breakTHROUGHArts
a free newsletter for visual artists

September 2003 Contents
I. Feature Article: Visual Journaling
II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading
III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room, and the Shrink’s Couch
IV. Creative Links: Sites for visual artists
V. Newsletter Info: Sharing this newsletter, subscribing, and unsubscribing

I. Feature Article: Visual Journaling.
Artists’ journals are as varied as artists themselves. Running through the variety are two kinds of choices that may be useful for your own journaling.

First is the visual/verbal balance: how much of what we put down is visual vs. verbal? For example, practically all of the exercises in Julia Cameron’s guides (e. g. Artist’s Way, Vein of Gold) are verbal writings, with a smattering of collage exercises. At the other end of the spectrum, some artist’s sketchbooks are so visually beautiful that they cross from useful tools to art forms themselves. The latest issue of Surface Design has examples of both (see link below).

In between, styles range from mostly verbal with a few sketches, to collections of drawings, sketches, others’ images, photos, free-form collages. The amount and intensity of color varies from mild tonal differences, to colored pencil, watercolor, and even fast-drying acrylic.

A second choice is the choice of journals themselves: How many journals?  How portable? I suspect that how artists choose to combine or separate their various journals is related to the place of art in their lives. In the Jungian sense, these are important “containers”.

There are a number of guides that use journaling and art work as the path of self-discovery or healing. These differ from a focus on visual journaling specifically to develop personal symbols for art work. Life-long artists, often with an art school background, may have developed the habit of funneling much of their life experience through their art, so that their art journals are their personal journals as well.

Some separate types of journals are: dream journals, travel journals, dialogue journals, nature journals, meditation journals. Any can be combined… e. g. a journal for a trip that includes all related dreams. An inner dialogue with any expert you like about a piece you’re working on. A personal journal with sketches of nature seen while going through a health crisis.

It’s not as simple as carrying a small book wherever you go. If our choices of visual/verbal balance and journal “containers” reflect the current place of art in our lives, perhaps we can reposition our art, and ourselves, by changing how we journal.

There is plenty of advice out there on how to do an artist’s journal (See Friends in Print below). My advice is pretty limited:
Pick and choose among all the guidelines and advice you hear, including mine.

Things to pick and choose from:
a). If you’ve never kept an artist’s journal, start with any appealing approach that seems do-able to you, and then re-assess after 4 to 6 weeks.
b). If the form of journaling you’re already doing works well for you, journal on. (If you’re willing to share how you got to that particular style, you can let me know on the Contacts page of this website, www.dianereardon.com.)
c) If what you’re currently doing has gotten stale, consider either shifting the visual/verbal balance or play with how separate and how portable you keep your lovely snippets.
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II. Friends in Print: When you feel like reading

Spirit Taking Form: Making a Spiritual Practice of Making Art. Nancy Azara. 2002. Lots of specific do’s and don’ts for moving from the verbal to the visual diary of your life. Exercises for exploration that can be adapted specifically to visual creativity.

How to Keep a Sketchbook Journal. Claudia Nice. 2002. Her lovely watercolors can be a bit intimidating for those who “can’t draw”, but useful guidance on making the journal a presence in your life.

Learning and Teaching Mind Mapping. Nancy Margulies. 1991. A straight-forward way to teach visual thinking tools to kids. Useful training wheels for visual journaling, including a method for making simple pictures to represent ideas.

A Field Guide for Using Visual Tools. David Hyerle. 2000. Built on a background of how to teach creative thinking to children. Pretty complete reference for different types of visual notation.
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III. Energy Management: Translations from the Psych Research Lab, the Board Room and the Shrink’s Couch
Most artists are familiar with Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (Betty Edwards, 1999) The basic premise is that the right brain responds to the visual rather than the verbal and often opens up new ways of thinking in our mostly linear, left-brained business worlds. Most visual artists are already functioning comfortably from their right brains, but they may not always use that resource when they are trying to figure out the “left-brain” parts of their production: assembly, materials use, technical information, marketing problems.

Using both brain hemispheres together promotes creativity in solving such problems. Two books above give practical help in developing such two-sided thinking.  Nancy Margulies presents an updated version of Tony Buzan’s original “radiant thinking” which uses the  spatial relationships of tree diagrams to develop and communicate ideas. David Heyerle’s later work is a gathering of techniques including circle maps, bubble maps, mindscaping, fishbone, concept-mapping, feedback loops, and top-down and bottom-up trees.
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IV. Creative Links
www.dailywriting.net/VisualJournal.htm  Many links to visual journaling for visual artists, writers, and just regular kids and grownups.

www.surfacedesign.org  Website includes the current editorial on creativity, fine links, and information for ordering the journal.
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V. Newsletter Info
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This material is included on the breakTHROUGH Creativity Coaching website
(www.dianereardon.com). All material is copyrighted ©, 31 August 2003, Diane Reardon. All rights reserved. Visit the website for back issues and details on scheduling a complimentary one-hour coaching session.

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