The Journal Project ANN ARBOR, MI (Michigan Radio) - Alana Bartol is an artist who divides her time between Windsor - where she lives - and Wayne State University in Detroit - where she works. Over the years, she began to notice how much the two cities have in common. So she, along with Wayne State grad student Benjamin Good, started the "Detroit Windsor Journal Project" as a way to chronicle the lives of people in both communities. It's a seasonal project that happens four times a year. The first date was last October. The second date is today. Anyone can participate. All it takes is a pen or pencil or crayon...and some paper.

"We had been trying to think of an idea that would bring people from Detroit and Windsor together to participate in a community based art project," says Bartol. "And we went through a lot of different ideas and finally settled on something that everybody did in their daily lives - drawing, keeping a journal, diary, that type of thing. And keep a record of their day, their daily routine, thoughts and ideas, and bring them all together and put them in a gallery."

"We had grade school thru high school thru university thru senior citizens participating. Although a lot of people are just recording, going to their school, going to their job, going home, having dinner with their families...but then there's a lot of different stories within that. For instance, we have a journal from a 12 year old child. He says Detroit has great Mexican food, I love that about Detroit. One of the things I hate about Detroit are the gangs and my friend's dad died. He says that in the journal.

People are expressing a lot of different things. The happy moments in their lives, like getting married. And sad moments. And you know, as you can see people interpret that differently. So there's photographs in some of the journals, there's drawings, some are just doodles. I mean you didn't even have to write a lot. This one it just says "Sad," so it's just one word. And it says age 10. I mean there's a lot of emotion and it's pretty powerful

We had a lot of people that were afraid to participate because they thought they didn't have anything to say because my day's really boring. That's ok! Some people just wrote "my week's boring." And that's fine! So it can be really simple. But they're all valuable. Every journal that we received is valuable. And in 10 years when people look back at that project, you might think your day was boring and insignificant, but that information is going to hold a lot of meaning to people who want a glimpse into what life was like for the average person on October 2, 2006. And really, it's just an opportunity for people to express their thoughts honestly and we just ask that people be creative with it. There's really no restrictions on it."

Participation is the "Detroit Windsor Journal Project" is open to anyone. For more information, you can go to their website: www.det-win.org. Journals from the first journaling day last October are on display at the Elaine L. Jacobs Gallery in Detroit. © Copyright 2010, Michigan Radio