Collage Therapy for the Uninspired

Hey Folks!

Today I thought I'd share a snippet from my real live life! There are three major deadlines that I have to meet this year and I just wrapped up the first. Woo hoo!

The timelines are tight, so I have to jump right back in to my art practice, but in an effort to stave off the ever-hovering burn out, I used my normal writing time this morning for a little art therapy instead.

Collage is the perfect medium when I need to work something out without thinking about it. Often, I'll look back at a collage I made half a year ago and be amazed at what I knew without knowing at the time. That was garbled. What I mean to say is that the subconscious mind digs collage.

Collage 1 - About Life and Art

Above is the first collage from this morning. The themes coming through make sense to me. I've been all about work and not enough healthy play lately and I need to get out and see more of the world. It is also time to recognize that I have been working hard and give myself a little pat on the back for finally developing a bit of discipline.

More subtly, I think there's something here about the bombardment of words, even positive ones, that is going on in my head these days. More meditation, please. : )

Collage 2 - Colour Thoughts

The second collage reflects my thoughts about the next piece in the series I am working on. I have been going back and forth about the direction to take it and two colour or value themes came though in the images I chose from magazines this morning. On the left is black and white (high contrast) and on the right is orange/green/blue-green/blue (medium to light values only).

Strangely, a fish theme emerged as well and I have no idea what that is about. Maybe time will tell.

No matter what you do to earn your living, I highly recommend collage as a means of de-stressing, having a little fun, and seeing what comes of it. All you need are scissors, glue and a surface.

Often people say to me, "You're so creative. Mine would never look like that." Of course it wouldn't! It will look like yours. For the record, I did not spend time carefully arranging this.

Just start ripping images out of a magazine and see what happens. Maybe you add in some paint or ink or marker or crayon or beads or sparkles.

Anything goes! There are no rules and who cares what it looks like when you're done? It's the doing that matters.

Happy Monday, Steemians! Make it a creative one.

xoKitty