Nick Of Time

Hey people-- Sorry, no disturbia today. Just not that kind of a Wed. Instead, some cool stuff to share with you. My little circle of "Artist Way" friends that have met every other wed for something like ten years are coming over tonight for our annual collage party. Funny how things show up just exactly when you need them huh?

This is such a cool idea, it's spilled over into my other group of arty friends and I now do two collages a year. They're so cool they should be called "cool-ages". Here's the premise-- you start with a big blank piece of tag board (or whatever), and place yourself in the center. This can be a picture of you or just something representing you. Then you begin to place images around yourself that represent things you love, things you're inexplicably drawn to (this process is somewhat mystical), things you would like to attract to your life, goals, etc. Think of this as a compass and cosmic magnet for the coming year. It's best if you can collect images somewhat impulsively, because it allows your subconscious to filter through.

You'd be amazed at what results. We go through these year after year, and VERY often, things we may not have understood when we created the collage become totally obvious in hindsight. There really is something to this idea of stating your goals, making conscious choices about your life. It seems to make things happen. Try it-- you won't be disappointed.

Here are some I've done in recent years. You'll probably want to click on these to get a better look.

The mysterious twig-haired woman in this one is my creative muse whispering to me. You'll notice an elephant. I have a major thing for elephants ever since reading "The White Bone" and almost always include one somewhere. They symbolize loyalty, intelligence, female power, and the deeper wisdom of the earth/universe-- that there are things we as humans neither understand or appreciate. The other themes are basically health, nature, my relationship w/ Dan, creativity and writing.

This one was very writing / creativity centric. I was also trying to grab images and colors without thinking for the background-- the yellow is uncharacteristic for me-- also, elephants.

The next 2 are from last year. The woman in black represents me working my creative mojo. I remember dividing this one into thirds, with the top representing home, the middle, work, and the bottom, health. I'd been really debilitated by a bad back injury and a leg fracture so was really determined to get back into fightin' form. Also at this point $ became an issue, and my workspace was really up in the air. There is a little pic of a tiny "house" with a woman walking towards it. That was my statement that, "I WILL have a shop, and it may not be big, but it will be just right." Low-and-behold-- hubby got an old (1934) garage for free (you dismantle it and haul it and it's yours), and has been working the last year to resurrect it for me. It's so awesome and almost done.

A friend's husband said this looks like an album cover. It kind of does. I really like it. It's totally about following my creativity where it leads me. The foot is me getting right into the deep end, fearlessly. The elevator at the bottom represents "going to work". In what I do, there are creative tides, but you can't wait for inspiration to hit you. You have to get on the elevator every day and write / do art. Sometimes it will turn out crappy. That's called "good practice". But you have to get on and push a button every day.

There is a leg in the bottom left corner. I had a stress fracture from running that got so bad I could hardly walk. I gained 20 pounds and couldn't rely on one of the best tricks I've learned to deal with "life"-- moving my body to dispel some of the yuck. The doctor thought I'd need a metal rod put in. That was almost a year ago. Now I'm running farther than I ever thought I would-- no rod.

I know, my pendulum is swinging all over the place right now, but that's how I roll sometimes. It seems, ultimately, beneficial. The fact remains that the world/universe is a pretty damn wondrous place, and life, with all its ups and downs and-- for we creative types-- sideways's, is constantly amazing.

Now I'm pretty psyched for tonight. Tomorrow I'll post the new collage.