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Lifelogger Melanie Mowinski’s Visual Diary — 19 years of daily records, each day the size of a postage stamp

pam kueber - Updated: November 11, 2013

Retro Renovation stopped publishing in 2021; these stories remain for historical information, as potential continued resources, and for archival purposes.

Melanie Mowinski Visual Diary 2011Stop right now and click on the image above. It will enlarge to 1500 pixels wide, and you will see just one example of the epic work of my friend Melanie Mowinski. She is an art professor, artist and “lifelogger”, and the image here is a copy of her visual diary for 2011. In real life, this work of art is just 14″ x 22″ in size — each of the 365-day records is no larger than a small postage stamp. “The real actual days are like 7/8 of an inch by 1 1/4 inch or something equally ridiculous,” Melanie told me.  “…I use Uniball vision elite acid free fade proof pens.” Melanie has been making these daily records for 19 years. As in: The best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago, the second-best time is today. Read more about Melanie Mowinski’s work on her blog and/or jump straight to her gallery of Visual Diaries here. I need to say it again: Epic.

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  1. Cebette says

    Love this and immediately wished I had been doing this forever 🙂 I have used my yearly wall calendars as a sort of diary for years since I’m not much for writing or journaling.

    But as you said- I can plant that tree today. Thanks for sharing this Pam.

  2. Carole says

    That is really cool. And what a fabulous idea, and one that was continued because it wasn’t an entire page in a daily log, but a simple notation about a ‘day in the life’.

    I need to send this story to my SIL. She’s a ‘tiny writing’ calligrapher and a new grandmother to boot. She’ll enjoy seeing this and might like starting something similar about and for her granddaughters.

    Thanks for sharing. 🙂

  3. Mary Elizabeth says

    Good morning! What an inspiration you are Melanie! May your visual diary appear for many, many years to come.

  4. Rita@thissortaoldlife says

    Wow. This is amazing. At first, it felt like an overwhelming mess/mass of minutiae. As I took time to focus in, I could see themes and stories emerging. And isn’t that the story of a life, over time? Day after day after day of small moments. It is up to us to look closely and find the threads that hold them together. Thank you for sharing.