The Maiden Voyages Project: Valerie Hird

The complete diary of VH. INSTALLATION SHOT.

A diary is a very personal. It can reveal the darkest secrets in a person’s life, help to unleash feelings that are too hard to express aloud, or simply review the daily life of an individual. However, for those who have trouble with words, including myself, drawings can provide the opportunity to express oneself through visual narration. Valerie Hird’s The Maiden Voyages Project has introduced a way in which men and women can communicate their experiences in the universal language of illustration.

From the diary of DB.

Upon first entering the exhibit at the Nohra Haime Gallery, I immediately noticed a cohesive drawing style between all five diaries. Each diary is presented in a collage/comic book fashion with one page divided into sections describing different moments in their lives. The figures depicted in the entries appear as cartoonish representations of the individual artist’s family and friends. The balance of light and dark shading creates a dramatic effect in the pieces, especially with use of vellum paper as a top layer, and finally, the color scheme is very similar in each diary.

The biographies briefly describing the backgrounds of the participating women clearly reveal the cultural and religious diversity between them. The resemblance between the overall messages of their dairies gives rise to this feeling that they are not all that different from each other. In the span of a year a lot happens in a person’s life but when these women were deciding what to put in their diaries they all drew about what was most important to them: their families, their love life, their religion, their obstacles, and their accomplishments.

I have tried a number of times in my life to start a diary. Each time I begin with so much enthusiasm and then end abruptly. I have trouble getting my thoughts out on paper but when I pick up a paintbrush it seems as though my writers block disappears. Illustrated diaries have no single meaning; they can be interpreted and analyzed in numerous ways. They do not have to start with “Dear Diary” and they are not limited to audiences that speak the artist’s language.

From the diary of SK.

The Maiden Voyages Project has introduced a new form of personal expression. If more men and women were to keep illustrated diaries they may notice the similarities between themselves and their peers in ways that words cannot describe. This project can become a universal way to bridge the gap between cross-cultural differences, understanding, and communication.

Photographs by Suzy Storr.

Visit The Maiden Voyages Project online for further information.