let ‘er rip

magazines, newspapers, and more random forms of paper are a huge part of my creative process. there's something about the mono-texture of a screen that will never fool me, no matter how much the Kindle looks like paper, or how realistic a graphic gets.

being able to rip out pages or quotes or images that say something to me is a tactile way i get to know my creativity. it literally puts my fingerprints on the work. i'm also very prone to remixing and rearranging -- one of the reasons why interior design is so much fun for me.

a trip back in time

when I was a little kid, my parents would get the Avon catalog and other goodies with pretty jewelry on the pages. I used to cut out the baubles as carefully as I could and then affix them to myself with tape. yep, I played dress-up with paper.

as I got older, I still used this method for certain purposes. For example, tattoo design. Tattoos are a big commitment, if you didn’t already know (you must have, right?). So before I even set up an appointment, I would draw the tattoo design out on paper, color it in, and cut it out with an Xacto knife. then I’d use clear tape to affix it to the place I thought I wanted it. Voila! Instant temporary tattoo. This method has helped me choose the strategic location of all three of my tattoos to date, and a fourth that has yet to be finalized.

There is something about being able to cut, tape, rearrange, collage, glue, etc. that just FEELS different than pinning things to a Pinterest board.

I don’t know if it’s more tactile or cerebral but let’s go both places and see what happens.

TACTIle

when you last read a newspaper (don’t at me, people), did you accidentally smudge ink on your nose, or your shirt? Did you read it while enjoying a grand breakfast and sputter a little coffee on the paper when you chuckled, knowingly or mirthfully, at a line in an Opinion piece?

Did you save the paper to use as gift-wrap? or protective covering for a craft project? or a craft project itself?

last time you held a magazine, did a whiff of stinky cologne urge you to rip out the offending sample before enjoying the rest of the content? what about those ads that tent your magazine out in the middle and serve no other purpose but to be, again, ripped out so you can enjoy the product?

these mild inconveniences are sensory experiences. Yeah, I maybe don’t love smelling all of the cologne samples in a magazine, together, at the same time. But every now and then I find one that takes me back to a forgotten pocket of memory, or, even stranger, makes me want to purchase it and create new olfactory mems.

I may not feel great about inking up my hands at the breakfast table, but is it any more gross than having your go-everywhere, touching-everything phone sitting next to your plate? scrolling between bites of bagel? You tell me.

cerebral

Now, for the fun stuff.

The element of chance you engage with when you’re looking for something in a magazine is infinitely preferable to the predictability of the great algorithm.

When’s the last time you sat down to consume something you weren’t totally sure about? not a book you purposefully purchased from the store, or borrowed from the library. Not a movie you heard was good and expect to be so. while books, movies, and music can have an element of surprise, surely - especially if you are discovering a new creator for the first time - they are not the jumble of curated words and pictures that a newspaper or magazine has to offer.

There is no “suggested reading” based on your scrolling habits, eager to con you into staring at the screen a little longer. there is only “suggested reading” based on someone else’s judgment, which you can choose to read deeply, skim, or scan - but it is finite. At some point you will reach The End. There is no sequel, just another issue to look forward to tomorrow, or next week, or next month.

in conclusion

I know it’s not very popular to love paper any more. But you can’t deny that, despite its inability to conjure up any image, movie, piece of music, or readable material (yes, thank you, phone, you’re very smart), it holds a certain allure. An allure of freedom, of touch, of randomness, of mystery, of possibility. You don’t know exactly where you’re going to end up after you get past the cover or front page. You may love the journey, or be accosted by perfume samples and ink stains, and spill your coffee all over the one article you were really looking forward to reading.

But I guess you could always look it up on the internet, eh?