Alice’s visual journal

The dining room at Stella Niagara’s Center of Renewal has an extensive teapot collection, which are displayed in cases along the wall that is farthest from the kitchen.

There are many ways of documenting your own personal story. You could maintain a blog, much like this one. You could share photographs and commentary on social media.

I was at the fundraising breakfast for the Family Justice Center, held in Buffalo’s Convention Center. The hard words “Domstic violence… can occur anywhere” are juxtaposed against the peaceful images of tea and a glass of water.

If you want more privacy, you could go low-tech, with a written diary, that’s only for you. Or you could take the creative approach, with a mixed media art book, in which you draw, paint, or piece together little collages. 












Another approach is to document your story in a little portable book. I bought a small, green Moleskine book from the Island Ship Center.

Could this be… my future bathroom????

The advantage of this book is that it can easily fit into a purse. Also, because it has a hard cover, the pages are not likely to rip. These books come in a lined or an unlined version. I chose the unlined version because I like to draw, paint, and write in my book. The media that I use are graphite pencils, colored pencils, markers, and watercolor brush pens.

On the left…Saint Martin-in- the-Fields Episcopal Church, and, on the ride, freedom in action.

So… what do I draw? Pretty much anything… cartoons, images from life, and interpretations of photographs. I combine them with a bit of storytelling to take it from being a sketchbook to being a visual journal.


For conversation: How do you like to document
your story?

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