How may we learn how to work with a Visual Journal?
The method of working with a journal may be learned in different ways: group lessons, private lessons, online courses and personal trial and error. But above all it is important to understand that any teacher / facilitator who teaches Art Journaling should be first and foremost an established artist in this type of media. A teacher of Art Journaling is a person who works regularly with a journal, investigates his own internal processes and develops significant methods to transfer these processes to people who come to learn from him/her.
Contrary to any other form of art, learning Art Journaling means learning about internal processes and not only techniques and materials.
Around the world and across the Internet there are many groups and communities of Art Journaling. This practice allows many people to heal and recover. This practice also allows any person who took a few classes in Art Journaling to open a course or a study group and teach others how to work with a journal. I’d like to stress my opinion against this phenomenon and say that it is highly important to develop individual and collective responsibility in this innovative field.
Instruction or facilitation of Art Journaling for groups or individuals, is not the teaching of a standard practice of art. It is a practice that involves the soul and walks the fine line between art and therapy. Therefore, there is a need to hold special training for facilitators in the field of Visual Journal work.
What is the role of a Visual Journal art group facilitator?
The proper method of learning how to work with a journal is not just through teaching techniques, but rather through personal work processes taught by the facilitator. The facilitator himself must teach a combination of techniques and internal processes which he tested on himself, investigated, examined and developed.
It is a real alchemy of the creation of an internal-mental process integrated with imagery, techniques and the use of specific material techniques. The outcome is a “Soul Page” that enables the expression and processing of internal processes.
Since this practice is so closely related to psychotherapy, people who choose to teach “Visual Journaling” or “Art Journaling” must develop a unique personality; a combination of an artist and facilitator. This combination will provide them with the technical knowledge and theoretical knowledge so that they may instruct groups engaged in psychological matters, and that they’ll be able to lead people into feeling safe when introducing such matters. The facilitator-artist should know how to construct significant processes that will enable a true expression of the mental content brought about through artistic work.
The Visual Journal facilitator should first and foremost be a Visual Journal artist in his own right. A person who is familiar with many techniques and owns them through personal internal work. A person who works daily with his journal and gains much personal benefit from it.
This facilitator should be a person with strong internal ethics and integrity. A creative artist who has the desire and genuine curiosity to learn more about herself/himself and go through change and growth, even if it involves pain and exposure of vulnerable comfort zones.
This type of person works intuitively in her/his journal and then tries to understand the outcome, and the reasons for which the techniques and processes she/he selected caused an internal shift and change. They are a type of psychological scientist. They examine themselves all the time and are inspired by nature, by theories, by practices with which they
feel a connection, and by poetry. They make connections that are special and seem impossible.