Create a Visual Journal

I've filled over sixty journals of all shapes and sizes, but this spring I started something new. I purposed to "write" in a journal where the focus was not words, but images.

Images have always informed my writing. I wrote "Figgy," an off-beat version of Snow White, after several weeks of gazing in admiration at the illustrations of Charles Santore (I will always be grateful to Sandra Byrd for her gift of the book, and her friendship). At other times, a dragonfly wing, a melting candle, a stack of dusty bricks, and an abandoned freeway kitten were all random images that found their way into my head and became poems.

So I've decided to take a more active role in collecting images. This visual journal also gives me a chance to make art - a nourishing process, whether painting, collage, or photography. Now I can't imagine not having a visual journal to use alongside my other journals. (I don't insist that I use it every day.)

I glued handmade papers, found objects and ribbons, and snips of birds to the cardboard cover of my first springtime edition. I used the Strathmore visual journal as a base. Opening the book makes way for the image -ination...