This past Christmas, I received an empty journal from a friend and several rolls of washi tape. She has been into creative faith journaling for a few years, and has been quite enthusiastic about using her artistic talents to express her faith as she reads, studies, and reflects on what she has learned from the Bible. She didn't know that I had Stephanie Ackerman's Faith Journaling For the Inspired Artist in my reading queue, so receiving these gifts has been rather timely.
I found Faith Journaling For the Inspired Artist to be a book about artistic technique where the author uses and demonstrates her art as examples of what readers could do in their own journaling. The book is not a devotional book, nor is it a book that speaks comprehensively about the practice of having devotional time with the Lord. Instead, it mainly presents an artistic approach that could be used when having devotions or quiet time.
The author starts off with a couple of chapters discussing the purpose of faith journaling. She emphasizes that people who practice this must focus on meeting with God, reflecting on the Word, and not get side tracked by the art itself. Ms. Ackerman also tries to encourage readers to strike out on their own. She states that there is no right or wrong way in practicing faith journaling.
The majority of the book focuses on techniques to use from lettering, drawing, painting, mixed media, and scrap booking. The author models the techniques, providing examples and templates in the book. There are practice squares and spaces for readers to try out various artistic techniques. There are sample verses, where some are examples for readers to view, and for readers to try out on their on own in utilizing the methods outlined in the book.
The author refers to her website for readers to view some of her work, and also as a possible resource to help them in their artistic endeavours in faith journaling.
I found the book to be interesting to look at, but it might not necessarily speak to all people who keep faith journals. However, this might be a good book for people who would like to try this type of faith journaling, but who don't have a strong artistic background. Faith Journaling For the Inspired Artist might give them a good introduction to various techniques that they could try and also provide them inspiration from Ms. Ackerman's examples.
Disclaimer: I received an e-copy of "Faith Journaling for the Inspired Artist," by Stephanie Ackerman from NetGalley in exchange for a review. All opinions stated in this review are mine.
