Art diary
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An art diary is a daily journal kept by artists, often containing both words and sketches, and occasionally including multimedia elements such as collages. Such books will frequently contain rough workings, in cartoon form, of ideas later to appear in finished works, as well as acting as a normal diary, by allowing the artist to record their day-to-day activities and emotions.
These diaries not only give art historians a valuable opportunity to explore the creation process of these finished works, but they are a useful biographical tool.
Many famous artists are known for their art diaries - the sketchbooks of Leonardo da Vinci are probably the best known example. Other artists to have used art journals include Frida Kahlo.
The contemporary art diary can take a form of a video journal and is sometimes immediately available to the public. Valentina of "Val's Art Diary" gathered over 2 million views of her video diary that she started in November of 2006. Each episode of her video diary documents the process of creating a painting but also includes "rants, reflections, and fun moments" she often captures with her camera. Valentina explains the reason for creating these videos: " I was always horrible at writing artist statements and believed that the process of creating art is more intuitive than cognitive. Why not let myself ramble a bit on camera as I paint? Wouldn’t that make it a truly ideal statement?"
The concept of the art diary is also used by people working in related creative fields such as music; musician Brian Eno, for instance, is well-known for his use of art diaries, excerpts from which were used in the Eno and Russell Mills book "More Dark Than Shark".
