Art Journaling (Ongoing)
Sir Richard Branson said, “If you have a thought and don’t write it down, by the next morning it may be gone forever.” Many great people throughout time have used the power of visual journals to record their thoughts, ideas, feelings, and impressions of life. Art Journaling encourages creative thinking by allowing students the time to freely exercise their imaginations. By building a solid groundwork for creative thinking, students will be armed with unique problem-solving skills they can employ later in life.
Each week, I will give students a creative prompt. Some weeks will be quite specific while other weeks will be more open and vague concepts. We will spend a few minutes at the beginning of class looking at art journaling examples, sharing interpretations of the prompt, and discussing ways to approach it. Artwork will be highly individualized interpretations of the prompt. When students feel they have a clear idea of what and how they want to create their artwork, we will spend the remainder of class executing our artwork. Students should come to class prepared to create.
I play a variety of music through our creative process that is usually related to our journaling theme for the day. This includes classical, jazz, rock, and pop. I strive to choose musical playlists that will continue to inspire the students’ creative process.
I do encourage students to use their art journals to experiment with different artistic techniques, tools, and materials. Art journals are the perfect tools to try something new. These pieces will be the purely subjective expression of the students’ imagination and willingness to experiment.
Time will be allowed at the beginning and the end of class for students to share their journal pieces. They can also post in the classroom.
