Picture This

Bookmaking as a Visual Experience

Goal
This lesson connects visual art and language arts, helping students realize that each discipline is a means of communication, thus a language. The students will make a journal. The cover of the journal will convey facts about the book's artist through symbols, materials, images, and design choices. The inside of the journal will be a place for the artist to express himself or herself with images and words.

Focus Books
Eldon, Kathy, ed. The Journey Is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1997.
Harrison, Sabrina W. Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself. Novato, Calif.: New World Library, 1999.

These books, published journals that can serve as models, are suitable for high school students.

Focus Art Work
Untitled—Portrait with Stars, by Minnie Evans

Art Production
A handmade, personalized journal

Downloads
Lesson Plan (PDF)
Untitled—Portrait with Stars, by Minnie Evans

Minnie Evans, Untitled—Portrait with Stars, 1962. Morris Museum of Art, Augsuta, Georgia.