Thereza Rowe was kind enough to collaborate with me on this project — the inaugural piece to this ever-growing project of Art Together! Essentially, the process is this:

I create a piece of art for the artist in which I am collaborating with. After I feel that my part is done, I ship it off via the postal service. My collaborator receives the project, and adds, subtracts, changes, and responds to what I have sent them. After they are done, they send me the image. Based on the finished product, I construct a set of questions to ask that are both relevant to the piece and to the artist themselves.

So, here is what I sent Thereza (who lives across the pond):

And here is where Thereza took the piece:

Just for ice-breaking purposes, how would you describe yourself (in a short sentence or two)?

Someone who somehow has remained a child at heart, a daydreamer…I imagine a lot and then I want it all to come to life, now! Yes, I’m a very ‘now’ person.

What were your first thoughts after receiving my part of the project in the mail?

I thought it was beautiful and connected with it straight away… it looked like a little portal, a gateway to a magical world… I kept it up on the workspace so I could enter it everyday and took my time to actively approach it as I wanted the piece to communicate to me how our interaction would happen.

This outcome (in the best way possible!) differs from my original expectations of the collaboration. What inspired you to create a book, or a story — something more complex than the original piece I had sent you?

The piece arrived during a particularly extra busy working spell and I was feeling quite overwhelmed because I was in the process of finishing off a couple of projects and had little time to start anything else.

This is usually when I feel kind of ‘overwhelmed ‘due to my ‘now’ personality. I like to move on swiftly to the next adventure and my work schedule doesn’t always allow me to do so…

Enchanted by your piece, I decided to channel that feeling into it and would visit it every morning as a first thing before the start of my normal work day. It soon became my personal magic portal, something that would give me that daily ‘imagine/create’ moment.

The format also appealed to me so last thing at night I’d cut up a piece of paper of the same dimensions and approach it over my morning coffee along with my box of papers and scissors.

Not worrying too much about the outcome, I just aimed to enjoy the process of drawing with scissors letting the free flow of imagination lead the way on how the cut ups and juxtapositions would come together to create a narrative.

There are multiple narratives in our collaboration. Did you feel like you needed to add a narrative to the piece? In all of your work?

I like to create and tell little stories, I think one can see that throughout my work. That’s probably why I felt so comfortable with this collaboration. The non linear narrative of the piece just happened naturally.

What inspires you to create, and how do you think it helped shape this work?

The world as I see it inspires me daily and drives me to keep creating. I love colour, shape and playing with those elements makes me happy. No different with this project, as I said before it happened quite naturally.

Do you see shapes/characters/etc. in this work (as well as the rest of your portfolio) that you have been drawing/creating for many years past? In other words, is there a piece of your work that’s traveled with you throughout the years?

I wouldn’t say a particular piece of work but my tools (i.e. colour, shape, scissors, pens, love of paper, etc.) I always carry sketchbooks, pens and a camera wherever I go as I’m obsessed about documenting my own process. Also my love of animals, sometimes I feel I identify and interact better with animals than I do with people… i think that ‘s also reflected in my work as a whole.

And lastly…You collaborate on a variety of projects. What motivates you to do so?

I guess the joy of sharing a process motivates and excites me immensely. An adventure that’s shared is always a nicer one. It’s a good feeling… I just wish there were more hours in a day so I could do more…

Thanks again to the lovely Thereza Rowe for participating and taking the time create a great piece of work!

The Happy Journey Collective was conceived via Twitter, during a conversation between Thereza Rowe, Lesley Barnes, and Abigail Daker, after Thereza had tweeted about a site where you could customize your own coffin. From there, the idea grew, and the Happy Journey was formed.

Seeing the conception of this project and all the exciting illustrations it’s producing is a lot of fun. There is variety amongst the illustrators — collage, painting, drawing, vector graphics — you can see it on the Happy Journey! Also, you can get involved as well. They are accepting submissions and have a Flickr group dedicated to the project. I’d recommend you to check it out and be apart of something that is already really great!

Illustrators, from top to bottom: Colourbox // Jo Cheung // Kate Slater // Lesley Barnes // Thereza Rowe