Engaging Students Through Creative Journaling: Utilizing Artist Books & Junk Journals for Visual Expression & Interdisciplinary Learning
led by: Maria Patino
Artist Journal Workshop is designed for art teachers seeking creative, interdisciplinary approaches to student engagement through bookmaking. This program teaches students to use everyday materials, including recycled or found objects, to create personalized, mixed-media artist books. Each journal is unique, incorporating various materials and techniques—such as collage, drawing, stamping, and stitching—that encourage self-expression and storytelling.
Participants will be guided through the process of repurposing materials like old magazines, fabric, postcards, and scrap paper, showing them how to transform these items into original book pages with rich textures and layers. By experimenting with different artistic techniques, participants develop their skills in layout, composition, and mixed media, while connecting art to personal experiences or narratives. Through this form of creating journals, participants practice decision-making, develop patience, and learn about sustainable art practices by reusing materials.
PRESENTER BIO:
Maria Patino, Art Teacher, Miami Dade County Public Schools
In my mixed media artist books, I delve into the intersection of visions and emotions, influenced by the profound voices and whispers of everyday living. The book becomes a reflection of life's impermanence, with each page acting as a canvas for memories fragile yet persistent, evolving with time, and showing the wear of countless moments.
The materials I choose are integral to the narrative. Old fabric, found objects, and paper merge, creating a tactile interplay of textures. Hand stitching and machine-sewn pages echo the act of mending, both literal and metaphorical, representing the process of healing. These stitches, much like the stories we carry, bind fragments of the past together, yet leave room for imperfections, underscoring the beauty of vulnerability and rawness. The marks, lines, and threads on the page are traces of experiences, signifying moments of connection and distance, resilience, and wear.
The concept of reconstruction runs through my artist’s books series. I explore how everyday objects discarded or forgotten can be reimagined and given new life. In this way, the pages serve as a form of visual journaling, each turn unveiling layers of lost stories, untold experiences, and unspoken words. Image transfers, sketching, and collage combine to evoke a sense of nostalgia while inviting viewers to reflect on their own narratives.
Through my hand made books, I aim to capture the fluidity of life and how we carry ourselves from one place to another, physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The process of creation itself feels like a meditation on renewal and revival, where pieces are juxtaposed to reveal hidden truths and moments of clarity. There is an acceptance of imperfection, a celebration of the non-perfect, as a reminder that life, in all its messiness, is whole.
At the heart of my work is a passion for multimedia to inspire freedom of expression. The merging of fabric and paper, text, and image, becomes an invitation to explore, question, and imagine. The found poetry of these fragments tells a story of transformation of carrying forward what is worth keeping, mending what is broken, and embracing the journey of renewal. In the end, my artist book is a tribute to the fluid, ever-changing nature of life, memory, and art.