Words are powerful. They can shape your thoughts, guide your intentions, and express your motivations.

This mixed media album is an exploration of words, images and ideas that were significant to me at the time I made the album.

To create this album, I used a mix of vintage supplies and ones that were brand new at the time. In those days, I was a member of the Clear Scraps design team — so I chose a Clear Scraps album to use for documenting the thoughts and images I wanted to express.

At the time I created this album, I was selling my own artwork — and Lumiere Metallic Paint was one of my most-frequently-used art supplies. I incorporated some shiny imagery into this album using Lumiere metallic paints.

I upcycled a vintage, falling-apart dictionary that I pulled out of the trash bin, along with several torn and damaged vintage story books that someone had also thrown away.

To me, these well-loved older items were treasures rather than trash. I looked through them with fascination and pondered which parts of them I could use in my artwork.

From the dictionary, I chose to use multiple words and phrases that I thought were still just as personally meaningful to me as they were to the dictionary’s readers at the time of its original publication.

It is interesting to me to look back on the words and images I chose to focus on when I originally made this album in 2009. A few of the words and images I chose include anchor, sail, sailboat and sailor.

I took these photos of my mixed media art album on January 6, 2009. At the time, I was about to embark on a new and life-changing adventure.

I had no idea how to sail — and no idea just how huge a part of my life sailing would become. My husband, Mike, and I had just purchased our first sailboat. We couldn’t have predicted that we would later cross the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea under sail power, or that sailing would give us the opportunity to explore otherwise out-of-reach parts of the world.

At the time, the words I chose to present in this mixed media art album were all significant to me in some way. A few of those words are even more significant to me now than they were back then.

Which words and phrases are significant to you right now? Which words and phrases represent ideas that have recurred throughout your life? Which words and phrases do you think will be most influential to your future?

Whatever these words are, I invite you to document them for future reflection. You can do so by making a mixed media art album similar to this one, but you don’t have to. You could also incorporate them into an art journal, planner or diary.

More Mixed Media Art Project Ideas

• 51 Creative Collage Materials to Try Using in Your Collages
• Bohemian Swirl Collage Art — Free Instructions
• Collage Art With Antique Postcard: Happy Birthday
• Your Guide to Collage Art: Everything You Need to Know About How to Make a Collage
• Art Journaling
• Pearl-Ex Mica Powders for Mixed Media Art and Paper Crafts
• Mixed Media Art: Main Directory

Posted by: Amy Solovay

This page was last updated on 1-22-2023.