365 Days: A Diary by Julie Doucet HC
360 pages; hard cover; partial color
Five years ago Julie Doucet renounced her comics-centric lifestyle. But Doucet could not turn her back on art, and this visual journal is an idiosyncratic collision of her various creative interests, wherein personal narrative, collage and drawing tell the story of her pursuits into printmaking and beyond, chronicling her maturation as a mid-career artist as she extends into a broader arts community. Doucet blurs the boundaries between high art, illustration, craft and comics: where panel borders once divided pages, collage creeps in; events and doodles merge; recollection and narrative blend with the abstract. The surreal neurosis of her comics has subsided to reveal a more relaxed creativity that is unrestricted by form or definition and is as engaging as ever.