discard pile at the library, too.

If you are finding yourself in need of some visual input, but can't go anywhere to get it, having a book full of things you like to look at, things that struck your fancy, is a great way to have an artist date without leaving home, or while stuck, say, in a waiting room somewhere.  I have been finding my morgues invaluable of late. 

I pulled out my stack of things to go through - my torn out pages, my clippings, images, & magazines, and spent some enjoyable time sorting, tearing, pasting.  Some old toy and kids' clothing catalogs, dog-eared children's magazines, safety scissors, and a dollar store composition book, entertained Sunny for an unusually long time.

I like to drop one in my tote bag for those times I am hanging out in the doctor's office waiting room; I use that time to read those magazine articles I've stapled into my morgue, and to make notes on the clippings that interested me, so I can remember why I clipped them to begin with (which can be strangely obscure sometimes), or what I saw in the image/product/object that attracted my eye (color, shape, texture, line, emotion, imagination...).

I didn't choose the most interesting pictures of the inside pages to show you. Rather than post my morgue pages for you to read and browse, I really wanted instead to give you the idea to make, or return to keeping, a morgue of your own. 

 

 

 

Comments

[Chris Kalina]

What fabulous treasures you have there! Lovely!

[Gwen Delmore]

Oh, I love these!! they are so great, and I would love to browse yours, and yes, I am going to start one of my own. I do have one I started while reading Sarah ban Breathnach's book, the name of which escapes me. She called it an Illustrated Discovery Journal. I started it long before I knew about art journals, and recently got it out when moving, and found I still loved everything I put in it years ago. I am using it again now.

Great post!

[chrissy]

well, i learned something new from you!.

[Emily]

I consider myself still new to "art journalling" but I have kept sketch books ever since I started teaching myself water color. I've kept all of them and they are an interesting journey through my adult hood. I can see the evolution of married life in the form of grocery lists that evolved to include diapers and formula. And I see the sketches I made that were something I wanted to capture right at that moment. Love your suggestion about taking a tour of old sketch books for an artist date!

[samm]

ok....good... i am not the only one with "morgues"! i have many but what i find really difficult is finding/making the time to sit and cut and paste all the collected bits and pieces into a book. do you schedule a time to do this? do you do it regularly? i do love a good morgue!

[Debi]

yep. i have these too, and tons of stuff not yet in books. some of the images stay in my head (i've devoured them that much) and some are just waiting for the day when they are sudden inspiration.

[Rosie]

hey Lk

is there a gallery to post images for our looking both ways course, and are there new posts to come? it'd be nice to have contact with the other students, if we are able to meet each other and share images

hope all going well with your little ones there

let me know if its possible to put the images up somewhere, i'm getting heaps to use!

thanks Rosie

[Rosie]

ps

hope all of your hawaii and japanese students are ok this morning - after the news of the earthquake situation in japan, and the possible flow on to the nearby areas, i'm sending positive calming thoughts into the region!

[Gina]

This is such a great idea as I’m forever clipping and saving bits and pieces of articles, magazines, catalogs, etc. but they just form mountains in a bin. Far better to cut, glue, and staple them into book form to consult. It reminds me of old scrapbooks I kept, long before the acid-free and fancy albums of today, of my special interests—heroes, music, current events, books, etc. Thanks for the inspiration, L.K.!

[Briana]

Love this idea! I am going to try to work on mine this week!

[Rosie]

hi are you ok LK?

hope everything is ok with family

thanks

R

[tricia]

great idea! i tear inspirational things out, paste some but most just end up tape to my walls or worse, scattered about, not doing me a bit of good. :) you've inspired me today! :) thank you!

[Jenny Petricek]

Thanks for this wonderful post! I've always been a saver...when I was a kid my parents always tried to get me to throw out things they saw as trash, but that I perceived to be the crucial scraps that represented me, my life, my history. I was too young to explain what I meant back then, of course, but now that I've read your post, I completely recognize that same need to accumulate those bits and pieces in myself! Needless to say, I'm still a bit like this today...I have cardboard boxes and manila folders full of the same ephemera you describe. Not all of it makes it into my journals or scrapbooks, but maybe a morgue is just what I need!

By the way, I love your book, "Creative Wildfire"! I actually recently wrote a post on my blog about how much I've enjoyed trying the techniques in my artwork, esp. the inkjet transfer. So cool! I am on the lookout for some of your other books!

[lydia]

I've never heard of these before but I love the idea!