Exhibition Statement

Creative Journaling Exhibition Statement

“Creative Journal: More than Just Dear Diary” is a workshop with the goal of expanding the idea of what journaling can accomplish. Students explored six different types of journaling that combine creative expression and thoughtful expression in order to create spreads that are both supporting mental health and creativity. This exhibit is the culmination of their learning, and includes portfolios from each student where they focused on one style and theme of their choosing.

History & Distinction

One of the earliest forms of Creative Journaling is Bullet Journaling, a system created by Ryder Carroll. Carroll  invented a system of notation that allowed the user to customize their journal into a planner, notebook, or tracker that suits their specific needs (Waterstones). Users of the Bullet Journal system eventually expanded the system into an artistic and creative endeavor, incorporating visual imagery into the designs. Users would post their work on social media sites such as Instagram and Pinterest, leading to the ability of others to take inspiration from them.

From there, others began to share their techniques for creative journaling on social media. This led to the expansion of techniques such as character journaling and ‘junk journaling’. Creators would find creative ways of taking things like scrapbooking to the next level by experimenting with different materials and styles (Rakefet). The biggest part of the history of creative journaling was and still is the use of social media to share ideas. Youtube, Instagram, and Pinterest allows people to discover the techniques of creative journaling easily, and allows people to find a community of people from which to learn and gain inspiration from.

Methods

In order to gain more information on the techniques I taught in this workshop, as well as the mental benefits of creative journaling and expression, I researched scientific studies on the relationships between mental health & stress management and creative journaling. I also watched instructional videos from popular creators in the journaling space on YouTube.

The workshop itself was structured into sections. For the first seven weeks, we covered a different style of creative journaling each week, with the first week being an introduction to the concept of creative journaling. In these classes, students were given a brief lecture on the style, including both purposes and examples. There were also two discussions a class, one before the lesson and one after. The goal of the pre-lecture discussion was to gauge what students knew about the style, while the goal of the post-lecture discussion allowed students the opportunity to reflect on their experience with the style. Students were also given time in class to experiment with the style in their journals. In the remaining weeks, students used class time to work on their final portfolios. Students had a peer review, a one-on-one conference with me, as well as a mini-lecture on the purpose of an Artist’s Statement during these last four weeks.

Audience & Impact

The targeted audience of this workshop is college-aged students interested in creative means of expressions and methods for stress management. My goal was to expose students to a variety of different options that, while providing the opportunity to for self expression, allow students the space and capability for reflection and stress-relief. Journaling is often thought of as just writing about your day or your feelings, the typical diary. I wanted my students to learn that this is not the case, and the concept of a journal really boils down to a space where they can be completely unfiltered. 

Conducting this workshop really impacted me, more than I expected. I found that the opportunity to guide students through a project I was so passionate about, and being able to spark that same passion in my students, was very fulfilling. My communication, teaching, organization, and personal skills definitely prospered from this experience as well.

References

Waterstones. “Ryder Carroll on The Bullet Journal Method.” Youtube, uploaded by Waterstones, 19 November 2018, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e63lo64nnto

Hadar, Rakefet. Elements of Visual Journaling: Layers of Meaning, Stackpole Books distributed by National Book Network, 2021, https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=hZssEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA10&dq=artistic+journaling&ots=HpMNgcvtwZ&sig=pfTFFqU8IAiyfNVBhAF4_4vBPRo#v=onepage&q=artistic%20journaling&f=false.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my Teaching Assistant, Jenna Deitrich, for all her help with the running of my workshop. I could not have executed this without her. I would like to thank the Arts Faculty for giving me the opportunity to run this workshop, as well as their guidance throughout the semester. I would like to thank my fellow workshop leaders for their feedback throughout the process. Finally, I would like to thank my workshop participants for their continued hard work and passion throughout the semester. I could not have asked for a better group of students to work with, and their constant enthusiasm was crucial to both my success as a workshop leader and the workshop overall. I am honored to have the chance to curate their work as well as have guided them through their artistic process.