Green Eye Journal

Artistic collaboration, creativity, the imagination, and locating solace and serenity through nature, underscores the mission and vision of Green Eye Journal!

RMU Honors students and faculty have formed a unique collective to record and share our green journey through this Squidoo lens. We welcome contributions from journal keepers, photographers, poets and artists who are inhabiting green spaces everywhere!

Currently, The Green Eye Journal offers green journal observations from:

The Naperville Riverwalk

The Morton Arboretum

The Chicago Riverwalk

Feature Article for the Robert Morris University
Eagle Newspaper July, 2008

DuPage Honors Students "Greenmap" the Naperville Riverwalk

By Shannon Wittwer

Under the watchful and inventive tutelage of full time English professor Gerard Wozek, RMU DuPage Honors students were encouraged to explore the connection between literature, art and nature with jaunts to the serene Naperville Riverwalk during their Summer 1 2008 English 232 course.

In the heart of bustling DuPage County lies the tranquil 75 acre, four mile long Riverwalk, its humble origins dating back to an acre and a half beginning in the early 1980's, built and dedicated to celebrate the city of Naperville's Sesquicentennial.

The Riverwalk's simplicity and beauty are at the heart of its draw, not only for critics, but for residents and tourists as well. Now thanks to the combined vision of English faculty member Gerard Wozek and Art and Design instructor Mary Russell, it has also become the centerpiece of a new learning experience.

Students in Wozek's English 232 Honors course visited the Riverwalk several times over the Summer 1 term to explore further the unsung role of the environment with nature journaling and green mapping. Along with drawing, students conducted an in-depth analysis of nature-themed works of literature.

According to Russell, "Nature journaling can be viewed as a great experiential learning tool because it combines drawing with writing along with the complimentary studies of science, history and physical education. Being in nature reinforces one's ability to be human."

Like Russell, Wozek's desire is to show his students the many ways, both subtle and powerful, that something unexpected and outside the boundaries of a traditional classroom, can be turned into a learning experience. "The essays and short stories in the course are focused around the forces of nature. Students did writing exercises in class to emphasize the thematic power of humankind as it interfaces with the impact of nature. Students also drew images and symbols embedded in the literature that related to nature."

Wozek added: "When we got to the Riverwalk, the class was primed to make connections between the characters in the stories, the outdoors, and themselves. Combining text with image and nature with the human perspective is a powerful opportunity for our students. Once students got back into the classroom, they were able to reinterpret their notations and add vivid field observations to a more complete critical analysis of the literature."

This aspect of getting out of the classroom and into nature, was for RMU Honors student Tim Reboletti, a freedom, "I was more awake at the Riverwalk than what I would ever be in a classroom, we were able to take the learning experience and put in into our hands and experience everything in our own way, it allowed me to see first hand what Mr. Wozek was trying to get across through the literature. He wants to make a connection for the class beyond just the school classroom. Both he and Ms. Russell revealed a way of understanding and interacting with the world that surrounds us."

Honors students Carrie Lund and Kristin Okopski agree. Carrie expresses a desire "to go further" in exploring the Riverwalk in the future and Kristin feels "her eyes were opened" by the experience. Both students have written extensive nature poems coupled with outdoor sketches that were revealed to other students in their final showcase journal projects at the end of the course.

Earlier in the quarter, Russell and Wozek presented their new nature poetry video, "The Book of Green", to nearly one hundred audience members at the Chicago Green Festival held downtown at Navy Pier. The short film was a record of collaged images of nature journaling, many from former RMU students. The DuPage Honors students accompanied Wozek and Russell on a Sunday afternoon fieldtrip and had an opportunity to present journal entries and poems from their nature studies to the audience at this Festival. The Honors students answered questions and shared powerful insights from their field journals about their experiences at the Riverwalk.

A testament to the redemptive power of nature and design, the Riverwalk is credited with reviving Naperville in the 1980's and ushering it into its fruitful new future. From a simple beginning, built with no state or federal funding, the Riverwalk has now blossomed into the soul of a community, and the soul of an inventive new experiential learning curriculum at RMU.

"I am writing the Book of Green. A book of deep love spells culled from Gaia's ardent whisper." --Gerard Wozek

"The Book of Green" is the most recent collaborative poetry video by visual artist Mary Russell and poet Gerard Wozek. Along with composer D. Edward Davis, the cinepoem entices the viewer to develop a closer relationship with the forces of nature as it reveals various ideas and elements involved in the process of nature journaling. Featuring layered images of nature, original "green journal" drawings, poetry and sound, "The Book of Green" connects participants with the environment through self-scrutiny, careful field study and the delicate process of collecting and archiving. For this project, Mary Russell "stippled" images in the natural world including the "blue owl" pictured here. This venture plays a significant role in sustaining life on our planet by asking all of us to keep a vigil with Gaia. If one has ever carefully stippled the image of an owl or revised a line of poetry about an oak tree, it would be very difficult to shoot a duck, kill a deer, or cut down a shrub.

In May of 2009, the short, six minute film (the first chapter of more to come!) was juried into the 2009 Athens Video Art Festival in Greece. The cinepoem has also played at film festivals in France, Argentina, Canada, and the U.S. "The Book of Green" is distributed by OUAT Media in Toronto, Canada.

Feature Article for the Robert Morris University Eagle Newspaper
as it appeared in print in May, 2006
DuPage students collaborate on nature journaling experience

By Tammy Neitzer

On Tuesday, April 11, 2006, the Cultural Connections Program sponsored a field trip at the DuPage Campus to the Morton Arboretum, which is a nature sanctuary located a few miles from the Robert Morris DuPage location. Art and Design instructor, Mary Russell and her Introduction to Humanities course students joined English faculty Gerard Wozek and a group of Honors students from his lit-based English 211 classs in this collaborative study.

Wozek said, "I based all of my rading in my short story course around the forces of nature. Students did writing exercises in class to emphasize the thematic power of humankind as it interfaces with the impact of nature. Students also drew images and symbols embedded in the literature that related to nature. When we got to the Arboretum, the class was primed to make connections between the characters in the stories, the outdoors, and themselves. Combining text with image, nature with the human perspective, is a powerful opportunity for our students.

For almost a decade now, Russell and Wozek have worked collaboratively with image and text. They decided to come together and join forces academically for this filed trip because they wanted their students to observe nature and record their findings in journals.

"Nature is the place where students can often really bloom and see their potential manifest. You can't put a price on the kinds of breakthroughs I've seen when students interact in the natural environment. Our class, mostly comprised of hockey students at the DuPage branch, made pinhole cameras and took great pride in creating nature journals that can really be viewed as works of fine art," said Russell.

Russell and Wozek believe that nature journaling is grounded in the complimentary elements of drawing and writing. The instructors came together to combine class and art forms, so their students could use nature journaling as a learning device.

Wozek said, "Nature journaling can be viewed as a tool for breaking through many disciplines because it combines art with writing, along with science, history, and physical education. Being in nature helps to support one's ability to observe and be more human."

Honors student and first year Medical Assisting student, Melissa Schmidt said, "It's so good to get outside of the walls of the classroom. I felt like I could really apply the lessons we learned in class by physcially being away from campus and in nature."

The instructors and students were thoroughly impresssed with this unique field-based opportunity.

Russell said, "The results were amazing. Students were completely absorbed in their notations and gesture drawings. The drawing elements of the nature journal included some gesture and some blind contour exercises. These exercises were initiated in the classroomm and then taken into the field. The Morton Arboretum provided the students with an opportunity to immerse themselves into the environment and to use their new powers of observation, writing skills and drawing skills.

This month, Russell and Wozek will be presenting a nature journaling workshop to RMU executive administrators, during which they wll be demonstrating methods for incorporating observation, drawingand wriitng techniqes into a more formal work setting. Russell and Wozek feel that the passion they share for their writing and art is something that can be shared with everyone.

The following exercise will give you practice in using the field journal to enhance the writing process. The exercise employs clustering, a non-linear brain-storming process that allows greater access to your creativity during the prewriting stage which eases the artist through the entire writing process. For more about clustering and other techniques for "natural writing," read "Writing the Natural Way" by Gabriele Lusser Rico.

1. Go into a natural area and let yourself be drawn to some elemental aspect to observe: a particular animal or plant, geologic feature, or landscape. Enter date, time of day, location, weather notes, and any other pertinent information in your journal.

2. After about 15 minutes of observation, sketching and note-taking, jot down several associations that come to mind -- words or phrases -- that connect with your subject. Don't be concerned here with writing complete sentences, with grammar or spelling.

3. Once you are satisfied with the thoughts you have written down, go back and choose one that you would like to use as a topic for a piece of writing. Write that word or phrase in the center of a journal page.

4. Now allow yourself to free associate about the topic and write your thoughts surrounding the nucleus word or phrase. Do not restrict your thinking in any way during this process; simply jot down your associations randomly, connecting them to each other or to the central topic with lines or with arrows as you see fit. Do this for several minutes.

5. Examine your idea cluster you have created for connected inspirations to incorporate into the first draft of a short poem or narrative description about the topic you have chosen. When you have finished writing, allow some one else to look at the journal page upon which your piece of writing is based, then read your piece aloud to that person.

# Develop a keener appreciation of the natural world.
# Enhance creative, right brained thinking through writing, drawing, image-making.
# Synthesize ideas in an aesthetic and ordered manner.
# Create a personal record of one's relationship with the environment and oneself.
# Engage in opportunities of focused self-reflection, meditation and solace.
# Feel a kinship with nature and locate a renewed sense of interconnectedness.
# Unearth and refine one's personal voice as a writer, artist, observer and participant.
# Shift into an awakened consciousness that transforms personal/professional relationships.
# Discover a willingness to be more open, supple, patient, purposeful.
# Enhance a vision of one's responsibility to the planet.
# Cultivate one's powers of imagination and artistry.
# Reflect upon the natural world as a metaphor for one's own place in the cosmos.

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler."

"He enjoys true leisure who has time to improve his soul's estate."

"How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live."

"If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

"If a man walks in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer. But if he spends his days as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making the earth bald before her time, he is deemed an industrious and enterprising citizen."

"You'll dance the way milkweed silk glides across an open meadow alive with grasshoppers and moon dust. You'll dance the way pelicans levitate above the river. The way blackberries and squash seeds are taken up by the pulse of that cool flowing water. You'll dance."

Journals are always an opportunity to capture and preserve our own personal vision of the world. General education course in particular can offer students the chance to effectively record their own broad reflections on the curriculum and how they intersect and very often shape their own unique reality. My encounter with the Honors students at DuPage last quarter allowed me a rare occasion to see how literature and the natural world can form the perfect nexus and provide a rich learning experience for all of us.

My summer quarter teaching Honors English 232 in Summer of 2008 was spent sharing a body of literature with students that underscored the theme of humankind vs. nature. I chose short works by classic writers such as Kate Chopin, Sarah Orne Jewett, and Katherine Anne Porter and coupled them with more contemporary authors, John Updike, Sandra Cisneros, and Louise Erdrich-each artist well-versed in portraying the essential role of the environment and just how important it is to carefully observe and take in the majesty of nature. In addition to the short stories, we also examined parts of Sean Penn's film "Into the Wild" and compared it with portions of Jon Krakauer's bestselling book which the movie is based on.

I underscored the entire premise with requiring students to carefully observe nature themselves and record their interface with a journal selected specifically for this purpose. I offered students several opportunities for reflection with field trips to the Naperville Riverwalk-a park and river sanctuary located in the downtown area. Institute of Art and Design faculty member Mary Russell joined us for the endeavor and taught students in several sessions how to quickly draw what they were seeing along the nature paths. Students took notations on weather conditions, artifacts encountered, and their own relationship with the natural world.

When we reentered the classroom, students reported that their senses had been fully engaged. This experiential learning opportunity allowed students to make connections, not only with the environment, but offered them an opportunity empathize with what characters within the short stories were experiencing. Students reflected more deeply in their journals on the literature's theme and offered rich and full character profiles.

One student, for example, detailed a significant connection between Jewett's protagonist Sylvia, a forest-dwelling girl who must choose whether or not to tell a handsome young hunter the secret of where the rare white heron has its nest, and a recollection of herself as a child in the early 1980s and how unified with the natural world she had always felt.

Nature journaling offers students three unique outcomes:

1. Journaling enhances the senses: As students record thoughts, encounters in the filed and past recollections through drawing and writing, they get to know not only the natural world at an intimate level through being outdoors, they're able to connect with all of their senses. This sensory "way of knowing" seems to be more immediate and enhances "left-brain" and intuitive skills.

2. It develops personal and professional habits. Field journals that include environmental study assist the students in their ability to observe and reflect. Becoming "sensitized" to the outdoors, students transfer those creative skills into tasks, which develop a higher proficiency in their professional roles. I personally observed students who had more attention to detail and who were more patient once they returned to the classroom after journaling.

3. Nature journaling can develop community. Keeping a field journal is one way to get to know one's community and the geography of the student's home environment-but through sharing the journals-students begin to see how we're all interdependent upon the earth and how valuable it is to begin to share our visions and thoughts of the natural world. Students felt a true sense of camaraderie and bonding through the experience.

I will continue to bring in opportunities for upper-level students to reflect on the curriculum through nature journals in the future. It's a unique method of enhancing literature and underscoring source material that is grounded in the environment and offers tremendous benefits for any one interested in pursuing an experiential learning opportunity outside of the classroom.

--Gerard Wozek, September 2008