This event will take place off-site at the Irving Theater in the CODE Building (225 W. Water St.) and will be free to attend. Please use the theater entrance on Water St. Doors will open at 6:00 PM.
Join us for an evening with Lara Call Gastinger, who will speak about her new book, A Perpetual Journal Practice: Building a Connection with Nature through Art. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
About the Book: Discover the transformative practice of the perpetual journal—a forgiving, incremental approach to connecting with the natural world through drawing that builds year after year. To begin, you’ll label each spread with the dates of a single week, then return to those same pages each year to layer new observations alongside previous seasons. Over many consecutive years, your journal will become a rich record of nature discoveries, seasonal changes, and artistic growth—all achieved by adding small sketches at a reasonable pace that fits into even the busiest life.
This approach demands little from you while offering profound rewards: improved drawing skills, deeper understanding of plant phenology and local ecosystems, and moments of meditative presence that slow down time. You’ll learn to see the subtle magic of seasonal shifts such as a swelling bud, the formation of seeds, or a change in berry color. There’s no pressure for perfection and mistakes are welcome as part of the journey. Whether you’re an artist, gardener, naturalist, or simply someone seeking a creative break from screens, the perpetual journal offers a living document that invites retrospection, fosters curiosity and wonder, and becomes a treasured record of both nature’s cycles and your own artistic development.
About the Author: Lara Call Gastinger is an artist and botanical illustrator from Charlottesville, Virginia, and was the chief illustrator for the Flora of Virginia Project, a botanical reference. She has an undergraduate degree in biology from UVA and a master’s degree in plant ecology from Virginia Tech. She has been awarded two gold medals (2007, 2018) at the Royal Horticultural Society Botanical Art Show in London, and her work is in the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation. Her art appears in the Peterson Field Guide to Mushrooms of North America and the American Society of Botanical Artists’ Botanical Art Techniques. She teaches online and in person (occasionally as a lecturer at UVA) and has traveled to Japan, Romania, and France to lead workshops. Gastinger is renowned on Instagram for teaching her perpetual journal process.
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