The Visual Journal
with Michael Napper
September 14 – October 12, 2024
Course Description
The unique experience found in keeping a visual journal lies in its role as an ongoing, open-ended “studio” in a portable format, enabling us to collect, explore, and refine our ideas. Acting as a diary, a visual journal records our daily lives and experiences whether new or newly seen. A visual journal also serves as a versatile sketchbook for experimenting with various artistic techniques such as drawing, painting, collage, and photography. Its potential knows no bounds and is limited only by our imaginations.
Throughout the five group sessions of this online workshop, photographer and fine art painter Michael Napper introduces you to multiple techniques and ideas utilized to form dynamic visual journals. He gives visual and written assignments intended to stimulate fresh creative pathways. In addition to exploring writing, drawing, collage, and watercolor, Michael presents various strategies of chance and randomness, and how throughout history they have been used in both writing and the visual arts.
Whether you are relatively new to photography and the visual arts or a seasoned professional, the aim of this inspiring workshop is to join together in a creative community that provides a broad range of exercises within the context of maintaining a visual journal, fostering a renewed perspective and approach to “seeing.”
Additional Information
WHO SHOULD ATTEND:
Special Notes:
Class will meet 10:00 am – 12:30 pm (Mountain Time) on Saturdays starting September 14 and ending October 12 (five online group sessions). Enrollment is limited to 12 participants.
Zoom Video Conferencing software (available for no charge from Zoom.com) will be used to facilitate the class sessions. Further details will be emailed to registrants.
Santa Fe Workshops always aims to produce a high-quality experience for our online attendees. That said, variables including regional and local internet provider speeds, traffic on Zoom's servers, and your own computing hardware can contribute to a less than ideal streaming event. While we do our best to minimize the impact of these variables, they are outside the control of Santa Fe Workshops.
Policies:
View Withdrawal and Transfer Policies for online programs.
For the convenience of participants, recordings of each class session are posted privately for one month after the end of each session. Santa Fe Workshops takes the recordings down after one month to protect the intellectual property of our instructors.
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about
Michael Napper is a painter and black-and-white film photographer who has kept visual journals since the early 1980s. He has taught numerous classes and workshops throughout the past 20 years. His in-person as well as online teachings range from painting and collage for studio artists and non-profit art centers, to creative writing and journaling for private and public schools, and corporations.
Michael’s eclectic journals have now amassed to more than fifty dense volumes that not only document personal experiences and daily observances, but are also a time capsule of cultural, political, and social chronicles captured in a visual and tangible object. “I’ve kept journals for more than 35 years, and they have helped me immensely as a painter, as a photographer, and as an artist. They are a place where I can record ideas and feelings about life and art, and also a place where I feel free to experiment without the fear of failure. They serve as a wellspring of ideas whenever I’m in need of creative Inspiration.”
Michael has exhibited his artwork in both southern and northern California, and his paintings are included in private collections in the U.S., Europe, and South America. He was born and raised in Los Angeles and is currently living in the San Francisco Bay area.
Website: michael-napper.com
