Collage: Falling In Love With My Body

In a previous post, I shared about a dream I had that inspired me to make this collage and, hopefully, will inspire me to exercise entirely for myself. Not from any 'should', or because it's healthy or because it will make others like my body better.
Entirely for ME. So that I will be able to enjoy living in a strong, fit body that I like the feel and look of better than I do now.

I want to focus on working toward strength, flexibility and fitness - not a specific shape or size or lack of lumps and bumps :-)

I am hoping that in the process of getting more fit, I come to feel more comfortable being present in my body, and perhaps even fall in love with it. Being present is a huge challenge for me.


I enjoy what has blossomed in this collage. I'm still looking forward to adding in more details and decorations with black, white, silver and gold pens and the blank area below the word STRENGTH wants... something. Time will tell me what it will be :-)

Part of me is still feeling daunted. I find big change can feel very difficult to me and exercising regularly - without thinking of it as a chore - is a radical change for me.
I don't plan when I collage - I go through magazines and cut out the things call to me and then arrange them on the paper in the way that 'feels' right.

In the process of doing this, the issue about change got addressed with wisdom from some wiser part of me:"You will reach a turning point beyond which change comes easily"

The words "comes easily" are written on a colour copy of a watercolour painting that flowed out of me so easily after years of thinking I was 'no good' at watercolour.

The grungy blue star paper was made using this technique: grunge star rubbed impressions

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What if I could fall in love with my body?

detail from collage in progress

Lately I've been feeling like I'm floating along without 'purpose'.
I'm not working due to disability and not volunteering for the same reason.
Although it doesn't come out a lot on this blog, I have pretty bad depression most of the time (though it has improved a lot since August when I had an amazing Energy Medicine session... when I do my homework the improvements are even better :)

I've tried to make my art my Purpose and it doesn't quite fit.
My art is one of my major Passions and I've always liked the idea of having my Purpose be one of my Passions... I'm not sure why it's not working. I wonder if it's because my art doesn't have big goals?

I had a very powerful dream recently in which I saw myself from behind, doing pull-ups/chin-ups in a backless top. I could see muscles and strength!
I can't even do half of a chin up in my waking life :-)
At the same time that I was seeing my body from the outside, I could also feel what it felt like to be in that strong, powerful, healthy and fit body. It was wonderful!
I've always hated exercising and have never had a body like I had in my dream and I awoke thinking, "What if I could have that?"
I wonder if I would hate exercise less if I thought of it as working toward a goal I desire, rather than a chore I feel I 'should' do?

I felt inspired and motivated and began going through magazines to make a collage, wanting to capture that motivation in a visual form that I could hang on my wall as a reminder. I hope to finish and post it soon.

In the process of cutting collage pieces, I found myself suddenly thinking, "What if I could actually fall in love with my body?"
It seemed inconceivable. Yet enticing!
For many, many years, my body has been a source of frustration and suffering, either not being able to do what I want it to or having all sorts of symptoms I don't want it to have. I feel that I have no control over my body, that I'm powerless.

I've decided to try and change my relationship with my body.

Perhaps if I start falling in love with it from the outside, it will sense that love and begin to balance on the inside.

created at Wordle.net

Birthday Collage for a friend

Much more personal than a store bought birthday card :-)

(name at top removed for privacy :) Text reads: "Dear ____, My birthday wish for you is that your year ahead has many calm days, peaceful, rest-filled nights and the energy to play your butt off!"

Text reads: "SEEK YOUR TRUTH... It's likely to be at the heart of something you DeLIGHT in."

Creatively Processing 'Darker' Emotions

I am a person with tendencies towards deep depression at times and have found creativity to be one of the few things that can help get me through those times.
Sometimes the 'darker' emotions are strong enough that I feel stuck creatively.
Those are times when I pull out magazines and go through them to find material for collages or art 'journal' pages (a bit of a misnomer since there is often very little journalling... but I'm not sure what else to call them).


Often, the images I will be drawn to cut out reflect my emotional state.
By the time I have cut out images for a while, I've been brought more into the present moment and reconnected with my creative juice - and am then able to collage or art journal.
Sometimes, this process actually lifts me out of the difficult emotions.  It feels healthy and healing - like the emotions are actually being processed, not ignored or shoved inside to hurt me.

Here are a few pages I did a while ago - adding to them each time I was in a dark place.  Sometimes these pages get journalled on later.

I give  myself permission to be messy :-)
In the above page, the background was done, in part, using this technique I came up with to create a  random/chaotic look on thin papers that would warp with wet mediums.

In the above piece, I wanted a messy stamp and didn't have one so I carved one from an eraser (stamp carving is another thing that can totally absorb me and bring me into the moment).

Are there certain creative things that can help you when you feel sad, angry or down?

Tutorial: Making Colourful Backgrounds That Won't Warp Thin Papers

I finally created a photo tutorial for the art journal backgrounds I've been talking about.

The technique can also be used in card and tag making, bookmarks, collage, ATC's, handmade wrapping paper or anything you can think of!
I'd love if you shared your ideas in the comments area :-)

This is mostly a 'dry' technique meaning that it won't cause thin paper to warp or buckle when applied.
I do also include a variation of this technique that is 'wet' for those who don't mind buckling or who use thicker paper.  The wet version has some really awesome effects like these (and even more fun ones if you colour-mix):

I confess that I hate typing so I've written the directions right in the photos.  If anyone has trouble reading my messy printing, please let me know and I will type out the directions below each photo.
Also, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask them in the comments area.  I've turned off that pesky comment security device so you don't have to type in any characters before commenting :).

Okay... here we go!

*note*
I should have specified NON permanent markers :-)

*other types of plastic may give different effects - experiment if you like!

Eventually I will post a video showing just how quickly this is actually done :-)  The faster, the better.

 

WET Technique:

 

close-up:

 

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If you try any of this out and post somewhere online, please share in the comments area!  I love seeing what others do :-)

A Meaningful Bookmark

photo taken in front of mirror to show front and back

shown separately below

I'm not much for words today but wanted to share a bookmark that I made for a loved one.  The CED theme for May was 'Intuition' and I tried to use entirely that when making this!  I went into it with no plan at all - just the intent that the bookmark would be one that would be meaningful to the receiver.
This person is someone who is a bit selective and it's hard to know what will be a good match for them.
Happily, it turned out far nicer than if I had planned it.  And the words and images on it felt like a good fit for the person.
Thanks intuition!
:-)

The backgrounds on both sides were done using a fun technique with plastic wrap and markers that I promise I will try to post about soon!  It works very well on thin paper without warping it but has a much more natural feel than if I tried to actually colour the background with markers.

The blue border on the darker side was done with the edge of a stamp I carved from an vinyl eraser with my new favourite toy: the Speedball Linoleum Cutter.
It feels about a million times better than using an exacto knife :-)

Collaged Sketchbook Cover, Art Journal Page Backgrounds

After using it for a while, I decided that the plain brown cover of my ecojot sketchbook was crying out to be made colourful!
Here's the result... which I will likely add more to over time:

And here are a few glimpses of what's inside.

This page was intended to be a background for art journalling but when it was done, I liked it so much that I couldn't write on it!  So I added a little piece in the centre and it stands alone.

Techniques used include dragging dye-based ink pads across the paper, shading in white parts with chalk pastels, border made with a rubber stamp and then coloured in with pens and markers.  The background of the centre piece is made by lightly turning an ink pad in a complete circle.  The idea for using ink pads on background came from the wonderful post Creating Colorful Journal Pages by Aimee of Artsyville.  I am in love with her vibrant blog!  You can also see a video that shows this technique and a few more here:  Art Journal Page Backgrounds

Done on a piece of paper and glued into sketchbook.
The above page was done when I was using wetter background techniques... which caused the thin paper to warp.  I've come up with a great technique that avoids this problem and will post about it soon.
Yet another piece where I suddenly found I didn't want to fill in the sky with words.  Though I did write in metallic pen on the bottom part.
Alphabet stamps found at a dollar store.  Tree stamp was purchased, bird stamp was hand carved from a vinyl eraser (so much fun!).  If flipped around, it can stamp waves/water :-)

Magic Tags and Love Collage

Made from scraps of failed paintings and filled with words I love, interspersed with sparkly tinsel, these 'magic tags' all in a row make my art room a happier place:

Update: I finally came across the photo that inspired me to do these (although the method is a bit different, the core idea was from here).  Like much of my favourite inspiration, this came from Daisy Yellow (thank again Tammy!).

While sorting boxes, I found a collage done a few years ago.
It is so simple yet when I got to this point, I loved how it looked and didn't want to clutter it up!  The wonderful image in the centre is by an artist I love - Susan Seddon Boulet.

Spring Flower Collage

I haven't been posting much though I've been doing a lot artistically... and craftily ;-)

Here's a photo of a collage I did a few weeks ago when it finally began to feel like spring would come to southern Ontario!

Normally I'm very perfectionist about collage (and art in general) but with this one I tried to let myself go and not worry about it being 'perfect'.