If you've -ever- taken a workshop with me, via online (next 21-Day Journaling with Collage Course starts March 1st! Click here to register.) or live classes, you know, are well-versed, have had the Riot Act instilled upon you that there are Three Rules to the Contemplative Collage creating process. They are as follows:
#1: Use ONLY National Geographics. Why? you ask. Because I've found that the photos in Nat Geo's (as Contemplative groupies have come to refer to them) are the most real, un-posed, un-photo-shopped, un-adulterated photos out there. In what other magazine, I ask you, can you possibly find the human spectrum not only of emotion, but of circumstance - birth, life, death and every facet in between?
Also, in Nat Geo's, you'll find other cultures, ancient civilizations, and animals in all stages of being. It's quite simply the most Archetypal source of imagery out there. And thus, my go-to magazine.
#1: Use ONLY National Geographics. Why? you ask. Because I've found that the photos in Nat Geo's (as Contemplative groupies have come to refer to them) are the most real, un-posed, un-photo-shopped, un-adulterated photos out there. In what other magazine, I ask you, can you possibly find the human spectrum not only of emotion, but of circumstance - birth, life, death and every facet in between?
Also, in Nat Geo's, you'll find other cultures, ancient civilizations, and animals in all stages of being. It's quite simply the most Archetypal source of imagery out there. And thus, my go-to magazine.
#2: NO words. Early on, I discovered while teaching Creative Writing courses from collage, that students would try to ... squeeze ... themselves into a word or phrase that'd gotten glued to a page. You know the saying:
"A picture is worth a thousand words." Whereas a word itself is worth about ... seven. On a -good- synonym day. :)
This "image versus word" phenomenon is particularly evident in class settings, when a student can only see one story in an image, and then the person next to him, and then the person next to THAT person sees an entirely new and riveting story, or stories, and suddenly the image opens up, in a way that a single word never could, into limitless vistas and universes of its own. THIS is the power of image over word.
(PS - just look at the image below. Can't you just -feel- your mind filling in the empty space?) (Exactly.)
"A picture is worth a thousand words." Whereas a word itself is worth about ... seven. On a -good- synonym day. :)
This "image versus word" phenomenon is particularly evident in class settings, when a student can only see one story in an image, and then the person next to him, and then the person next to THAT person sees an entirely new and riveting story, or stories, and suddenly the image opens up, in a way that a single word never could, into limitless vistas and universes of its own. THIS is the power of image over word.
(PS - just look at the image below. Can't you just -feel- your mind filling in the empty space?) (Exactly.)
#3: NO Ads. This one's pretty basic. Enough of our life is contrived and handed to us on Marketing platters. Let's let our Art come from a space inside us, not projected -onto- us.
So those are my three break-thee-not rules of Contemplative Collage. And now, the moment you've been waiting for ... (insert drum roll) ... the place where I boldly, and dastardly, break my own rules, you ask?
Why, on the New Moon of course! Although not physically ON the moon, but rather the day of the New Moon, the day when I create my New Moon Visioning Board.
Every month, thirteen times a year, I get together with a friend to create that month's visioning board. A feat which in itself is interesting, as I tend to typically create my "work" collages alone, but my Visioning Boards always, always, amongst dear friends.
And for that one sacred day, I break ALL my own rules.
I use whatever magazine the free shelf at the library catches my attention.
I cut out glossy ads like a mad woman.
I glom words. and words. and MORE words.
And something like THIS, after about three exhausting hours, is what I come up with:
Why, on the New Moon of course! Although not physically ON the moon, but rather the day of the New Moon, the day when I create my New Moon Visioning Board.
Every month, thirteen times a year, I get together with a friend to create that month's visioning board. A feat which in itself is interesting, as I tend to typically create my "work" collages alone, but my Visioning Boards always, always, amongst dear friends.
And for that one sacred day, I break ALL my own rules.
I use whatever magazine the free shelf at the library catches my attention.
I cut out glossy ads like a mad woman.
I glom words. and words. and MORE words.
And something like THIS, after about three exhausting hours, is what I come up with:
What's amazing to me is the fact that my Visioning Boards come out SO much more colorful than my "work" collages. I mean, just look at the pink and yellow in that piece. It's virtually ... lively!
And still, just like in collage, themes appear and reappear, revealing themselves. Say the golden light in the center of the piece. And the wizened man. He's shown up in the last four visioning boards. Always looking OUT. Always ready for Adventure.
And still, just like in collage, themes appear and reappear, revealing themselves. Say the golden light in the center of the piece. And the wizened man. He's shown up in the last four visioning boards. Always looking OUT. Always ready for Adventure.
But it's the words in my visioning boards that most move me. For they become a collaging process in themselves, as I cut out words that create a sense of excitement in me, and then piece them together into phrases which will later become journaling prompts, and in some cases affirmations and mantras.
So what I want you to come away with from this blog? It's to become aware of your OWN rules, because we all have them. And for me, rules aren't -rules- as much as "containers for Creativity." They afford us parameters to set our creative sights by, and that's a good thing.
But also, know WHEN to break them.
And when you DO break them, which you will, break them consciously, and creatively. Break them deliberately, to see what else is out there. And then go back to the old paradigm. A little more liberated. A little more informed. A little more wild. A little more free.
Know when, and HOW to fuel yourself.
How to bring yourself to greater heights, more magnificent vistas.
This is where, and why, I break my own rules.
And why you should too.
So what I want you to come away with from this blog? It's to become aware of your OWN rules, because we all have them. And for me, rules aren't -rules- as much as "containers for Creativity." They afford us parameters to set our creative sights by, and that's a good thing.
But also, know WHEN to break them.
And when you DO break them, which you will, break them consciously, and creatively. Break them deliberately, to see what else is out there. And then go back to the old paradigm. A little more liberated. A little more informed. A little more wild. A little more free.
Know when, and HOW to fuel yourself.
How to bring yourself to greater heights, more magnificent vistas.
This is where, and why, I break my own rules.
And why you should too.
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