Jury duty is one of those things that every American will one day have to face… However, I feel like they must give me preferential treatment because at the early age of 25 I’ve already been called 4 times. Although I have been called four times and I still haven’t actually gone through the jury selection process because I have always been exempted or let go. Regardless of that I still don’t like getting that “jury summons” envelope in the mail.

This page is about my third jury summons. After spending the day packing up all of my time wasters (books, laptop, etc.), riding Marta to the downtown Atlanta courthouse, just to find out I could go straight back home, I knew I had to make a visual journal page about it. I found these image of stuffy, old fashion, political looking fellows and decided they were perfect. I kept my eyes peeled for other old fashion, stuffy, political and patriotic looking pictures in magazines and slowly began to compile a good group, and form a plan for the page in my head. The image that brought it all together was the white silhouette of the head, because that is all you are when it comes to the government. You are a number, there is nothing personal about the jury selection process. All they want is your social security number and you are on your way.

To create this visual journal page I layered my jury summons letter, badge, and magazine images. When collaging multiple image like this I always lay them out first, play around with the layout, before I glue anything down. It can be difficult to create a successful image when you are trying to combine so many different things together. Important things to consider are focal point, whether or not your eye continuously moves around the page (a connecting factor between all of the images), and balance. In the end I was very happy with the way this came out.

CHALLENGE: Create a visual journal page about an annoyance in your life. Remember not everything you journal about has to be good or happy. For example I am about to create a journal page in my new book about how my dog Jacob can’t stay out of disgusting smelling substances… 5 baths in 2 weeks… need I say more…

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