Literacy Day Activity - Visual Journal

For today's literacy activity, we will begin a new project...a visual journal entry.

From "Psychology Today", :

"Visual journals are essentially "art diaries." They often contain both images [usually drawings] and words. Like an actual diary, their contents may be rough drafts that may later become finished artworks. And like an actual diary, they are meant to document day-to-day experiences, activities, and emotions and are often autobiographical in nature. Although they are defined as an art form, visual journals have been used for centuries as records of ideas and imagination. Da Vinci's drawing journals of flying machines and physicist Stephen Hawking's diagrams of the space-time continuum are just a couple of well-known examples.

Most art therapists recommend visual journaling as a way of exploring feelings and experiences over time. In fact, the importance of noting how artistic expressions change from week to week and month to month is one of the basic tenets of art therapy; a single image or art work is, in reality, just a snapshot of the moment. As you continue to create via a journal, your own visual language naturally emerges and evolves over time. There are some indications that drawing in a visual journal, even for a few minutes a day, has some health benefits, too. According to Elizabeth Warson, professor at George Washington University’s art therapy program, the regular practice of creating via an art journal can reduce your heart rate, increase serotonin flow and immune cells, and decrease stressresponses. These findings complement previous well-known studies byJames Pennebaker on the benefits of writing about distressful experiences and the physiological changes that journaling can bring about in the long term."

Given the importance of recording your thoughts and feelings in a visual medium, we will build visual journaling into literacy activities.  I want to start with a theme, and then expand upon it.  When trying to come up with a theme, think of something someone has said to you that you thought was important.  Or picture a motivational expression that stuck with you.  For the example I created for you, I pictured the Smokejumper's Creed: "Will do today what others won't; will do tomorrow what others can't".  I then created the following Visual Journal entry: