Anyone ever do any "visual journaling"? I never even heard of it but Google it and you'll find lots of sites.

I saw an ad for a journaling group close to home. "Journaling group?" I thought. They get together and share their journals? Oh, horror! But I'm meeting up with them this Sunday.

Most of the people are more into this visual journaling than they are into writing. They spend some time discussing what they have been doing since they last met and one hour working on their journals with glue sticks, magazines, pens, etc.

I don't know exactly what I'm going to bring or talk about. I mainly signed on because I want to meet some creative women close to home. I kind of threw together a spiritual journal that I've been keeping on "God thoughts" and threw in some pictures from magazines to try and fit into the group.

I'm actually looking forward to this. It should be interesting (or embarrassing).

Mary,
You know, I hear about things like this and always think "why doesn't this town have anything like that?" It never hits me that I could start something just like it! duhhh...

I bet you enjoy it. Your heart and your attitude are both good, and let's not forget what THEY are gaining by having YOU there, hey? It sounds interesting and I look forward to you sharing about it afterwards. You will, won't you? So glad to see you back in here Mary...you've been missed!

JJ

Agte, so glad to hear you're stepping out and trying something new. I love hearing about women at midlife starting new adventures, especially when it's something personal.

Anxious to hear amore. Go with confidence!

Mary, that sounds like some real fun. I learned something similar in one of my writing workshops. It was suggested that we thumb through magazines in search of faces the would fit our character's physical profiles then paste them to a board. This way, when our muse is low of ideas, we can visualize their faces and provoke more literal action.

Have fun and do share your experience.

Sugaree

This sure sounds interesting to me! Please, keep us posted and above all, enjoy yourself. Life is short. Live it fully!

[ July 11, 2004, 03:51 PM: Message edited by: Songbird ]

I went to the journaling group this morning and met 4 very nice, talented, interesting women. There are 10 people in the group total but they don't all show up at every meeting.

One of the woman is leaving for New Zealand tonight. She applied to be part of a crew producing a play. This isn't something she would normally do, but decided she's going to start taking chances and pursuiing her dreams. She didn't get the job but they thought her application was so creative and funny, they invited her to visit the set. I love stories like that, of people taking chances and having doors open because of it.

Anyway, two of the women are very artistic, with bound journals they made themselves which were beautiful. They paint their pages with watercolors, then put photos, drawings, magazine clippings on the pages, plus they're writing. Two of the women are also avid writers and I may have a writer's group to go to now also.

Another newby to the group will come next month. She has an "art car", in other words, she's decorated her car like a collage or art piece. I can't wait to see it.

All and all it was a terrific way to spend the morning.

Mary, that's great and I'm happy that you had fun. I've been saying for years that I was going to take some time to create something like that. It has never made it past my procrastinating mind. But, however, in my mind, it is soooo beautiful...I have beads that I've collected over the years, stones from ear rings, broken jewelery and pictures and bottons from some sentimental clothing...I have swatches of clothing....my goodness it is beautiful, inside of my mind.

Are you going to start on a scrap-book?

Sugaree

I'm not sure what you'd call what I'm starting. Visual journaling and scrap booking are similar, but I think scrap booking is usually made up of photos you've taken of events, people, vacations, etc. or other memorabilia (tickets, napkins, whatever) where as the journals are a mixture of drawings, paintings, magazine clippings (whatever suits your visual fancy) and writing something about your thoughts or feelings or poetry, just like you'd do in a regular journal, only prettier.

So far, I have a journal that's mostly about my spiritual journey, plus some day-to-day thoughts with some magazine clippings and doodles. I'm looking for a digital camera right now (another confusing maze to crawl through) so I can add some photos and would like to figure out how to use watercolors.

A friend loaned me a book called "The Artful Journal, A Spiritual Quest" which I'm taking some ideas from.

Speaking of cameras, I should start another post to get opinions on that one. I've got it narrowed down to the Canon PowerShot S1, Olympus C-765, and Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ10 (which is really nice but kind of big). I should probably just flip a coin, except it only has 2 sides...

LOL @ coin flipping. Yeah, you wouldn't want to confuse yourself with only 2 choices when you can have 20 choices, huh?

I see what you mean with the difference of a scrapbook and visual journaling. I believe what I was thinking about is the family tree book that I have invisioned as 'visual journaling.'

Another way that came to mind was back in 1980, the professor of the fine arts dept compiled a plethora of information on how Grambling started. She called it, "Grambling's Pictorial History." What a great visual book.

Keep me updated on your progress. That sounds so relaxing.

Sheree

Thanks for posting this topic - I've been reading the thread and find the "visual journalling" thing really neat. Hope you'll keep us posted on your adventures with it.

I've never been able to keep a very good "traditional" journal - my current one is more like a scrapbook in which I paste photos, clippings, memorabilia, emails, notecards.

I like the "looser" concept of the visual journal, very appealing.