Spirit talks directly to me only when it can express itself uncensored.
I seduce its dialogue by circumventing the spoken word.
Only when the naming and calling has been halted does it speak softly—at least at first—because if I keep the urge to “put words into the mix” at bay, then the connection gets louder and louder, until it is all out. I am happiest when spirit screams.
Nothing works better to get it talking than images, colors, scissors, paints, glitter, glue and a good disposition. Images that “call” us are messages from our souls. The good old art of making a collage.
The 12 steps of making a collage—detailed below—work for me. I am sure you have your own little pieces of wisdom and I would love to hear about it in the comments. Let me know how you do them!
| I do not know why I am attracted to this image and I don’t care. It “speaks” to me |
1.- Give yourself an appropriate budget: I normally think of it in terms of 2 or 3 magazines. Or you can print your favorite pictures from the Internet. Scissors are usually available in every household, and so is glue, but if you don’t have them available, they need to be on the list. Extras that are lovely to have around include: glitter, colored glue, stickers, old paintings you may have done, color glue, etc.
2.- Pick on afternoon where you have a good mental disposition and some free time. Then go to a store that has lots of magazines. If they carry foreign ones all the better as things are seen differently in other cultures.
| Getting ready for action |
3.- Any magazine cover that draws your eye, grab it. You may end up with a big pile so it is good to find a place to sit down.
4.- Browse quickly through each of the magazines. Do not worry about details, just see which ones seem to have images that “give you energy”.
| I want some of that |
For example, lately I have been attracted to images that suggest a peaceful space where to write, and so landscapes, pictures of summer cottages, or pitches of watermelon juice with slices of lemon were calling me.
There is no way to do this wrong, just whichever magazine seems to have the most images that nurture your spirit is to be put in a separate pile. The “keeper pile”.
5.- Out of the keeper pile magazines select the ones you are most attracted to. You will know just by looking, something calls you, may seem strange to your verbal mind. Don’t judge. Just pick the final three.
| Stickers, words, even magnets help! |
6.- Take everything home.
7.- Get ready and place the magazines on your biggest table. The floor also works well and opens the hips.
8.- With your sharp scissors, cut any image you like, do not worry about the reason why you like it. I sometimes rip out pages as a preliminary stage and set them aside.
Sometimes you may go back to one of the images and say to yourself: “really?” “that is not me“! If you did go back to it trust that it is for a reason. Cut it. Put it on the pile. You do not need to know what the reason is, all you need to know is that you are attracted to it.
| Fancy yourself the editor of a major magazine – You are! |
9.- If you ripped pages off at once now do the “fine cutting”. Cut all the images your spirit is directing you towards.
10.-Now start playing as if you were the art director of a big magazine and were creating a collage for one of the main pages. Superpose that rose garden on top of that living room. Let that teapot cover the clock. Make that huge sunflower cover a border adding some much needed yellow on the upper right corner. Put that couple kissing in the center. Add some color with those cupcakes on the left. You get the idea. You will know what to do.
| Old Water Colors add character |
11.- Once the collage begins to take form start gluing the pieces together. Be careful as this requires a surgeon’s attention to detail so that you will not put glue in places where it will not be welcome later
12.- Use mix media, if you have some old water colors you painted a while ago use them too! Get them out and “recycle” them. Bring your art into your art. For example, the collage on the right here uses an old water-color painting as background behind that delicious purple cake.
I usually love the collages so much that I hang them around the house to look at them. If you happen to do one, I would love to see it! feel free to post in flickr or twitpic and post a link on the comments.
Have fun!
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