Blog Wagon by Jocelyn

Had a bit of a 'sleepy' brainstorming session with my sister last night, pondering the ways we could maintain our creative desires yet satisfy the need to make money (not-for-profit style). I'm about to embark on a budget-travel stint for about four months and the $2500 in my bank account is not likely going to stretch that time. So I'm going to be looking for creative ways to get by.

I also want a project while I'm away. Something that acts as a daily goal but also a method of documenting my experiences. On a relevant tangent: Recently my mind has been returning to tattoo ideas. Never have I considered an image worthy enough to permanently embed into my skin until I got thinking about what is important to me, what represents something I care strongly about. I thought of my mom, my sisters, my friends, my father, my significant other on the other side of the planet, and all the loves I hope to meet and cultivate in the future. My tattoo idea is a line drawing of my mother's hand, formed in the shape of the ASL sign for I love you. Should I want to add anything to the tattoo in future years, I would use the folds and lines of her palms to trace the names of those I love.

Anyway, this leads me to my travelling project idea. I love hands, and I love what people do with their hands. I also love making things with my hands: something tangible, with texture, smells and depth. (Hence my desire to get into publishing.) So I'm thinking of documenting all the hands I meet along my travels. It's going to take some confidence on my part to ask a new stranger-come-friend to photograph their hands, but if I have a little 'pitch' about my project, perhaps it would intrigue them? I would then like to free-hand sketch each hand into a notebook, so I have digital and a hard copy. My favourite way to draw hands is the one-touch line drawing exercise many people probably did in their youth during art classes. You stare at the object you're drawing, never glance at the paper on which you're drawing, and never take your pen off the paper. Your drawing is one continuous line. Kind of like this!

I have ideas of where I want to go while in the UK. I want to find the towns and cities that have a bicycle culture, where I can rent a bike and see how extensive their bike routes or designated roads are. Unfortunately for these places, I will be using Vancouver as my bar for comparison, though comparing isn't my goal: it's to meet people with common interests (bikes) and stay active (burn calories so I can eat calories). I also want to find the communities where pro-literacy/book making/zine creating/craft selling/etc lives. I want to find little literary-related gems and send them home to my sisters in Vernon and Vancouver, my mom (and dad) on Vancouver Island, my girlfriend in Halifax, and my lovely best friend in Whiterock. I love mail, both sending and receiving. So my next idea is to utilize my blog as a portal for meeting people who want to receive mail from places on my travels. Should I charge them? It wouldn't make me money, but it would help cover costs of postage. I could take tips from David Horvitz, who's art project helps him do things he wants to do while providing a bit of joy and entertainment for those willing to part with a few bucks.

Going back to my tattoo idea and my hand project ("hand job"?), Thanksgiving is approaching and my family of five will be gathering in Courtenay for a day. I plan to take photos of everyone's hands, and perhaps a family hand portrait? (Question mark inserted here as invitation for my sister to post her comment, as she is the only one reading my blog thus far.)