Whether it’s keeping notes for important corporate tasks or scratching heavily on the page writing down all that teenage angst, and in some cases it’s ironically planning how to delicately design the next planner, journaling is one of the oldest styles of writing—ship captains or pirates and even our historical people found it essential for everyday life.
In today’s society though, it has evolved to more than random thoughts and sentences, and into a wholly completely fresh form of art. Journal enthusiasts have transformed simple blank pages into an intriguing wonderland-type canvas based on everyday real-life, and renovating the mundane into something more extraordinary.
We all know that 2017 wasn’t the best year the world had ever had, but we can at least see a more uncomplicated and charming version of it through Ira Teves’ creative eyesight. Ira has a splendid passion for keeping a drawing journal every-single-day. It doesn’t matter if it’s creating a watercolor for one of her “kuripot recipes” or a detail during a simple hang out at a café—she illustrates little “highlights” from her everyday to make it a bit more every-yay.
“I’m a laidback and awkward person so you can see that most of my works look loosely sketched. People also describe me as a “grinder”, it’s a gaming term that means someone who likes doing boring/repetitive tasks for an “okay” reward rather than risking everything for the glory…you can really see that in the way I draw, wherein, I don’t really mind making mistakes because I know I can draw again tomorrow,” shared the artist.
Ira’s favorite medium is actually oil because she loves how an artist can scrape and change the painting as he/she pleases, but for someone who doesn’t mind losing control and liking the surprise end-result every time, watercolor has become the most handy and easiest medium for her to use with her illustrative journaling.
“I want people to think that art is easy and accessible. Most people think that art’s just a hobby for rich people who have lots of free time, but actually if you have something to write with, you can draw with it too. I dream of the day when the streets are filled with art, everyone has a sketchbook, and each house has a painting on display that’s not actually a print of a famous overpriced artwork. Hopefully the more I post drawings about my humdrum life, other people would too; and at the end, everyone’s an artist,” Ira musingly says.
Some of her audiences can already recognize her art style but she can never really tell whether she already found one, since different artists keep inspiring her and so Ira constantly tweaks her ways, but the artist is proud to say that she has kept this up for four years now and I don’t plan on slacking off anytime soon! You can view Ira’s daily entries on her Instagram, @iratevescrooks.
