"The Ultimate Leather Journal" to Journal in Ultimately

It is the time of year when the sun shines, the birds sing and the artist come out to display a winters worth of wondrous offerings. Crowds flock to art fairs country wide looking for the chance to buy one of a kind first quality handmade works of America made Art beautifully presented by the artists themselves.

One of the current art forms for both amateur and professionals is an art that has developed out of the scrap booking craft. This craft has been around for quite sometime as a creative visual dialogue of family events and family history. Countless moms spending endless dollars on stamps, papers, journals, cutters and the like scraping family events, baby shower invitations and endless crafty fun. Martha Stewart herself gives crafting advice selling delectable materials to entice the scraper.

The current swing from scrap booking appears to be journaling. Art journalist of all creative levels seek materials to create and document their existence on this earth. Not unlike 14th and 15th century monks sought to journal, in the illuminations, the history of Christ and their own religious beliefs. Like the monks these artist seek to document their legacy,history and beliefs leaving it all behind for future generations of humanity.

Lurking at the backs of the minds of these artist is the expectation of permanency and the need for fine-ary in their materials. The ultimate search for the ultimate journal filled with acid free papers, 100% rag papers handmade and hand bound luxuriosly. The ultimate decadence in the need for permanance.

Fort Worth Arts Festival presented to me many artist with wonderous and sometimes funny things to want to cherish. Amongst the artist wares I found several sources for the Journal lover. The absolute luxury, I found, in hand bound leather journals creamy to the touch and smelling of rich leathers. Inside I discovered beautiful hand torn edge papers thick in texture screaming to be exploited by pen, paints and washes of all kinds. How I ask can a journal get better than this?

Well it can. Artist Gena Ollendieck has found a way to wake up the imagination with found objects. She creates stories that peek the curious mind embedded in the front of her hand bound journals arousing the sense of sight, smell and touch. Gena Ollendieck's ultimate journal seduces the audience into a physical response that most artist crave from creating their own works of art. For centuries hand binding books in fine leathers has been a true art form almost loss in contemporary time. Ollendieck has conquered the binding art form taking her binding to a new level with lost and found imagery. The exterior is a work of art all its own. Ollendieck tells stories with found, objects tossed aside by most men, building curious imagery. Only Ollendieck knows the real stories behind her mixed media external journal imagery.

Ollendieck's journals of mixed media art captures a handsome price. A price I must admit is worth every dime she asks. I childhood spent in Cresco, IA, the northeast part of Iowa, she busied her curious mind wandering the woods and prairies collecting in her tiny hands, her future. We must give thanks for the boredom of a child that has brought us enticement of our senses; sight, touch and smell.

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