The scrapbook for me is a way to make something every day, even when I don’t feel like investing too much time or pulling out all of my art supplies. It’s portable, so I can take it with me if I’m going somewhere for a few days or for a long evening. I have a box with scissors, and a couple each of several art supplies- tiny watercolours in random hues and a few conte crayons, scissors, a glue stick, a few chunks of charcoal and some tapes. I can just pull out the box during Seinfeld and start snipping and gluing into my scrapbook. It can be like a journal of where I was and what I was doing at a point in my life, or a page can lay inspiration for a larger piece. These candid pieces are a bit more elaborate than my paper-only collages because they incorporate mixed-media, like my larger-scale works. Because they are spontaneous and don’t come from the pressure of having a ‘big idea’ or a plan, once in a while these projects turn out to be among my best works.

Their major purpose, though, is not final production, or even recordkeeping, but to keep the creative juices flowing and to keep my eyes peeled for images to save and use, even when I’m not able to work on major projects.