Healing through Collage

Birthday Collage for Angel

Good Morning Friends!!

I have just completed this collage for my sister's birthday and wanted to share it.  I am very pleased with the result and everytime I finish something I have never tried before and like it, I am still amazed! I used all kinds of different techniques on this piece.  I have been reading a wonderful book I picked up at Borders a few weeks ago . . .  The Artistic Mother by Shona Cole.  It is a practical guide about fitting creativity into your life.  I picked it up and loved her written word and was drawn to her many projects.  Although my two boys are now 30 and 27, married and on their own, I could still relate to what she was talking about . . . fitting creativity into your life (I just no longer have the little ones running around the house to fit in time for creativity!!!) I surely miss those times and they pass by so quickly!  I do remember raising my babies and never had time to dream about being artistic!!!  Now being all grown up and working full time, I still find it hard to carve out time to be artistic.

That word creativity keeps creeping up into our lives doesn't it?  Making time to do what we love, away from distractions of life, away from jobs, family and life obligations. It is the place we go to where we can carve time out of our busy lives to play, create, paint, knit, weave, design, read, collage, write and blog; to do whatever it is that brings us happiness and fullfilment in seeing something come to life right before our eyes.  

I created this collage piece for my sister; her birthday was fast approaching and I wanted to give her a piece that would matter. I wanted to create a piece that she could look at in her studio and be reminded that she was special and her little sis loved her.  With each color I used to paint the canvas, to the words and pictures I chose for her collage;  all of it was well thought out and applied meaning to the piece.  You see in the center is a picture of myself with my brother and sister, I being the middle child (the little blonde in the picture) always played the peacemaker.  I lost my mother to a long journey of Dementia a year ago this week and I am dealing with natural emotions and remembrances of what was.  My brother and sister are still struggling with each other and I don't know if they will ever come together, but at least for this collage, there is the three of us!  I wanted my sister to remember our childhood and that there was a time in our lives that it was the three of us!

Creating art goes way deeper than the finished product . . . it is about the process it took to get there!  I learned so much in working on this piece, I hope it is received well by my sister, if it is not that is okay too!  The pleasure was in the time it took making it for her.  


Now I am off to the Squam by the Sea art retreat in the Outer Banks.  I get to play and rest and meet new friends and be totally immersed in an artistic environment!!  This is the first time for the Squam retreat to be in the OBX, I can hardly wait to get there.  Lots of photos and stories when I return. 


Until then, be well, be creative and be at peace with all things!
Donna