[visual art]

Dear Diary:
Girls combine art and self discovery at
Wabi-Sabi Warehouse

By: Lauren Hodges

Somewhere in my mother’s attic lies a chest full of journals, chock-full of embarrassing factoids about yours truly. From the petty (competing slumber parties) to the penetrating (good ol’ broken-home memories), my years of journals contain every thought and feeling that my young life produced.

I, personally, liked to accessorize my chicken scratch with artifacts such as movie and concert stubs, pressed flowers, ripped friendship bracelets and even a creased love letter or two. Professional scrapbooker I am not, but the value of such treasures only increase with time, and even in my mindless teenage years, I knew they were worth chronicling.

“I have long thought that art, journaling and collage are so much about self-discovery,” Melissa Manley, a mixed-media artist here in Wilmington, says. “And [so is] adolescence.”

Manley teaches scrapbooking classes every year at a popular festival called Artfest in Port Townsend, Washington. Here in Wilmington, she’s a professor at Cape Fear Community College and teaches several different workshops from her studio in the Wabi-Sabi Warehouse, including “Found Object Mania!”

“We get as far as sawing and cutting copper and wire,” she says, “which can be tedious and dirty but is loads of fun.”

Happening upon valuable items, as well as valuable ideas, has brought Manley to her latest project. “Art + Words = Collage!” is her week-long summer camp for 7th- and 8th-grade girls, focused on making art journals, scrapbooks and paint-enhanced poetry. “If your middle-schooler loves doodling, writing and dreaming, then this is the week for her!” Manley says proudly.

The five-day group, hosted by Manley and her own 7th-grader, Meredith, will allow girls to create completely personal art journals, as well as give an individual touch to existing books.

“I have daydreamed about this kind of class [for teenagers] for a while now,” Manley says. “The time just seemed ripe.”

As for the impact she hopes to make upon her young artists, Manley is confident that the workshop will exist to preserve the immediate, uninhibited impulses of fresh minds. “Making art is one of the closest ways we come to living totally in the moment,” she says. “It’s that idea that authors like Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle talk about. We tap into something greater than ourselves.”

As for Manley herself, she has plenty of “something greater” to show off that will inspire her teenage cut-and-pasters. “All I’ve had to do in the past was share my collection of artist books, altered books, underground art ‘zines and books about making books to get most people excited. Then I would just hand them a brush and paint!” She smiles excitedly, as if she has just come upon a great discovery. “The girls and I should have a great week.”

“Art + Words = Collage!” is currently being held at the Wabi-Sabi Warehouse on Princess Street. Call 910-538-1246 to inquire about it.