Tag: journals

Take Pen in Hand – It’s National Handwriting Day!

Take Pen in Hand – It’s National Handwriting Day!

  Every few months, I attempt to tidy up my office/studio.  Though this task in itself is one I approach with trepidation, once in a while I uncover a wonderful surprise. Last week I was cleaning out the second drawer down in my desk.  Now, […]

A Mixed Media Nature Journal

A Mixed Media Nature Journal

Catoctin Mountain Park Nature Journal In September 2015 I was privileged to be selected as a National Park Service Artist in Residence at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland.  During my stay I painted, sketched, wrote and created two journals trying some new techniques in mixed […]

Journals: Moving Beyond Words

Journals: Moving Beyond Words

This is the first in a new weekly series on journaling tips and ideas.

Journals have always been a place to express one’s self. Journals bring to mind a notebook with thoughts and contemplations on a day or an event. But this papery place of revelation has moved into new dimensions, with pages of color, texture, and even buttons, ribbons, and found objects.

I have always enjoyed journaling, especially when I travel. I also like creating nature journals. In my journals I have found a way to combine my interests – writing, painting, and crafting – into fun and colorful records of my experiences. Taking a break from researching my new book, I have been working on journal ideas, including the altered book format, using parts of an old book to create a new journal. In these photos, you will see a journal created from my notes and experiences during a project at the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

If you are someone who has found journaling boring, try adding some new elements to your pages. Both art journaling and nature journaling have become increasingly popular, as evidenced by the number of publications – print and on line – that illustrate many techniques and media. These resources offer a plethora of ideas and tutorials. You should also check out Pinterest under art journaling and nature journaling.

As many of my friends and readers know, I love studying old journals. Samuel James Reader, a pioneer diarist in my book Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from Kansas Territory, and subject of a blog post last August, caught my interest with the colorful watercolor sketches in his diaries. For him, it gave him another way to express his feelings about his new life in the Kansas frontier. He also occasionally wrote in French and shorthand. For researchers, these elements give insight into his personality.

Adding art to your journal gives you new ways to express your experiences and to spread your creative wings – maybe by sketching, painting, or just adding some color. And, for writers, it’s a fun way to move away from your manuscript for a time and create a new, but related project.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Hope Amid Hardship!

Happy Birthday Hope Amid Hardship!

One year ago the stories of the sixty men and women in Hope Amid Hardship: Pioneer Voices from Kansas Territory made their first public appearance.  The journey I have taken with these incredible pioneers as I share their personal diaries and letters has been a […]

Journaling for a New Year

Journaling for a New Year

January 1, 1856: “Sunrise -8 degrees . . . Sundown 14 degrees. A Happy New Year! 2150 miles from my former home.” This is how Isaac Goodnow, a resident of Kansas Territory described New Year’s Day in his diary. I wanted to start the new […]

Ordinary Words Become Extraordinary

Ordinary Words Become Extraordinary

July 3, 2013

As I have written here before, I believe in the importance of the written word and its role in our history, whether the author is a famous leader or a woman writing a birthday invitation.

Two weeks ago in England, I had a chance to see an example of such a birthday invitation, written in Latin, found at Vindolanda, the site of a Roman fort. The fort, first settled in 80 A.D., guarded the northernmost frontier of the Roman Empire in England and housed soldiers and their families.

When Claudia Severa wrote the words, “I shall expect you sister. Farewell, sister my dearest soul, as I hope to prosper, and hail,” to Suplicia Lepidina, she could never have imagined that 1900 years later so many people would see them and learn so much from the tiny wooden tablet they were written on. Historians have gained a much better understanding of how the people at Vindolanda lived from the hundreds of additional tablets they found at this site that predates Hadrian’s Wall by about forty years.

Whether written on wood or paper, words from everyday individuals become part of the human story, a touchstone to the past. Will electronic documents have the same impact as something tactile like wood or paper? I am not sure. I find looking at, and in some cases holding, an old journal to be incredibly personal and wonderful. But one thing is certain, whatever medium we use, we must choose our words carefully, as Claudia did. Who knows who might see them hundreds of years from now?