The (un)happy accident that became an album cover – “Personal Journals”

Earlier this year I said that I would give background stories on the making of my “Personal Journals” album since this is its 10 year anniversary.
Here’s a random fun fact on how the cover art came to be…

This image (above) is the “contact sheet” from a photo shoot that was to be used for the cover of the album. A friend of mine took photos of me in a Providence basement where we spray painted “Personal Journals” on the door. I stood in front of it with a key in my mouth. When I received the photos back from the developer I was bummed out. Not only did they lack proper lighting, but they just didn’t look the way I was picturing it in my head. There were a few large photos from this shoot that I took with me to a studio in Maine where my recordings were being mastered. While sitting on the studio floor, I used a paper clip to desecrate the photos. Not to be creative mind you…I was just feeling defeated at the moment, so I decided to take it out on myself. I started with the eyes by X’ing them out (this was actually the start of my X’ed out eyes thing — imagery that I still use to this day.) Then I scratched out the mouth and began doing a fuzzy scratch thing around the whole body before obscuring the rest of myself with a felt tip pen. At that point I was like, “Huh…I like this now.” The only other thing I did, once I returned home, was color in the ceiling and walls with a red sharpie. That is how the front cover, back cover, and inner cover were made.

It’s in my nature to obsess, but I must admit that sometimes the best stuff comes from me just being open to the moment. Open to mere (un)happy accidents. Lastly, I like that there are people currently living in a Providence apartment who have no idea why “Personal Journals” is spray painted on their basement door in military font.

Obsessively Yours,
Uncle Sage

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Personal Journals “10 Year Anniversary Sale” – MP3/CD /Vinyl (SIGNED) available @ www.tinyurl.com/PersonalJournals