"Explore"

Hooray, I've completed the first page of my Cabinet of Natural Curiosities and had such fun doing it ... but first of all I prepared the book.


I chose an old diary, removed most of the pages and covered it in fabric. I had been thinking about the challenge title and the strongest images I had were of my grandmother taking me to the Sydney Museum when I was a child. The cabinets were old, dusty and full of intriguing exhibits so I decided on a faded appearance to my book with a 'cabinet' on the cover displaying labeled items. (I placed a piece of acetate as the 'protective glass', so some images are not as clear.)


The first theme is "explore" and as a prompt the poem "The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost was included. This made me think about life as a journey, choices we make, what I want to explore and how wonderful yet scary exploration can seem. I thought of myself as a child taking paths through a dense forest and what I might encounter. I imagined the encounters as tall flowers, delightful and harmless but a little frightening to a small girl. On my page I placed a photo of myself (with less flowers than I originally envisaged), part of a map representing unexplored territory and a verse to show the Bible as a guide book for the journey.


I didn't want my pages to be dusty and faded, but I did want to include an 'exhibit' for each theme as if it was on display in my cabinet.


It was thoroughly enjoyable with constant inspiration and ideas - I could probably do a book just on 'explore'.