Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: Awakening the senses

Hi there! Today I'm sharing a journal page with my take on the September’s theme of “Senses” and color light blue of Art Daily Cafe (link). The theme got me thinking of five different senses – touch, hearing, smell, taste and sight. My goal was to include many of senses in my project, not just sight which is quite obvious. I managed to add them all, one way or the other.

I started the page by thinking of the sense of touch and added different textures and surfaces to the project along the way. The first things I added to my page was the pieces of corrugated cardboard. I was actually running my fingers across the surface after I’ve added the pieces in there. I was thinking about the texture and feel of things when choosing the embellishments, too. I chose something metallic and smooth (like the wire) but also soft and hairy (like the felt dots). So, when you are touching the page, there’s different sensations.

Smell and taste are covered by the same item in the page. I don’t mean it to be tasted afterwards, but I did taste it before it came a part of my journal. The item in question is a tea bag – used, dried and added underneath the photo sticker. You can just make out a faint scent of the tea on it. And while smelling the page, you also pick up the familiar scent of old books. So, that covers the sense of smell.

As the whole page is a visual thing, the sight is covered, the only sense left is hearing. While you can hear the rustle of the paint brush while adding the colors and the clacking sounds of a stapler when making the book paper layers, I included the hearing with a sticker. I was looking for a sense related thought in the “Sentiments” sticker book and found one connected to hearing: “The quieter you become, the more you hear”. Using that as my title in the page I got the hearing crossed from the list as well.

Another way to link my page to hearing is the creative process. I usually have something playing while I create. While working on this page, I had a version of a Beatles’ song “While my Guitar Gently Weeps” playing. My choice was connected to an animated film called “Kubo and the Two Strings”. The song plays while the end credits are rolling. The film is situated in Japan, so the version has a shamisen accompanying the singer. I actually prefer this version over the original, just because of the sound of the shamisen. That is also the instrument the main character of the movie plays. If you want to know more about the film, please visit either this Wikipedia page (link) or then the movie’s own home page (link). The movie is beautiful both visually and story-wise and has another connection to senses. The main character, Kubo, has only one eye. His grandfather, the Moon King, would like to see him blind as then he could join his reign of heavens and be perfect. But as Kubo later explains to the Moon King, seeing is what makes humans strong. It makes us see each other’s emotions, compassion and love.

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you all the best!