Excerpts from my illustrated journal.
I am teaching two courses at Fractal University this summer, one on the Alexander Technique, and another on The Illustrated Journal. A few spots remain for the journaling course; I’ll be reviewing applications until May 9.
I have been practicing some form of illustrated journaling since I was a teenager. I have a collection of A5 notebooks numbered into the fifties, of different colors, all arrayed along my bookshelf, an archive I rarely consult but whose presence I find somehow reassuring.
Here are some ways I use my journal…
Portraits:
One of the things I like about living in Fractal is just new people coming in every day, literally. My roommates and I leave our door unlocked and people poke their heads in to see what’s happening. We also host many workshops and parties in our apartment. Fractal University started as individuals from the community proposing a course on a subject they were passionate about: friends teaching friends.
Here are friends of mine I’ve sketched at different occasions: Doug, Hart, Keesh and Tyler. They each teach a Fractal U course on subjects like quantum mechanics, singing, Indian cooking, and theater. The group portrait in the middle is from a meditation session hosted weekly by Andrew, who’s teaching an experimental class about play for adults.
Imaginings-Archetypes:
I use my journal to explore feelings and concepts that are hard to capture in words. With just basic technique, you can start exploring the depths of your subconscious and the edges of your imagination.
Living in New York, I’ve voluntarily committed myself into a landscape of concrete, asphalt and steel, all because I’m addicted to the intense social exchange available here. The animal in me yearns for the wonder and vitality I feel in nature, so maybe that’s why plants and animals come up a lot in these images.
Calligraphy:
I’ve been fascinated by Chinese calligraphy since I discovered it taking lessons in Paris with a Taiwanese teacher. It’s like tai-chi practice. You have to keep the brush in constant motion. If you pause while the brush is in contact with the paper, the ink begins to bloom on the paper. Your every tremble is recorded as a seismographic crack in the trail of ink that the brush leaves on paper. Just practicing calligraphy for a few minutes is a way to plunge back into a trance of the present moment.
Autobiography:
Here are three memories captured in my journal. First, the story of how I, born and largely raised American, was expected to officiate arcane Taiwanese rituals at my grandmother’s funeral, because I was her oldest male grandchild. (A distant uncle was appointed to stand beside me and whisper each step in my ear.) Second, I also tell the story of how I finally learned to ride my bicycle with no hands. And finally, I record the story of how I encountered the Fractal community for the first time, randomly at a meetup in a Brooklyn Japanese beer hall, and how its co-founder Priya took me to visit the Fractal lofts the very same evening, and how I ended up renting the room she showed me.
Poetry:
I sometimes pull my journal and a pen out of my backpack during subway rides. It feels like a more wholesome way to use my time than browsing on my phone. Here’s a poem I ended up writing on the G train:
I was so engrossed in writing verse,
condensing thoughts as verbal drops,
Casting inkling into alliteration,
That I missed my subway stop,
and had to take the counter-train
to backtrack to my transfer station.
Throughout it all I remained quite patient, marveling, even,
That what was supposed to be simple subway travel
Had immersed me in a spell
That caused my sense of separate self
To just so slightly
unravel.
Dates and Notes:
Finally, my journal is also just a place to write down to-do lists, and draw up double-page spreads that give me an idea of the coming month at a glance. I note down dreams, brainstorms, goals, and vocabulary words. It’s a mirror. It’s a second brain.
Applications are still being accepted for my Fractal University course, The Illustrated Journal.