Creative Visioning

Here’s a collage that I made in March while attending a fabulous Hip Tranquil Chick three-day retreat:



It amazes me that much of it has started to manifest. There are several tiny changes that are inching me towards my goal of living a creative life. For example, the calendar says “yoga”; I found a yoga studio three blocks from my apartment that I enjoy after this collage was made. Another example is the blue computer keys with happy expressions on them. I knew I wanted to write more, I feel this represents the birth of the Creative Cookie blog and my new computer. These changes in my life excite me. I am making progress!

Here’s an exercise from The Artist’s Way* that will help you build your own collage—I strongly encourage it.

Collage:

1. Collect a stack of at least ten magazines, which you will allow yourself to freely dismember. 
2. Set a twenty-minute time limit for yourself, tear (literally) through the magazines, collecting any images that reflect your life or interests. Think of this collage as a form of pictorial autobiography. Include your past, present, future, and your dreams. It is okay to include images you simply like. Keep pulling until you have a good stack of images (at least twenty). 
3. Now take a sheet of newspaper, a stapler, or some tape or glue, and arrange your images in a way that pleases you.
4. Give your collage a place of honor. Even a secret place of honor is all right—in your closet, in a drawer, anywhere that is yours. You may want to do a new one every few months, or collage more thoroughly a dream you are trying to accomplish.

In closing, here are a few questions to ponder: why do creative visioning exercises, like collage making, work? What are some other modes of creative visioning?

I’d love to hear from experienced and aspiring collage makers and creative visionaries…please share you work. I'd like to post you collages, if you'll allow me to. 

*See the full list of Creative Reads that I recommend below.