Visual Journaling – Page 2

Art Camp in the Woods

I recently went with four members of my Salem Art Group to make art in the woods. This is my kind of camping. The cabin belongs to the family of Katy, one of our members, and is located along the Metolius River in Camp Sherman, which is located in Central Oregon. This is an annual trip, where we do five basic things: eat, art, read, walk, and laugh. Repeat.

We arrived on Sunday and got set up to make art outside under the trees. My goal was to get layers of oil and cold wax onto boards in preparation for an upcoming show. Mission accomplished.

In the evenings (and the mornings, and sometimes in the afternoon), we all created little art journals, which Bonnie had made for us. One night we even worked outside by candlelight.

There was lots of creative food preparation and dining on the deck.

There were a couple of wildflower walks.

There was lots of sketching.

And lots of outdoor painting.

Here are the pages of my completed journal, which I titled By the River: A Make Do Journal. My title reflects that I had no art journaling supplies along with me, so the pages were created using what I could forage either from outside, the junk drawer at the cabin, or from my fellow artists who planned ahead much better than I did. It was fun having to make do.

What a restful, peaceful, energizing four days.

Tapestry: Collaging the Seasons

I recently had the pleasure to meet and take a class from Roxanne Evans Stout, an artist from Klamath Falls, and the curator of the blog, River Garden Studio. The class was held at The Art Department in downtown Salem. I hadn’t taken a class in a long time and since it was on the heels of my show opening at Guardino Gallery, I was primed and ready to let Roxanne take the reigns so I could just play.

After staring down the white, I jumped in.

Roxanne did demos and provided lots of materials for us to play and experiment with.

Of course, I brought some of my own personal treasures to use on my pages . . . .

We worked on four pieces at a time, front and back, meaning we created eight pieces of art during the day-long workshop. Not all of my pages are finished, but here is what I got completed during the day.

And now I can’t wait to see where I takes these pages for the next layer.

Visual Journaling: Making a Mess

Late last summer, II was invited to participate in a pilot project between the Salem Art Association and Salem Hospital Cancer Institute. I did a session on creating art dolls last December, and this month I offered three sessions of visual journaling.

I provided all the materials for the ladies to make a simple journal and each week they jumped in fearlessly. Many of the women were undergoing chemo and they shared that for the hour and a half they forgot about their treatment and just had fun.

Their pages were beautiful, some completed, most just backgrounds waiting for words and images to be added.

And many vowed to continue working on their journals at home. One woman confided she planned to add pockets and was going to insert the messages she received from friends as she went through chemo.

One of the participants wrote me the sweetest note after the last class and with her permission I’ll share it here as it sums up so beautifully what the experience was like for her:

My observation was that this offering certainly has a healing place in the lives of – well anyone who needs healing. It is in the process – not necessarily the art and certainly not the finished product, but the individual elements in combination – side by side with people sharing a bit of their life even through illness and disease.

It has purpose, and I suppose gives us permission to ‘let go, and treat ourselves’ as the time flew by without a thought other than what color to use, where to put it.

The open format you offered covered many art forms and medium – a great introduction, or experience for all levels to both find comfort and step out of that familiar place.

I have begun a journal project at home using felt, and fine paper. It feels more like I am in control – so I can introduce – at a slower pace – all of the delicious things that I tried to put onto one page…