Award winning artist and pioneer of Visual Journaling, Juliana Coles received her BFA from San Francisco’s Academy of Art College. Based on her artistic practice, Juliana developed “Visual Journaling” in 1992 as a tool for self-expression. This highly acclaimed process is now used by art therapists, teachers, artists and professionals around the world. Juliana has taught for over 25 years in the US, Mexico, Canada, Greece, Egypt, Austria and Portugal. She has taught for Danny Gregory’s Sketchbook Skool, the San Francisco Center for the Book, as well as national events such as Artfest, Art and Soul and Art Continuum. Juliana has written numerous workbooks on her process as well as authoring articles for “Cloth, Paper, Scissors,” and “Somerset Studios.” Her journals are featured in over 30 publications including “Making Journals by Hand.” As part of the “1000 Journals Project" her work was exhibited at the SFMOMA. In 2014 Coles self-published “Ghost Pirate; the Legend of Juana La Loca,” illuminating grief and loss. Coles has been creating online workshops and providing Visual Journaling tutorial YouTube videos since 2010. International travels, including a 2006 journey to Ecuador and a 2016 artist residency in Morocco, have been highly influential in Juliana’s artistic development. After teaching in Portugal in 2016 Juliana walked the Caminho Portugues to receive her Compostela in Santiago, Spain. A recipient of the 2022 UETF Resiliency Residency, Coles presented “Archive of Memory,” a solo exhibition of 90 Visual Journals, sketchbooks and artist books. Coles creates from her enchanted studio in Albuquerque, NM.

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Juliana Coles Teaching Artist Statement:

I have kept written journals since 8th grade and maintained a sketchbook practice since high school. In 1987, while working towards my BFA at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, these two disciplines crossed over and I began incorporating journal writing with mixed media drawing; in this blending I discovered my distinctive artistic voice. As an introvert with learning disabilities due to Epilepsy and a lifetime of seizures, turning within and then revealing that vulnerability externally onto the page became a natural outlet of expression for me. This was not a process I saw in a book or learned in school. When I initiated this practice, it was quite unique - I didn’t know anyone else working in this way. My peers’ sketchbooks were predominantly pencil drawings and so they were curious, “what are you doing there? What is that?” This inquiry made me pay attention to what I was doing, and eventually I developed a methodology that I would teach to others. I made a career making art, teaching and traveling. Sharing my process for healing and transformation became my mission in life.

For over 25 years I facilitated creative expression retreats and courses utilizing the power of storytelling in the complex, beautiful and safe container of a book. Visual Journaling is an active meditation technique and spiritual practice that accesses archetypal signs and symbols from the unconscious for inner dialogue through self-expression. What began as a personal inquiry into creating new pathways in the brain after epileptic seizures, Visual Journaling has become a soulful, raw, relevant, authentic and life changing process now used by art therapists, teachers, artists and professionals around the world. Connecting with others to share our stories has been the jewel of my journey.

 I have taught extensively in the US as well as Greece, Canada, Egypt, Mexico, Portugal and Austria. My Visual Journals are featured in over 30 publications, and in 2014 I authored/illustrated “Ghost Pirate: The Legend of Juana La Loca,” illuminating grief and loss. From 1998 - 2006 I presented exhibitions of my students’ journals that were profound and moving events. Though introspection is not highly regarded in this society, I knew, even in those early days, that the work we were doing was life changing and I felt it necessary to share those remarkable, alive books as inspiration to others to develop their own healing process of self-expression. I am passionate about the intensive work we do which is deeply challenging and cloaked in shadow but as Carl Jung said, “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” You call that darkness? I call it beautiful.

What does Art is Magic mean to you?

Art is Magic has been a meaningful invitation to share my gifts and I'm grateful for this opportunity to grow! I have been inspired to come up with new ideas and to present my work in new ways. While creating an online course is both challenging and exhilarating, Galia's support has been invaluable! When I lost hours of work due to a computer issue, her comforting advice to "breathe darling, don’t stress" helped me remain calm and begin anew with a fresh outlook. I think this is the kind of generous, loving energy that draws unique artistic souls to the Art is Magic community. Thank you, Galia!

What does your creative Practice look like?

This is such a good question because it is something that feels elusive to me. When I think of ‘practice’ I think of a designated daily routine. I am challenged by the notion of ‘practice’ because I’ve never had a set schedule, never had a full-time job (mainly due to a seizure disorder) or a family or anything else that would have created order in my life. This may sound like your fantasy, but believe me, it has its own set of difficulties. What do I build my life around?

I used to travel to teach at venues around the world more than 14 times a year. It was all I did. I worked 24/7 and subsequently became lost from my own artistic practice. While I managed to work in my visual journals, mostly inflight between gigs, I didn’t consider that art- it was just what I did.

One year teaching at Journalfest I decided to reinvigorate a sketchbook practice which I hadn’t attempted since art school. I remember taking a walk in Seattle with a friend before heading out to Port Townsend and I had a new sketchbook- and while we walked, I sketched. The drawings made no sense - you couldn’t make out what they were - but to me it was the beginning of reclaiming my artist by taking a line for a walk. Inspired by that huge step, I decided to get back to my figure drawing practice and joined a weekly figure drawing group. Even though I was rusty, I hadn’t forgotten my line, and it felt good to get back into my groove. I love the impossible challenge of figure drawing- especially with the quick poses. There’s something wild ride about it; it’s a lot like drawing while walking- you can’t expect to capture what you see - it’s more of a warm-up.

It wasn’t until 2011 that I was able to reconnect with my artistry and take my artist seriously. I began with the figure drawing group, then moved into paintings and larger drawings. After two years of dedicated practice, a friend from my drawing group talked me into having a show. What a challenge! After all these years to figure out what is my voice, what is my style? And I think a lot of that unfolded naturally from working every week as part of my figure drawing practice, but it’s still intense to put yourself out there. I was very proud of that show, and it laid the foundation for the work I am doing now.

And even though I felt like my Visual Journals were not real Art, what I realized is that I had been working at my art all along. Even when I thought I was doing nothing, my work was evolving in these safe containers, page after page. The journals are a reflection of my paintings, and my sketchbooks are a mirror of my drawings. Everything is related, but I couldn’t see it at the time. My journals have been my constant companions, life savers, and I can’t imagine where I would be in life without them.

In 2022 I received a grant which was a year and a half long artist residency in which I created 3 solo shows. I amassed over 90 drawings, built a wall-to-wall map room installation, and mounted an artist book show entitled “Archive of Memory.” These were huge accomplishments and I finally felt like I hit that mark, that I am the artist I dreamed of becoming- but I didn’t sell much work. I was so proud and yet deflated. Being an artist like myself, being true to the work, being authentic to my voice means I am not necessarily the artist everyone adores. They may appreciate the work, but they don’t want it hanging in their living room. I know I should try to make work that people like - it’s not like I sit down to make daring, confrontational work, but that’s just what comes out of me. Even at 61, I have not relented. My work still stares out at the audience with its challenging gaze. I’m true to my expression, perhaps to a fault.

And after those shows where I worked so hard, I have to say, I pretty much gave up. It’s been two years of not working, and I find myself at the crossroads again where I need to get back to the roots of my figure drawing and sketchbook practice. It’s like I abandoned my artist all over again. I rarely go out to my studio where unfinished paintings and drawings line the walls and fill flat files. I haven’t been to a figure drawing group, and only once in a blue moon do I work in my sketchbook (but of course, you do know by now, I continued to work, perhaps not so diligently, in my visual journals). I feel a change coming, and as I look back over the past two years and my artist ‘abandonment,’ I am beginning to see distancing as a necessary period; a fallow time of transition and transformation that is so difficult and painful it feels like giving up. But it’s not.

All through this artistic journey my journals have been the by my side. They were life savers during Covid. All I did, night after night, was alter books by gluing papers onto the book pages. I guess that was a kind of practice. I filled about 12 pirate themed books and I figured when I was ready, I would rework these books. And I started reworking them - altering my own altered books - about 2021, and I have been making pirate journals ever since; it is my obsession.

When I put my art on pause after the heartbreak of those 2023 exhibitions, other things took center stage, such as writing, and new ‘practices’ emerged. I go to a writers’ group every week. Really hard but I love it! I feel slow - I used to be such a good writer. Things have changed, and I am learning to be where I am. And I am writing a screenplay - I say writing- but without concrete practice, I am merely thinking about it. And I don’t know how to write screenplay, so it scares me. It’s difficult, so I avoid it.

In 2018 I presented “Pirate Queens; Piracy is a Feminist Act,” an exhibition that required extensive research - I uncovered over 58 female pirates. I am more excited about pirate ‘research’ than making art. Because of the seizures, I grew up thinking I was stupid, slow, a bad learner, and it is very strange and exciting to me that now ‘research’ takes up so much of my time. I feel alone in this; no one gets me - no one wants to hear about what I’m reading/learning but also they are sick of it. It's all I talk about. No one in the desert is interested.

I have cousins who live in Florida on the treasure coast and I try to go there yearly for research and kinship; folks there talk about treasure, salvage and pirates ALL THE TIME. Research, learning and discovery is my focus and even though I have no idea what I’m doing, it takes up most of my time. When I think about it, sometimes I cry - it is a weirdness that has taken hold of me I cannot shake nor forsake. What I know is that this is my purpose and this is what I will be doing for the next 20 years of my eldership - I have named this journey “Pirate Queens Residency.” Its parameters are far reaching with no formal boundaries or deadlines. Basically, I want to travel to the ports of call of all the pirate queens and learn about their lives from the places they called home. I’m teaching in Ireland next year and will be researching Pirate Queen Grace O’Malley. I have a residency set up there so that after I teach, I will stay and continue my research and paint the wild Irish Coastline. To what end you may ask? What is the point? My very life depends on this Pirate Queens Journey. And the point is, my heart yearns for this with no logic, with nothing I can explain, other than the idea of NOT doing it causes me extreme pain.

What is my creative practice? I suppose I have many and they seem to come and go and wind around and disappear and return. But my vision is that all these things: figure drawing, a studio art practice, keeping a sketchbook, researching, traveling, teaching, writing, writing my script- that all of these things settle into a unified practice where I make time for everything and nothing is left out or abandoned. That is what the “Pirate Queens Residency” means to me, living the life of my dreams through daily practice.