KAILEE VIATOR BATSON -- Mixed media visual artist
Many artists keep a sketchbook of their ideas and research; I maintain what I call an altered book journal. These journals are repurposed, thrifted hardcover books filled with collage, painting, drawing, writing, and assorted memorabilia. The pages within encompass ideas and experiments for larger works as well as personal life documentation.
My journaling process receives attention for its highly personal nature, their extreme layering of materials, and the accessibility of the craft for anyone to do something similar. I have demonstrated some of these techniques to the art students of Galveston College while exhibiting two of my books in a group exhibition in their gallery.
Working in this way originated for me as an assignment given by my beloved high school art teacher. She gave us each a book from a thrift store and instructed us to experiment with any and all media within its pages. I continued on with this for a couple of years prior to moving on to college. I revisited my altered books a few times until truly reconnecting with this practice in 2022. I have since filled up three books, each containing around fifty two-page spreads.
I currently have three books in progress-- one of which is in a large, old dictionary with index thumb tabs. It keeps the experimentation with media moving along to have multiple books ongoing by eliminating the drying-time necessary before moving on to the next page.
As a career tattooer trying to maintain a practice within the fine arts, I've begun creating tattoo versions of these book pages. It has been an interesting challenge to bring the textures, patterns, and layering techniques of my mixed media work into a different experience of art-making. Clients are able to edit portions or add new elements to create a personalized version of my journal art, shown here with my client's photos of her grandparents in the 1930's.
Another example of my collage work turned tattoo, is shown here. My client's only request was to change the solo '4', seen on the bottom left of the right-hand page of this journal spread, to become a '44' for the address number of her childhood home.
Altered Book Journals 2024-2025
altered book journals -- 2022-2023
Altered book journals - 2006-2008
