The Visual Journal as A Space for Discovery

Earlier this year, I did a two-day visual journaling workshop called Creative Renewal with Eric Scott, co-author of the Journal Junkies Workshop and Journal Fodder 365.

Over the course of two days, we turned our journals into playgrounds waiting to reveal mysteries.

We started our pages by painting messy backgrounds using watercolor pencils and paints. Eric encouraged us to start at least 10 spreads that we would then work on throughout the workshop.

Then we free wrote in response to the prompt, “I believe 2020 . . . ” We also free wrote about what we wanted to see and be in 2021. (Free writing means setting a timer and just letting the words emerge, not stopping until the timer rings.)

We wrote on tracing paper, and 3 X 5 cards. We wrote directly in our journals. We drew mind maps, then drew marks of any sort — circles, triangles, lines, it didn’t matter what — slowly, mindfully across the page. We cut up junk mail and ephemera from our lives then glued it into our journals.

Throughout the day, we painted, wrote, drew and glued, willingly not knowing where we were going or where we would end up.

At the beginning of the class, Eric encouraged us to enter into the appropriate mindset of curiosity for this strange journey by remaining open to non-resistance, non-judgement, non-attachment.

One of the things that I noticed throughout the two days was the power of “not knowing” as we worked on our pages. This is not a linear process in which you finish one page, then go on to the next. Rather, you’re writing and drawing in response to your intuitive voice – heeding what would be interesting, what would be fun, heeding what if?

This practice requires setting aside judgement, a beautiful practice for life outside the journal. No need to keep asking yourself, “What is this?”, “Why am I drawing this?”, “Where is this going?” Instead, I gently encouraged judgement to go off and sit quietly while I played in my journal.

The result?

A powerful understanding that making space for not knowing allows meaning and knowledge to emerge.

You can check out Eric Scott’s online workshops here. He also has free YouTube videos here.