Visual Diary: History of an Ad Ripper
Here’s something most people don’t know about me. I keep visual diaries of everyday things. I love ripping up magazines for photos and ideas, jotting little notes or reminders and adding them to a special binder, which goes into a collection of books that represent all my favorite thoughts and feelings.
I rip for beauty, work-outs, fashion and accessories, health, recipes, hair and make-up. I do it because I buy too many magazines and they all end up sitting around in piles after I’ve read them. Rather than have them sit and gather dust, I rip what I want and pass them on to my girlfriends.
I started ripping photos way back in the day when Teen Beat was still cool. Back then, my ripping consisted of a large collection of cute boys, which adorned every inch of my bedroom walls and more often than not, had Corey Haim’s sky-blue eyes looking down at me. I also ripped photos of clothes I wanted to buy and hairstyles I liked. I ripped photos of animals, cool art, song lyrics and inspirational quotes, all of which went on my walls in a silent statement. My bedroom walls were a series of possibilities.
Later in my late teens and early twenties, I started ripping to build pages of things I thought went well together. Then when I started designing jewelry, I kept a visual diary of all the designs I liked or could re-create. In China, I had a visual diary of all the clothes I could have made after a trip to the fabric market and seamstress. This is where this dress came from. It’s a thought that started out with a shorter dress style from a magazine cut-out. I designed this dress for a TV program I performed on in Northern China in 2003.
Over the years it’s been cool to look back and see how my tastes have changed. Things that I thought were cool back then I wouldn’t dare try now. I finally threw away my Corey Haim books and put away my old fashion diary. While most of my journal writing is now the product of what you see here, I still love my visual diaries. Now I’m hard at work on new ones. I’m busy ripping wedding ideas, healthy diet changes and workouts that will hopefully have me looking and feeling my best in November.
If you want some nice Taiwanese photo inspiration, look for DigiPhoto. It’s a Taiwanese photo magazine with some great work in it (no English though). You should be able to find it in 7-11.
Hi Craig,
Actually, DigiPhoto is one of my favorites here in Taiwan. I don’t really care about the articles. I just like the photos!
ad ripping sounds like a good idea. i’d never thought of that before.
Hey, I do that too
During my teens I ripped (well, cut) out graphics and photo’s etc from all kinds of magazines, and used them to create VCR sleeve covers or covers for cassette tapes and later the first burned CD compilations.
There was also a secret Leonardo DiCaprio binder, but that was thrown out years ago.
Nowadays I cut out recipes from my mom’s woman’s magazines, in an attempt to learn how to cook. I have about 4 binders stuffed, but have to admit I have never even tried one out, I usually use my cookbooks.
P.S. great dress!
MJ,
Yep. It’s great fun. I like it especially when I want to switch up my workout routines.
Kim,
You took it one step further than me if you were doing cassette and VCR sleeve covers. I only ever did collages in books!
I do the same thing, I love that dress.