Online registration for this program has closed. To check availability, find out about future dates, or if you would like further information, please call 505-983-1400 ext. 111. Also, get the SFW E-Newsletter for updates!
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.”
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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