Ten books, hundreds of creative students and one great idea.

Shelbye Reese, an art education graduate student, had the motivation and the means to propel her idea into motion by creating a project for the UA called “”The Biogato Journals,”” a smaller-scale version of the worldwide 1,000 Journals Project.

Reese stumbled upon the 1,000 Journals Project while doing research for the Union Gallery. After learning more about the purpose of the journal project, Reese knew this was just what the gallery needed and would allow for more interaction with the UA community.

“”I see journaling as a way of building community,”” Reese explained as she flipped through one of the 10 black journals, revealing a variety of images.

The Union Gallery’s Biogato Journal Project is a small-scale re-creation of the 1,000 Journals Project, but it has the same ultimate goal as the original. The purpose of the project is to create artifacts that document the lives, times, actions and emotions of the campus community. Members of the community such as students, faculty, staff and alumni create the journals’ content.

The project started in mid-January when the gallery approved Reese’s idea. Reese took the project into her own hands and purchased the empty, white-paged, hardcover journals from the bookstore and spread the word.

“”We ran ads in the Wildcat, gave one to the Greek Life Office and sent out Listserv messages to the English department, Poetry Center and art department,”” Reese said.

Steadily throughout the semester, journals were checked out and brought back with fascinating and inspiring entries, Reese said.

The journal entries range from political collages about President Bush to impressive figure drawings done with paint. The variety of artistic expression in the journals represents the variety of people in the UA community, according to Reese.

“”It is fun to look at each page and try to figure out the motivation behind the drawing, poem or collage,”” Reese said.

One journal had a drawing that was done by a child. Reese inferred that this was probably the child of a student or faculty member.

Every journal has something in it but unfortunately, they are not all completely full. Reese hopes that this project will be something that will grow every year.

The project will be going on through April, and anybody with a CatCard can pick up a journal to add his or her own artistic expression and return it within three days. The finished journals will be on display April 25 to May 2 in the shadow box outside the Union Gallery in the Student Union Memorial Center.