I embroider, rather than paint, and scrapbook rather than "make marks," but Jeanne Oliver's The Painted Art Journal should prove a welcome addition to my studio library nonetheless. Subtitled "24 projects for creating your visual narrative," the book presents a systematic series of lessons in creativity that, with a few substitutions of materials (appropriate to ones own medium: fiber for paint, say, or personal souvenirs for random ephemera) should be valuable across artistic media. Several of the projects look like fun ways to spend a weekend afternoon, and certainly need not be completed in sequence. "Handbinding A Journal" (#4) and "Gathering A Poem" (#11) fit that bill, as well as appearing adaptable for use with young artists, aka children. Oliver encourages artists across disciplines to experiment, make mistakes, make art, emphasizing the importance of just showing up to see what works and what doesn't. The book itself is filled with inspiring quotes and beautiful images presented in a soft watercolor palette on a semi-gloss heavy stock, making each page itself an enticing piece of art. These samples of Oliver's own work and style draw the reader in, prompting an interior dialogue between art and viewer, a dialogue which here must often include the hope, the wish, the compulsion to make art "like that!"