found-art tuesday : create a visual journal

November 17, 2009 in Uncategorized

I drove last night to Cullowhee, North Carolina, to read for the third time to N.C. school teachers attending retreats at the NC Center for the Advancement of Teaching (NCCAT). They are among my favorite crowds because TEACHERS COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY ROCK.

Last night, there were two seminar groups who attended the reading–asking some of the best questions I've ever been asked and laughing and enduring my long rambling story about reading Sam Keen in college and sending a letter to him yesterday like a lovestruck teenager and much more. I wandered into one of the classrooms afterward–a week-long class on visual journals being taught by David Modler and Eric Scott.

Wow. I immediately wanted to sit down and join the class and make art.

And so, for today's found-art tuesday, the art I found there. How are we documenting and learning from our lives, our days? How can image inform words and words inform image? (I was further excited because we will doing just this kind of visual journaling at our workshop in Italy next fall–creating our own personal "atlas" and geography.)

(The last photo is of Eric's notes from my talk there)

About Patti Digh

Patti Digh is an author, speaker, and educator who builds learning communities and gets to the heart of difficult topics. Her work over the last three decades has focused on diversity, inclusion, social justice, and living and working mindfully. She has developed diversity strategies and educational programming for major nonprofit and corporate organizations and has been a featured speaker at many national and international conferences.

5 comments to " found-art tuesday : create a visual journal "


Kim Mailhot

November 17, 2009 AT 4:30PM

Anything celebrating teachers gets a huge bravo from me ! They make an art out of teaching and learning everyday !

jylene

November 18, 2009 AT 7:04AM

oh man, now i REALLY want to come to italy with you!

Brenda

November 18, 2009 AT 3:04PM

NCCAT’s mission is amazing! If the visual journaling class inspired you, you should check out Heather Allen-Swarttouw’s classes at BookWorks in Asheville. They’re amazing, and her method of non-linear journaling nourishes my practice.

Eric Scott

November 21, 2009 AT 9:35AM

Patti,

I wanted to thank you again for stopping by our seminar room and seeing what we were up to. We all greatly enjoyed your reading and the opportunity to meet you. And a huge thank you for giving us a shout out on your blog. We are out to spread the power of the visual journal, and appreciate any help along the way.

Eric and Dave, the Journal Fodder Junkies

Whitney Ward Panetta

October 1, 2012 AT 2:34PM

I love this, thanks for sharing! I love how you wrote your notes out, they look like mine! I also have a blog about visual journals (lookbetweenthelines.com) and I have never thought to break things down and focus on one aspect of a page, like how writing informs the image and vis versa. I am definitely going to look into getting more specific like that. I would love to attend a visual journal workshop, where do you find out about them?