Image Journaling Creates Visually Expressive Art Via Upcoming Workshops

Photo courtesy of visualblessings.blogspot.com

Can journal writing and image making be joined to spiritually enrich someone?

According to YAC, they most certainly can and the Arts Council is proving it by offering a series of workshops geared toward the participants’ creation of a personalized “image journal,” one that will reflect their “life and interior journey.”

The workshop classes, set for January 18 and 25, February 1, 8, 15 and 22, have limited enrollment, issuing a call for early registration for those interested in creating a visually expressive art piece for themselves.

The classes will be held from 6:30–9:15 p.m. and are geared toward adults and teens (if accompanied by a parent or guardian). Participants need no prior art experience and art novices are encouraged to attend.

According to the YAC website (www.oxfordarts.com), participants will:
• Imagine a hand-created book reflecting your life and interior journey
• Express their personal spirituality or soul path in an image-rich way
• Explore watercolor, collage, monoprint and visually expressive text

The workshops are geared toward the participants’ creation of a personalized “image journal.”

The following is offered as a summary for the extensive workshop:
Healing qualities of both journal writing and image-making are joined together in potent combination in the creation of an ‘image journal.’ Part soul work and part personal narrative; the intimacy of the process prompts archetypal imagery to surface from memory and imagination. The participants’ book will ultimately reveal their interior mythology and its deep connection to the sacred whole. Prior participants will re-ignite a creative spark and unleash new avenues of self-expression. For others, the book will assist in navigating a life transition, visualizing memoir and family history, or honoring the gift of self-care after loss. Past courses have proven meaningful for educators, writers, counselors and those in the ministering and healing professions.

For instructional purposes, YAC has employed the best for this workshop.

Instructor Constance Pierce has twice exhibited her sketchbook journals at the National Museum of Women in the Arts (DC). She has offered her original Image Journaling courses with the Smithsonian Institution Art Studio (DC), Yale Divinity School (CT), Ursuline College: Graduate Art Therapy (OH), Cleveland Art Institute: National Summer Program (OH), Millsaps College (MS), Penland School (NC) and St. Bonaventure University (NY) where she previously served as a professor of painting and drawing.

Pierce, a professor of drawing and painting, wanted to create a class that would be accessible not only to artists, but others as well.

“I developed a particular approach to offering guided explorations in monoprint, watercolor, collage, visually expressed text and hand-altered photos,” she explains. “Participants engage in the media experiments and their emerging images and symbols prompt the journal writings in surprising ways. Over the years, I’ve offered image journaling for artists, writers, and counselors, as well as for university faculty and students in theology, art therapy, medicine and education.

The supply package for workshop attendees includes a journal album, acrylic paint, print and canvas paper, archival color-papers and other special supplies available from Pierce. Other minor items are available for purchase locally and more information will be available upon registration.

Prices for the workshop are $185 for YAC members and $200 for non-members.

For more information or to register for the workshop, visit YAC at www.oxfordarts.com.

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Jeff McVay is a staff writer and graphic designer for Hottytoddy.com. He can be reached at jeff.mcvay@hottytoddy.com.

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