These journals function both as records of daily life and as common- place books, containing ideas, information and inspirations. In 1996, I began compiling an image resource file in book form that drew partial inspiration from the collage novels of Max Earnst. A summer spent living abroad in Italy, brought about the use of combined image and text utalizing drawings, photographs gleaned from old textbooks, magazines, ticket stubs and other discarded materials. These books contain elements of life sometimes featuring items of an intellectual nature and at others rather meaningless information such as things to do and grocery lists. As a mode of investigation and place of inspiration, everything I have ever made or will make is rooted in a jounal.