Writing in a journal allows us to stop and reflect. Use your journal as a place to reflect on the things you are grateful for. Often we are overwhelmed by all the obligations we have in our daily lives or what we lack that it is easy to forget what we have. Gratitude for what is in our lives allows us to be present and really savor the good things. Being able to reframe circumstances that we find ourselves in also opens us up to allowing even more positive possibilities. This is not about being unrealistically happy 24 hours a day, it is about fostering a more positive perspective on things.

+ Write a Gratitude List as an entry in your journal. From the big things like a recovery from an illness or getting a new job. To the smallest things such as a genuine smile from a stanger or the extra whip cream in your mocha. When we remember what we have, our lives become more abundant. If this is difficult, start small. You’ll be amazed by all that you have to be grateful for.

+Make writing a Gratitude List a habit. Every time you sit at your journal, begin an entry with a short list of 5 things you are grateful for for that day.

Pink Poppy print available
in the amanobooks art section

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In honor of Mother’s Day this past Sunday, this journal tip is dedicated to journaling with kids. Not only is this an engaging activity to do with your child, but it will create a lasting memory for both of you. In an age where everyone is running around with hectic scheduling, take the time to stop and reflect with your child. You may be surprised by their observations!

My 9 year old niece, Bella, was gracious enough to share several of her journal entries with me for samples of journaling with kids. I love how her journal is already bulging on the side with things she collects and glues into her journal.

Here, my niece glued down an atc I created and wrote down what she felt the image meant.

+ Get a plain notebook or sketchbook and have the child decorate the cover with stickers, collage, or even their own drawing.

+ Encourage the use of pictures, drawings, and stamping in their journal. This is especially the case for children with pre-writing skills.

This spread was created by my 5 year old niece, Sophia. On the right side is a photo from a vacation. She continued the landscape according to her own vision!

+ Help them observe their world- don’t forget the wh questions, who, what, when, where, why, and how.

+When a child finishes a drawing, ask them to tell you about it-write their words down! Attach it to their drawing on the opposite facing page, or write it on the drawing. With their permission, of course.

When Bella was 4 years old, I got engaged and told her the story about the proposal. She later illustrated it and my sister wrote down her description of her illustration. This drawing hangs in my studio to this day.

+Children are so observant of their surroundings. Have them use a journal to record their sightings on a nature walk, or a city stroll. Tape or glue in the little things they collect on their walks- leaves, sticks, found objects, etc.

+Don’t forget to date the entries!

sounds like a poem to me…

+Journaling can also help children process their own feelings of emotional events in their lives. It provides a safe place for them to express themselves.

Here are some interesting online resources:
- mom’s minivan: trip journal
- nature journaling with kids
- kids creativity portal

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This week’s post is not a writing tip, but a tip to help add images and artwork to your journal pages. A very easy way to add imagery to your journal page is to get your hands on a box of transparencies that you can print on from your local office supply store. They are pricey, but if you will use them, it is worth it! Read the instructions for your printer, of course, and make sure you are able to print on transparencies before experimenting.

1. Print out your image on a transparency sheet and then trim down to size.
2. Write out your journal entry in your journal, then glue your transparent image on top of your writing.

from my personal journal, 2007-2008

Or you can collage various papers and add some paint before laying down your transparency. I did that in the example below and added a journal entry on top of the collage, and then attached my transparency.

from my personal journal, 2007-2008

In the spread below, the right hand side, I placed a picture of myself behind a transparency of a tree. The actual writing of this journal entry is behind my photo in a glassine envelope. The layering possibilities are endless with transparent materials!

a spread from a collaborative visual journal

Other resources:
+ There are onlines stores that sell images on transparencies such as art chix studio. They have fun images that could inspire an interesting journal entry!

+ Somerset Studio published a book called Transparent Art that showcases mixed media works using a variety of transparency materials and techniques. I have never read this book, so I can’t give a recommendation. But it looks like a good place to start if using transparencies is new to you or if you are just looking for some inspiration.

+ There are also ways to do transfer techniques with transparencies. If you do a quick search online, you should be able to find articles on this technique.

+ I highly recommend using your own images, if you can or are willing. Your journal entries will be much more personal if you use your own images.

+ You can even use older artwork as your starting transparency image for your journal entry. It is always fun and interesting to go back to a finished painting and rework it in your journal.

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What I mean by “Self-censorship” is not writing the whole truth and nothing but the truth in your journals. Sometimes it is really hard to dig deep and be completely honest. But if you can’t do that in your own journal, where can you do it?

Have you ever written a heart wrenching entry that was cathartic to have written out, but then everytime you open your journal you see it and it sends a painful memory back to you? You may then find yourself either not wanting to use that journal or not wanting to write such entries down, which is not helpful at all. You may even be tempted to rip the entry out, burn it, throw it away. Which is fine, if you really want to do that. I hate ripping pages out of my journal though. My journal is me- the good, the bad, and the ugly. Sometimes we need to be raw and ugly in order to find the beauty in our lives.

Life is not always peachy and sometimes you just need to vent. Writing it out in your journal can help get all those emotions out safely and in a constructive way. We also may censor ourselves in our journals because we are often taught to not express our emotions or opinions-keep everything “pleasant”. Your journal is the place to write down your honest thoughts at that moment, even if that changes in the next moment.

Below are some visuals from my own journal and how I dealt with self-censorship. I wrote all my angst out in my journal…but after I dealt with the emotions and the situation passed, I didn’t want to see it anymore. So, I covered it up! It’s not beautiful, but it served its purpose. I needed to write what was inside of my head, but I didn’t want to see it everytime I opened my journal.

On the spread above I actually sewed pieces of scrap fabric to my journal page, covering up my entry. I know what’s under there…but I don’t need to see it anymore. I liked how the sewn-in fabric added more character to my already bulging journal.

This spread above you can see the thread stitches poking through. I also covered up some of the writing with pencil scribbles and also glued on another scrap piece of dark fabric.

If you can be honest with yourself in your journal, you may feel better afterwards. Or if not totally better, at least lighter and with more clarity.

Other cover-up tips:

+ Staple the pages together- this is good if one day you do want to go back and read the entry. You just need to get the staples out!
+ Glue the pages together
+ Glue a decorative piece of paper on top
+ Paint, scribble, doodle on top of the entry
+ Write on a separate sheet of paper. If you want to put it in your journal, you can by stapling it in, paperclipping, or by gluing an envelope and sticking the paper in there. If you don’t want to keep it in your journal, toss it, burn it, shred it up!

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One of the greatest things in the world is to train ourselves to see beauty in the commonplace. ~Charles Hawthorne

The point of having a journal is to record your thoughts and events. It is easy to fall into the trap of writing things out like an itinerary of events. For example: Today I woke up and ate breakfast before I had to get ready for the day. I then got dressed and left the house.

Yes, that definitely records what happened that day, but if you stop and really think about the details and write them out, your entries will be so more richer. Here is an alternative to the above example:

I woke up around 5:30 am and the world was so still. When I let Foggy out, there was snow on the ground and on the fence. The snow seemed to glow in the morning’s darkness. And inside the house, all was quiet. The world felt like it was still asleep.

When I read that entry, my memory comes to a sharp focus on that moment, the morning of the day my son was born. If I had just written the first example, I don’t think I would remember that stillness of that January morning. It brings it all back to me. Even the way the light came in through the kitchen window.

Try writing a journal entry this way. The easiest way is to do it in the present tense. Sit on a bench outside in a park during your lunch break. Describe what you see, what you hear, what you smell. Remember the “wh” questions you learned to ask in your high school writing class- who, what, when, where, why, and how. Get it down. You are painting a picture with words.

Artist Erin Kenepp is chronicaling a whole year of her life with a visual journal entry for every day. It is really quite amazing.

page from Erin Kenepp’s visual journal

I love this visual journal entry that she was so generous to share here. The marriage between the richness of her words and the simple use of color captures that moment so well.

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. -Rainer Maria Rilke

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Although many artists like to say that their work speaks for itself, we usually have to talk about the work whether in an artist’s statement or at a show.  Someone is inevitably going to ask you, “Why do you like trees so much?” or “Why do you use red circles in your work? or even “Are you ok?  Your painting looks like you’re tormented” (yes, I did get that from a friend once!)  Anyway, wouldn’t it be nice to have an answer prepared so you don’t find yourself tongue tied?  But better than that, it’s good to have that conversation with yourself- figure out what symbols or themes appear in your work often and then find out what that means to you. 

Use your journal to get the thoughts out, brainstorm, figure out what it is that you are trying to say. You can use this exercise to help you write that dreaded artist statement. When you write your artist statement you want to be concise and not too wordy or convoluted. In your journal though, you can be wordy, have spelling errors, awkward syntax and even incomplete sentences. This is about getting it out in the first place. Exploration before the execution.

Great art is the outward expression of an inner life in the artist. ~Edward Hopper

+This is a big one: look at your life, yes, at you, at who you are. What moves you? What issues do you find yourself gravitating towards? Are there certain themes or events in your life that have had a impacts on the way you think or behave? Do you have a life philosophy? Write these out in list form. You can go back later and dedicate a journal entry to each one.

+If certain themes or a general feeling appears in your work, write it down. List form. Go back and pick out areas to write about. How does this theme in your work reflect areas of your life, your own personal history? After all, we create what we know. Where could these themes be originating from and why? Or maybe we are creating what we don’t know, what we wish for….

+Make a list of the symbols, figures, shapes that appear or that you are drawn to.  For each one, list what they could possibly mean. Or if not a meaning, how does it make you feel?  Once you have a list, you may find themes.  Themes can always lead to a series…….

+Write about the colors that you are drawn to.  Why do you always pick up that Paynes Gray?  Colors have a whole psychology to them.  Look it up, put it in your journal. Here are a few links to start with:
:: http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
:: http://www.squidoo.com/colorexpert

+So you like to paint a bowl of fruit and really there is no reason or symbolism behind that, that’s great too! This is still a good exercise to do to help with the artist statement or the gallery chat. If you think about it, of all the things in the world to paint, you are choosing fruit. Why? Maybe you just love to paint and the organic forms and the vivid colors allow you to explore paint and all its wonderful qualities. Writing about what motivates you helps clarify why you do what you do.

It might feel awkward to dissect your own work like that, but we are visual communicators.  Even if you think there is no meaning to the dots you placed in the lower right corner, something compelled you to do so.  Find out if there is a deeper meaning or maybe you will find that you are guided by something else, something more intuitive, or more experimental.  Finding this out is valuable and can only enrich your work.

++These tips may also help if you are feeling stuck or blocked with your work.  Figuring out what you are drawn to and what symbols or colors can help jumpstart ideas.

Some of the pictures are truly mysterious to me…which is why I so often say publicly that I don’t know or don’t care what they’re really about. And yet I can also say that the paintings are prayers. ~ Susan Rothenberg

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Continuing with the visual journaling theme this week and looking at your journal as a place to experiment. If you are a painter or a visual artist of some kind, a journal can be a very useful tool in housing ideas, generating ideas, and just letting yourself to let go.

It seems to be a psychological thing because a canvas is something that will be up on a wall. Or to be submitted for a show or added to a body of work. Pressure! But my journal is for me, not a finished piece of artwork. Not anything that anyone is going to see, unless I feel like sharing.  It can be ugly, it can be messy. Or it can turn out a new discovery.

It actually helps me to keep visual journal entries along side written entries.  Along side grocery lists.  Along side a photo of my son and an entry about something funny he did.  It helps me to keep things loose.  Less precious.  Less sacred.  If I had a book solely dedicated to amazing visual journal pages, I probably wouldn’t use it!  Or I’d be a little less risky.  And this type of visual journaling is all about experimenting.

Mixed media artist Amber Gibbs often uses her journal to experiment with different collage techniques.  She discusses these experiments on her blog, which is very helpful to see how to loosen up and play.

journal spread by Amber Gibbs

:: So, you don’t collage? Well then slap down some images on your pages.

:: You’ve never used your own photos in your work?  Here’s your chance.

:: Drawing a face freaks you out?  Draw a face and write all around the head like a halo.

:: You only use colors like Paynes Gray and Burnt Umber in your paintings?  Do a spread using Hansa Yellow and Napthol Red.

:: Use up your stash of odd bits of different textured paper.

:: Instead of using glue to attach images or paper, explore different methods of attachment- staples, eyelets, needle and thread, etc.

:: Try different mark making tools for your writing- graphite, conte, charcoal, ink and nib, white-out pens, gel pens, crayons and watercolor to create a wax-resist, etc. etc. etc.

a visual journal spread in my 2007-2008 journal

My son was born in 2007, so my time in the studio went from full time to any time I could get! When I came to the studio to work, I always started with visual journal page. It was a way to just get the creative juices flowing. An exercise to experiment with no pressure visually as well as a place to write my intentions for that day down. The page above was one of these studio morning pages. Several weeks later, I was working on an encaustic painting and trying to figure out a composition….when I remembered this page I had created. I went to my journal and looked up this page and I knew what direction to go in for that encaustic painting.

Use your journal to try new things out and create without pressure. Creating visual journal pages in this way can loosen you up and create new possibilities for you and your art.

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The sub-heading for today’s tip is “creativity journaling”. I plan to have a few posts geared towards creative types for ways to use journaling as a brainstorming tool for creating art. Creativity journaling can include visual journaling, but it really has more to do with writing.

I have worked on a few series of paintings and always seem to have ideas about future ones swimming around in my head.  Before I really get into the thick of working in a series, I journal.   I write an entry (or more) about what issues I want to tackle.  Looking at these entries I find that most of what is written are questions.  Why? How? What happens if? How come? Where did this come from? etc.

I hopefully work out the answers to these questions visually through my paintings. More often than not, though, the paintings lead to more questions. So back to my journal I go!

After writing down the issues, it may also help to just brainstorm about what symbols you might want to use. Write anything and everything down. One idea can always lead to another. Make sketches next to your lists. Or even collage images down.

U.K. artist Vivien Blackburn created a book called “Ravelled Sleaves”. In this book she utilizes the image of her hand as one of the symbols of herself and her identity to depict feeling torn between all the demands on her during that time in her life-art, school, work, family, life. I think we can all relate to that at some point in our lives!

You can see in just three images how the hands transform into a wave that threaten to drown her. Be sure to check out Vivien’s Sketchbooks. Her sketchbooks are such a treasure to look through. Landscape studies combined with written observations and color studies are so insightful into the way her works progress. Then go visit her web site to see how her sketchbooks influence her finished paintings. And she also has a blog!

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The hardest part of visual journaling is finding the time. When I want to write a journal entry, the last thing I want to do is to pull my paints out or find my glue stick or figure out what I want my page to look like. I just want to write. The best way to beat this is to prepare pages beforehand. You don’t have to do page by page. Just pick random pages throughout your journal.

visual journal entry from my journal

This page was created using a phototransfer technique of one of my photos. I had created this page before hand, so on a day when I was stuck waiting in the car I happened to have my journal with me and I pulled it out and wrote to the left of the image. Later when I went home I finished it by adding a stamped date, lettering with some alphabet stamps, and a little more paint here and there.

Ways to Start
+ Paint backgrounds using watercolor paints, acrylics, or ink.
+ Glue down images from a magazine or newspaper
+ Glue down cool background paper, such as scrapbooking paper, or a torn dictionary page, or wrapping paper, or…
+ Glue down your own photos
+ Glue down a black and white photocopy of an image- the white of the background leaves a perfect space to write an entry
+ Get your stamps out and ink them up all over the pages, create borders, boxes, divide up your page creatively
+ Do a photocopy transfer {see technique tip here}

Once you have your pages prepared, you can write in them as you come to them. Don’t worry about the page not being “ready” for your words. Once you get your words in you may have a better idea of how you want the art to progress.

Check out this spread created by mixed media artist Amber Gibbs. In this spread you can see how she created a collage combined with her line drawing. The architectural element of the arch provided the perfect space for a written entry. The whole spread is pulled together with the purple background.

Visit Amber’s blog to see more of her art journal spreads. She shares her experiments in her journal as well, so you are sure to get some good ideas there too. She has been gracious to allow me to show some of her journal spreads here and I will be sharing a few more in upcoming posts.

If you totally hate what you have created, just cover it up with a piece of scrap paper. Paint over it. Don’t let the fear of ruining your page or ruining your journal stop you. If you treat your visual journal like something sacred and precious, you may just end up putting off creating a page for another day. Again.

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So what is this “visual journaling” thing all about? Visual journaling or art journaling seems to be the popular way to journal these days. With all this attention on art journaling, I think a lot of people who just write think, what’s the big deal?

I myself prefer just writing in my journals, but I do have visual journal entries scattered here and there in my journaling between pages of just written entries. My visual journal entries are spaces for me to experiment and play, use up bits of collage material, see what happens if I put that color on top of that one. More often than not my imagery has nothing to do with the written entry. But sometimes it does, and that visual imagery just serves to reinforce the written.

The first time I became aware of a consciously deliberate visual journal was in high school when I ran across a book on the diary of Frida Kahlo. I was blown away and knew that I wanted to have a book just like that! The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An Intimate Self-Portrait. Here is another book that will knock your socks off: The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon

an art journal entry from my handbound journal

Visual Journaling combines the written and the visual. It’s as simple as that. Some art journalers dedicate a whole journal just to visual journal entries. Page after page is filled with collage, paintings, sketches, plus writing. Some people even skip the writing and explore their thoughts, feelings and experiences purely through visual means. The journal becomes a piece of art in and of itself. A container, of sorts.

So why do a visual journal entry?
- creating a visual page can often express a feeling or an experience that you may have a hard time putting into words
- during the process of creating with imagery and color, you may reveal more about yourself or your situation that you are journaling about than if you had just written an entry about it
- allows you to flex those creative muscles
- allows you to play and explore without any pressure
- this flexing and playing could inspire you to do something bigger and deeper
- what else are you going to do with your pack-rat tendencies? It’s a place to use your collage papers, ephemera and photos.
- it’s fun and will make your journal feel scrumptious in your hands!

links and resources:
+Dawn DeVries Sokol’s book 1,000 Artist Journal Pages: Personal Pages and Inspirations (1000 Series) is filled with many different artist journal pages, 1,000 of them in fact. The great thing about this book is that it shows that there is no one right way to visual journal. I am proud to have a few of my spreads in Dawn’s book.

+L.K. Ludwig wrote a fantastic book called True Vision: Authentic Art Journaling L.K. is a wonderful writer and offers many insights into creating visual journals as well prompts to guide you. Two pieces of mine are also in this book.

Also check out L.K.’s blog , especially on Friday’s as she has just started doing a visual journal prompt every Friday.

+ One cannot talk about visual journaling without mentioning Teesha Moore. Just go see for yourself.

+Visit Kelly Kilmer to be inspired by her visual journal pages. She also teaches workshops on visual journaling, online and off.

+I have just discovered this art journaling blog One Artist Journal. Her work is just wonderful. She also teaches workshops on art journaling.

+Dispatch from LA blog will just inspire you to pull out a journal and all the ticket stubs, random papers and stencils you have been collecting and go at it. She is about to start an online workshop. I believe it starts soon.

There are so many resources out there, but those are just a few to get your creative juices going.
The next couple of posts will be focusing on visual journaling techniques, but those of you who are just writers, don’t despair. I will return to writing prompts, but also always with a tip for the visually inclined.

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