LICHENS: FASCINATING, BEAUTIFUL & PART OF AN UPCOMING ART SHOW

In my previous post I wrote about the upcoming Creative Reactions art show, for which I have been creating fibre art lichens based on a collaboration with botanist Paul Sokoloff of the Museum of Nature and 3 experts Paul invited to provide input and feedback. The group of 4 botanists and lichenologists is pictured below. 

L-R Cassandra Robillard, Paul Sokoloff, Chris Deduke, and Troy McMullin

A goal for me was to create much texture and dimension in these fibre art lichens, bearing in mind it would be mounted on a canvas and displayed on an easel. During a recent Show & Tell with the Out of the Box Fibre Artists, I presented 4 of the 5 lichens I was working on - in various stages of completion - and was pleased at their interest, feedback and that they wanted to know when and where the show is. I've included some photos below but the photos don't do the lichens justice, so you'll have to come to the show on May 25 to see them in person, and to see the final art piece.

Elegant Sunburst

This lichen got my interest right away due to its striking beauty and the contrast of its orange colour against a gray background.

It seems this lichen feeds on the nutrients left by birds, and so is found in areas where there are lots of birds. And also explains the gray background colour.

I created this background on a brown paper bag, painted and scraped it with modelling paste and sand resin. To add more texture and dimension, I cut up an old tatted doily, painted it with the same gray colours, scrunched and stitched it to the painted bag.

From this doily 

To this painted and scrunched piece, and stitched to painted background

I discovered in my stash of materials a wonderful playful orange yarn, which very closely matches this orange elegant sunburst lichen. My final piece has 3 of these orange lichens on the background; the photo below shows just one section. The "leaf-like" part of this lichen swells when wet, which would be the case in the one shown here.

Elegant Sunburst

Fairy Puke Lichen

What can I say? This lichen was chosen because of its name - fairy puke - and it's brought a smile so far to everyone who has heard the name. Judging by the number of people who remembered this afterwards, they have proved that art can be used for learning. And if you try to picture what fairy puke may look like....

Since some of the reference photos shows this lichen growing on wood, I kept my eye out for some scrap wood, and found some fabulous pieces that a local handmade furniture store makes available to the public.

For the lichen, needle felted small pink over green wool "puke" balls seemed most appropriate, sort of randomly glued as if they had landed on a piece of wood.




Blue Felt Lichen

A third lichen - blue felt - was selected because of a project in which provinces had been invited to name a provincial lichen, similar to naming a provincial flower. Lichenologist Troy McMullin and researchers across the country have been leading this effort to create more awareness about lichens.

Narrowing down the choice could not be easy in each province. While I'm not sure if all have picked a lichen, I did want to highlight this project and chose Nova Scotia's recently named provincial lichen, called blue felt.

Creating this one in fibre art was challenging and it took a few starts and stops before I was happy with it.

I had played with some fabric cut-outs to create the shape and ripples, but none were to my satisfaction. Finding the right colour also proved to be a challenge. Then I recalled a piece of cotton I had indigo dyed last summer (it also has some rust marks) (see photo at right), cut circles from the dyed fabric and basted a hem which I pulled tighter to create the ripples. (Indigo dyeing is a thousand year old procedure using the indigo plant and used today to dye blue jeans as well as for tie-dyeing.)
                                                                                                     

Once I was happy with these shapes, I dry-brushed blue paint onto the surface to tone down the rust colour, and needle-felted blue and grey wool onto the fabric to tone down the rust even further and to add more depth and a felt-look texture. More blue paint was added to the edges of each lichen, then needle felted berries in shades of green and red added.

The completed pieces were glued onto one of the pieces of wood I had salvaged as this lichen is often found growing on the trunks of old trees. While not exact by any means, I'm quite pleased with the final look.



Alpine Bloodspot

The fourth lichen in this fibre art piece, alpine bloodspot, was chosen for its smooth texture and its colours, and because its an Arctic lichen.

For the background I again used brown paper bag, painted with acrylic paints and sand resin. This time I also added used coffee grounds to add a deep brown soil-like colour.  My husband had offered me some potting soil to use but as fibre artists will tell you, coffee grounds look more like soil than soil does!

With the background complete I began working on the bloodspot lichens. The red and white bits were made from polymer clay and sanded to smooth the rough edges. The white fabric background is strips from an old wool blanket, and rug-hooked onto an open weave fabric which added much dimension to the piece. I had first toyed with other off-white fabrics, but none came close to the texture I got from this blanket.

Arctic Orangebush Lichen

This last lichen took longer to choose. A number of ideas were presented by Paul and his team, but in the end this one became the  choice due in part to its texture, but more importantly because of its importance to those who specialize in Arctic plants. This Arctic orangebush lichen is only known in the western Canadian Arctic and is considered rare. 2017 saw an Arctic expedition in honour of Canada's 150th, here is a link to Paul's posting on finding this rare species during the expedition:
https://canadianmuseumofnature.wordpress.com/2017/12/13/two-rare-species-one-big-trip/

This one also took more experimenting on my part to find both materials and a technique that would work to create something similar. After a few false starts, I went back to the old tatted doily I used for the elegant sunburst lichen, cut more,  painted it yellow and added fabric stiffener. And stitched it to a background of needle felted wool roving. The roving has various sheep and llama wools in earthy colours and I was able to create small hills of "soil" in which this lichen could grow.


Alpine Orangebush Lichen

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This project for me has been a gift, one that pushed me to create more texture and dimension than I've done before. And it included an educational aspect about the lichens that I don't usually get with the subjects I work on. As I was finishing up these lichens and starting another project, I quickly realized I was already a bit bored with it without the challenge of creating  so much texture. 

I will definitely be keeping an eye out this spring and summer for lichens in the area, and will have my camera in hand to capture their beauty and, hopefully, capture them in fibre art too.

My thanks go out to Paul and his team for all their thoughts and feedback. And to Mirka Strmiskova for selecting me as one of the eight artists, and for organizing the Creative Reactions show. I can't wait to see what the other projects are and meet the experts behind them.

Again, the show Creative Reactions is Saturday, May 25 from 6:30 - 9:30 pm at the Plant Recreation Centre at 930 Somerset Street West. 

ART MEETS SCIENCE: A COLLABORATION BETWEEN ARTISTS AND RESEARCHERS

Art meets science in an upcoming show titled Creative Reactions, on May 25th, 2019, at the Plant Recreation Centre in Ottawa. It's a show of art created by artists who were paired up with academic researchers and based on themes such as the human body, galaxies, society, etc. Creative Reactions explores the relationships between art and science, the use of creativity, art as a method for learning, as a means for visual communication. And I'm excited to be one of the eight selected artists.

I was partnered with botanist Paul Sokoloff, senior research assistant with the Museum of Nature, who invited me for a tour in February of the museum's Herbarium in Gatineau which, even though I've lived in Ottawa all my life, I did not know existed.

I was wowed! A building comparable to the size of the new Amazon warehouse, Paul - whose specialty is Arctic botany - treated me to a tour: no end of ferns, mosses, lichens and other plants, plant uses, some history, some Botany 101 and even a peak through a microscope. So many botanical species, old and new, scads of which I had never heard of, but all documented and innumerable added into a searchable database accessible by the public.

One of many photos I took of the samples at the Herbarium

A close-up of the information one of the Herbarium's samples

My visit lasted about 45 minutes and, with my creative well full of ideas to consider for an art piece for this show, my challenge was to narrow down the possibilities, bearing in mind the goals of the program. 

Possible subjects included climate change and its effect on plant habitats, medicinal uses, plants of the Arctic, expeditions, and so much more. But I found I kept coming back to the beautiful and enchanting lichens, a fascinating world I could journey to and learn more about, and one that presented me with so many artistic possibilities to create a piece of art. And lichens, I learned, are actually a combination of fungi and algae. 

As fibre art is all about texture, I knew this would be a good fit. And while I had played in the past with various fibre art techniques and materials covering a variety of subjects, I had never explored the subject of lichens. I knew lots of experimenting would be needed to identify the best options to fabricate the three-dimensional textures of these organisms and the surfaces on which they grow.

As we narrowed the search to select 5 or so lichens, Paul included several lichen experts on the emails to provide their input and thoughts, as we looked at lichen colours, textures, properties, a focus on the Arctic but also other regions of Canada, unusual names, beauty, and projects related to lichens.

The 5 lichens were selected throughout March and April, some I have now completed and some are still in progress for my fibre art piece. All 5 will be mounted onto 1 canvas, and a background designed to provide more information about each. My next couple of posts leading up to the Creative Reactions show on May 25 will cover the 5 lichens, why each was selected, the materials I chose and the techniques. 

In the meantime, here are some links to some of Paul's postings on his own botanical journey and explorations with the Museum of Nature. Some fascinating - and educational - reading:

Adventures in botany, on Earth and Mars
Northern Plants in the Capital: Mer Bleue Bog
Botanist Paul Sokoloff on his journey to the Arctic
The “Martian” Flora: Extreme Life in Extreme Environments

INFUSING EMOTION INTO YOUR WRITING AND ART

This is a blog post I wrote in September 2018 for my friend and local author, Renee Gendron for her website at http://reneegendron.com/index.html

Infusing Emotion into your Writing and Art

Have you experienced goosebumps when listening to music? Noticed your body tense up watching a suspense-filled movie? Felt sympathy for a fictional character?
 
Emotion can make or break music, writing, visual art. It's an ingredient that we are often not taught. When we add elements of emotion and love of creating while painting, or writing, or making pottery, or whatever your passion is, the piece will turn out that much better because it was created from a place of caring, of passion, of love. Interestingly, this expressive side is not explicitly taught in art or music school. We are often told to show the emotions, but not given the tools to know how.
 
Composers, film producers, writers, artists and other creatives know that the most successful art forms engage the viewer to enable us to experience a connection and feel emotion. And it has to be believable to at least provide the possibility.

So how do we, as artists and writers, do this? There's no formula that I'm aware of. But we can look to what has worked for the most successful in the various art forms and decide what may work for our own creative ventures.
 
For example, a visual artist may suggest emotion through the use of colour, which can say a lot about the mood of a picture and how the viewer interprets it. Strong colour can add energy and emotion. Anger may be depicted through reds and blacks, happiness through sky blue or yellows, dark colours for a howling Halloween evening. Gestures, brushstrokes, rhythm and gradation are also elements that convey energetic or calm emotions.
 
Some will create only using positive energy and thoughts to transfer into their creations. You may have heard that food tastes better when cooked with love. Quilters who make quilts for Victoria's Quilts Canada infuse their creations with hope for physical and spiritual comfort for the recipients of the quilts who are living with cancer.
 
Titles are important too, whether for a written work or song, art piece or play, and are what may first attract someone to a piece of writing. The title needs to capture - or hint at - what the book is about, but also reflect whether it is a romance, fantasy, non-fiction etc. Titles can play to the emotions of the reader. Referring to the picture below, if I had named it "Clothesline," well, it's kind of dull. But change the name to "Laundry Day," and we start to tap into the senses and memories, of the viewer. What did this title conjure up for you? Clothes flapping in the wind? A summer day? The fresh scent of line-dried clothes and sheets? You get my meaning. Whatever title you choose it needs to convey the mood you have selected for your written piece.
 

An author at the Ottawa International Writer's Festival talked a few years ago about how he develops the characters in his books. Much like an actor getting into their role before filming or for a play, he too would step into the roles of his characters, to better understand them, their feelings and thoughts, and to help them grow in their roles. The writing was done from the perspective of the characters, rather than his own. This role-playing would last several months until the preliminary writing was done, but was very effective in helping him portray the people in his books as real and authentic to his readers. By writing in first person rather than third person, he would become the character, understanding their thought processes, could create a history for them that would support their reactions to situations, and develop the character into seemingly real, authentic people. It's important when stepping out of one character and before stepping into another that transformation steps are taken, such as "brushing off" the role, shaking the character off the body, perhaps going for a walk to step away from their thoughts. This helps prepare the writer to then move to the next character.
 
Music composers and performers have the added challenge of not only infusing emotion into their compositions and songs but also of getting back into the same frame of mind when performing the same piece. Not an easy challenge.
 
Interestingly, some of the hit songs and most popular singer/songwriters are not necessarily technically proficient at what they do - they are good, yes, but following a melody perfectly or always hitting the same notes during a chorus doesn't necessarily translate into adding the emotion needed to take a piece to the level that will draw in the listener. Instead, they find the nuances, make the slight changes necessary to imply emotion, whether in rhythm, loudness or softness, tempo or other aspect of the music. Consider the difference between long chapters with lots of descriptions and character development versus a book that moves quickly with short chapters containing lots of action. The rhythm and tempo chosen for the writing and chapters work in concert with the style of book or story being written.
 
It's also important to pay attention to the silent parts - the pause between words, the silence between notes, a quiet spot in a painting - to give the reader a chance to reflect and to anticipate what may be coming up next. This can be done by changing direction after a scene that builds tension or suspense or anticipation. The next scene (and often the next chapter) could move to a description or give more insight into the characters (without dialogue), move to a different scene or idea entirely. The idea is to provide something temporarily that is much quieter or muted or peaceful, giving the reader a chance to rest before continuing the previous scene. The reader knows you will come back to the theatrics and has a chance to catch their breath while for a few paragraphs or pages while preparing for what is to come.
 
One final thought. I came across this quote recently which I think sums up this topic quite well. Although it's about musical performances, it applies equally to writing, visual art and other art forms.

 "....most operas, symphonies, sonatas, concertos, and string quartets have a definable meter and pulse, which generally corresponds to the conductor's movements; the conductor is showing the musicians where the beats are, sometimes stretching them out or compressing them for emotional communication. Real conversations between people, real pleas of forgiveness, expressions of anger, courtship, storytelling, planning, and parenting don't occur at precise clips of a machine. To the extent that music is reflecting the dynamics of our emotional lives, and our interpersonal interactions, it needs to swell and contract, to speed up and slow down, to pause and reflect." 1 

1 Quote from This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin

Anne Warburton is a Fibre Artist, exhibiting her work at various shows around Ottawa, and is current chair of the Navan Fine Arts Group (www.navanarts.com)  She writes a blog "Musings of a Creative Journey" at https://annewarburton.blogspot.com/, and worked for many years as an events planner and facilitator. Her website is https://www.needleartsonpaper.com/

LINKING TO OUR PAST - THROUGH PHOTOS

Photo taken early 1930's of my mother, sisters and a few cousins

My mother passed away recently. Sorting through her old photos to create a display for the funeral was a task I found therapeutic. I shed a few tears but also smiled at many of the memories they brought back. And these types of photo montages play an important role in the sharing of stories and memories at funerals and celebrations of life. 

My mother kept every photo she ever took or received and, up until a few years ago, wrote on the back of most the dates, peoples' names and sometimes the location. Her collection dates back to the 1950's, 60's and 70's, and some as early as the 1920's. Sifting through printed photos, some loose but most in albums, made it easy to put together a display on a cardboard stand and put out 2 or 3 albums for people to look at.

This task got me thinking how cumbersome it would have found it if I had had to comb through  computers, CDs, sticks, and social media to find images for her funeral, and what it will be like for future generations creating such displays. Like me, most likely don't add many - or any - details to their digital photos of who, what, where, or when. 

And I would have had to print out the images I wanted to use. Call me old fashioned but I'm not fond of those slide shows on computers. I like to be able to skip or linger over a photo, point one or two out to others, not have to wait for an image to reappear. 

Experts say digital photos don't have nearly the same lasting power that printed photos do. The data and storage units for digital tend to break down much faster over time than paper products. Of course neither will last forever if we don't use archival materials and store them properly.  

Lots of people think their photos are safe if they are on an external hard drive or a stick or even on CDs or Instagram. But they do need to be backed up every 5 to 10 years to help prevent degradation. And having a printed copy too is best. They can always be scanned to create a new digital image. But in reality, how many of us back up or print out our files. And at the rate technology advances, we don't know what format photos will be in in 20 or 30 years, or if platforms such as Facebook and Instagram and Ancestry.ca will still exist.

My parents' wedding in 1962

We take far more photos today than we ever used to, but I rarely take the time to print out even the best. Most of my photos probably won't be of interest to the next generation, especially with little or no identifying information attached. Certainly I have thrown out a lot of my mother's photos, the ones of flowers, landscapes, and people I don't know. But there are still several albums' worth that I will keep.

Photos don't help everyone in times of grief, sometimes it can be just too painful. And in the days before photos were invented, we had only stories and memories and, if we were lucky, a painting of the deceased. Perhaps that is where we will return in future if the old digital photos are lost to us through degradation and old technology.

It's common for questions to come up about our history once someone has gone and photos can help us find links to our past. I am glad my mother had the foresight to answer the questions about who some of the family are in her photos and across her lifetime. She was an organizer, a trait I have inherited. 

As for me, going through albums and boxes of these old fashioned, printed 'selfies' was just what I needed. So perhaps I will find the time to take better care of my photos, printed and digital, for the future generations. 

DOES PRACTICE MAKE PERFECT?

I often hear from people that they cannot draw or have no talent for art. That sitting down and starting to draw or paint or play a musical instrument is not something they could do.

Most of us cannot. Picture the child learning play basketball or use a skateboard. It takes determination and practice. We see skateboarders practicing the same move over and over and over until they've mastered it. Coaches too use skills and drills to help children and adults learn the techniques, practicing and building upon what they learn, until muscle memory kicks in. 

The same holds true for drawing and learning other art techniques and for playing an instrument. We need to learn the techniques to transfer what we see to paper, to practice the musical instrument and to learn to read music. 

Whether we are self-taught or taking a class, we can learn at any stage of life so long as

• we have the desire
• what we are learning is meaningful to us, and 
• we are willing to take the time to practice, then practice some more, then practice again. 

Practice helps us become not only technically proficient and build muscle memory, but also so we can breathe life into a piece.

It's easy to keep practicing what we know, not so easy to practice what we don't know. But practice is what it takes to become good, even a master at what we create or the instrument we play.

And it's important to be present while practicing, concentrating, mindful, struggling to get through the bits that we find challenging. To not be present means we are just practicing without really paying attention, not noticing where we could improve. 

That's the challenge I faced when I was growing up and taking piano lessons. I disliked practicing, especially scales, and wasn't actually that interested in playing. So while I practiced every day because I had to, I never learned to play well and I don't play today. 

And it was a pleasure to watch several women in a retirement home learn to draw using coloured pencils. Most had only started to make art after moving to the home but they enjoyed it, found meaning by creating pictures from old photographs, and practiced between classes, improving to the point where some of the pictures even made it into an art show at the home!

SKETCHING HANDS THROUGH STITCH

Our hands tell our stories. They carry the marks of a lifetime: smooth, rough, gnarled, wrinkled, calloused. They are unique to each of us. 

I was fortunate to create a stitched art piece of my friend Bev's hands. She has beautiful lines and marks on her hands, the imprints and scores of a pianist, and it was these marks she noticed first on the finished artwork.

Each of those marks reflect her musical passion: her years of training, the challenges, the successes and the highlights, the daily practices, the challenges and goals she has set for herself.

The making of this art piece was not without its struggles. I visited her in her studio to photograph her hands while she played the piano, ending up with some 60 or 70 photos. After sorting through these I narrowed it down to just a few. I wanted something that showed the movement of her fingers on the keyboard, and did not want it to look posed. One picture stood out for this.

I then transferred the image from the photograph to fabric and began stitching, but wasn't happy with the results. I chose a different fabric and starting stitching again. But this too wasn't working. It wasn't in harmony with Bev's musical side. I knew that choosing another fabric was not the answer. I had to come at this picture from a different perspective, find something with a different tune. The trouble was, I didn't know yet what that new tune should be. And so I put aside this project to ponder some more, hoping a solution would arrive.

After a few weeks, a different composition came to mind: I printed out the original photograph (8x10), and gelled a sheet of gampi paper (a Japanese paper, translucent with a free-form ethereal pattern) on top, giving the photograph a more airy look. I then stitched through the photograph and gampi paper, using black and white thread to play up the piano keys, and a combination of flesh toned threads to outline Bev's hands and fingers, and to accentuate the details of the knuckles, veins and muscles. 

This look achieved what I was looking for: to reflect her spiritual side, her wisdom, her drive, her explorations in music. The final consideration was the emotional reaction I thought Bev would have to the piece, and judging by her reaction when I presented this art piece to her, the combination of papers and stitches achieved my goal. She has referred to it as a "contemplative and deeply personal rendering". 

There is something about hands...

Hands reflect who we are, our personality, they give clues about our lifestyle, our age, our interests. Some people notice the fingernails first, especially if they are polished with colour. Others notice muscular hands, bony, arthritic, calloused, smooth. We notice the shapes of our fingers, size of our hands. We notice if they are clenched or open, pointing or gesticulating. We notice lifelines, veins and age spots.

I did a study a few years ago on the hands of creative women over the age of 75, my mother's included, and wrote a page about each. And I gave the women a copy - they were delighted, delighted with the veins, wrinkles, and shapes I captured, and preserved, through stitch. 

WHY MAKING ART IS THE NEW MEDITATION

When I get stressed I make art.

It's therapeutic. It brings me to a place of calm, a meditative state, just breathing, grounded, improving my focus, better able to handle whatever may come up in my life.

But if I'm in a state of high anxiety, frustration or anger, I need to channel that excess energy before I can move to that meditative place. Doing something physical to work through the anger or frustration is best. We're all aware, of course, of the benefits of exercise in dealing with stress.

And there are many creative activities that are very physical and with the same benefits as exercise. And it's therapeutic even when you're still in that stressed state of mind. Think of standing at an easel, slapping paint onto a large canvas, using large brushes or other mark making tools, bold strokes, strong colours, scraping, adding more paint, scraping again. Or working clay in the hands, shaping, molding, re-shaping,  More vigorous still are dancing and drumming and gardening for releasing emotions.

Once I work through that excess energy and get to a calmer state, then I can access the same benefits we get through meditation: reducing stress, managing anxiety, enhancing emotional health, improved coping skills, slowing down for a short time in this hectic world. I move to a state where I can reflect, listen to my inner self, just breath, be open to ideas, and slow down while I create. 

Sometimes it's difficult to communicate with words what we are feeling. Creating gives us that outlet, working through our feelings and thoughts, through whatever art form we chose, whether it's writing, colouring, painting, gardening, leading us to a better understand of what we are feeling. 

Not everyone finds meditation easy, certainly I don't, and experts promote making art as a great alternative. It's not about the outcome of the work but about the process, although I often find I'm very pleased with my work when I'm in this meditative state of creating. Be with the process. Be curious. Allow creativity to happen. Live in the moment. Breath.  It's good for the soul.

LESSONS LEARNED WHEN OUR ART DOESN'T TURN OUT.....

Coming on the heels of a work of fibre art that came together quickly and quite successfully,  my most recent piece was, well, a challenge. With a deadline looming, my fingers were crossed that it would come together okay and on time. But something wasn't working yet and I couldn't put my finger on it. 

Why is it that some pieces of art can be created so easily and others are so difficult? .

And with the amount of time I had spent on this piece, I didn't just want to give up. But I wasn't finding the answers either. 

Here are some insights and lessons learned that can help us when our art isn't turning out the way we anticipated, and maybe even prevent a challenge or two. Some of these we seem to keep learning again, and again, and again....

• There are times when we just have to keep working until our art does reach a passable grade. Pushing. Slogging. Buckling down. It may also mean just sitting with the piece until a creative solution appears. 

• Maybe we just didn't make one of our better works. We may have been distracted, in a hurry, or just not that interested in what we were working on. Or possibly we weren't ready for this particular piece, had moved out of our comfort zone too quickly, taken on too bit of a challenge. Many creatives have a long list of things they have tried that didn't work out. It can take lots of experimentation before we attain the success we desire. 

• It's possible to lose a bit of self-confidence if we are comparing our work to others, especially to someone whose work we admire or who has much more experience. The only comparisons we should be making are about our own skills and progress compared to work that we know are capable of and to older works so we can gauge our improvement over time.

• Some visual artists make thumbnail sketches first and try out ideas before implementing this into a final product. Others simply hope it will just turn out the first time. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.  I remember a teaching artist once saying that all pieces go through an ugly stage. I don't know if this is true or not, but it's something I tell myself when I am struggling.

• Writers expect to have to edit, often several times before a piece is finished, so why is it that visual artists expect good results from the first get-go and are then frustrated when something needs to be fixed or re-worked?

• Every so often we need to be reminded to enjoy the creative process and not focus on the end result. When we focus on results, we are not living in the moment. Sure we want the art to turn out well, but i's the process of getting there step by step by step, no matter how tedious, that moves us to our goal. Like the saying says, it's the journey that's important, not the destination.

• It's also possible to overwork a piece, or maybe finish it before it's complete. I wrote some thoughts a while back on how to tell if a piece is done. Click here to see this post.

• It's important to create a piece with love and positive emotions, and not when you're down or frustrated. You've heard that food tastes better when it's made with love. It's the same with art. If you're in a negative state of mind, the piece will end up reflecting that state. And if you continue working when you're feeling frustrated, that frustration may infuse itself into the piece and stall you even further. 

• I suggested earlier that sometimes we just need to listen for the next step. Hear what it tells us. Listen to our feelings. Let it unfold in its own time. Trust our intuition and inner guidance. Observe any images that come. Don't think. Put the left brain aside, and the solution may appear. 

• And lastly, turning to a friend for feedback can help you find the answers. And this is what I needed to do. She immediately saw the problem  areas - and they were the same areas that were bothering me. And she came up with a solution I had not thought of. 

In hindsight, I was following some of these suggestions, such as continuing to push forward, and this did help me move in the right direction, well, sort of.  But I also realized I was started to overwork the piece in the wrong areas, was beginning to rush steps because of the deadline, wasn't listening to my intuition, and most likely infused frustration into it. By getting some feedback I was able to fix the piece in time and replace the frustration with hope. 

The previous piece that did come together so easily was truly a piece were I just enjoyed the process, and one that I often put aside for a day or two so I could listen to my intuition tell me if the next steps were the right ones, or not. 

I hope these insights help you next time you have one of those troublesome creative pieces. 

HOW TO CREATE A VISION BOARD THAT WORKS

Have you struggled with how to create a vision board that works? Do you want to create a vision board that not only reflects your desires and goals, but also helps you identify some steps so you can start working on those goals? 

I've been making vision boards for a few years now, and recently came across a unique visioning technique that enhances the vision board, allowing us to dig even deeper than before and to follow our heart's desire. This technique is based on the work of Lucia Capacchione, Ph.D., ATR, an art therapist and author, from her book Visioning:Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams. 

There were 4 of us following her process to make our vision boards for 2019. While there is so much more information in her book, the highlights are below. I recommend getting a copy of her book to create your own vision board. 

It starts with journaling

You may already do some journaling when you create your vision board, and before sorting through magazines and other images. This idea isn't new. The addition of journaling helps us gain insight into our goals and clarity on the directions we wish to pursue. In this visioning process, journaling is done with specific outcomes in mind. And the key is to use the journaling technique she discusses in her book. 

The powerful technique for journaling that actually works

You'll need a notebook that will become your Creative Journal - any size or style is fine - and several coloured markers for writing. Throughout each step, you write out the question or exercise in your journal.  

The key is to then write the answers with a different coloured pen and with the non-dominant hand!

This non-dominant hand writing taps into our true inner self, our unconscious mind, feelings, intuitions, inner child and dreams, sometimes even leading us to 'aha' moments. In addition to Dr. Capacchione's observations of others using this technique, neurologists have also shown that use of the non-dominant hand accesses the right hemisphere of the brain where our creative and image centres exist. 

This style of journaling is not new to me. I had learned about and tried it several years ago while pursuing a certificate in Introduction to Expressive Arts Therapies. But I had not thought of using this technique with the vision board process.Having now tried it, I can say that, yes, this technique does facilitate the creation of a vision board that actually works! 

Yes it can be slow and awkward to write or print this way. The trick is to write the same way you would with your dominant hand, e.g. using the same fingers and gripping the pen with the same tightness or looseness. 

And it's important to not think about what you should write, but to let the words flow from the unconscious. If the words don't come easily at first, start by writing blah blah blah; the brain should then kick in and answers begin to come. 

The Visioning and Vision Board Process:

While Dr. Capacchione breaks down the Visioning process into 10 steps, I have grouped them differently here to focus primarily on the journaling side of the process and share the benefits our group experienced throughout this process.

- Establish a focus phrase or theme

The first step in the creation of your vision board is to journal with your non-dominant hand about what you want for the coming year, and to come up with a phrase or theme that reflects your desired direction. This phrase becomes the focus for your vision board. 

With this phrase now established (although a bit of word-smithing may happen later on), you can begin to find and cut out images and words from magazines, old books, photographs, ephemera and so on that fit your focus. Any pictures or words you are drawn to that do not seem relevant at this point should be put aside to explore later on. When you feel you have enough, look for connections between the words and pictures. You may find some words work well together, or match up well with an image. And by finding such groupings, a deeper meaning may be revealed that you had not thought of earlier.

- Silence that inner critic

That annoying inner critic can rear its head during this kind of process, telling us that we shouldn't bother pursuing our goals, that the plan will never work, we don't deserve it, yadda yadda yadda. 

Non-dominant hand journaling can be very effective at stopping that voice in its tracks, snuffing it out, telling it to get out of our way, that it is wrong.- and to provide reinforcement that we have the strengths and desire we need to achieve our goals and that we are on the right path. 

- Journal about the images

Lay out the images and words on your vision board until you are pleased with the arrangement. Then begin to journal, again with your non-dominant hand, about each image, including any you had put aside. 

I was pleasantly surprised at the meanings and metaphors that were surfacing for each image using this journaling technique. Ideas and steps I could take were coming to mind and that I had not thought of until that point. I was also able to find connections to the images I had put aside, those images I was attracted to but had thought did not fit. These were added to my board. 

And the ideas coming from the pictures covered not just steps to reach my goals, but also related to support networks, how-to's, new ideas, strengths that align with my goals, and reinforcement to be open to what was being presented to me. 

This is powerful stuff!  

- Plan some steps to meet your goals

The last journaling task, after gluing the images and words onto the board, is to pretend you are in the future, 6 months or a year from now, and that you have achieved or are well on your way to achieving your goals. Then write the story from this future time - again in your non-dominant hand - answering questions about where things happened, who provided help, what you did, how you felt, how things have changed, challenges you overcame, what you learned. Not only can you see that what you are pursuing is possible, you will also have steps laid out so you can begin your journey.

Some closing thoughts 

I came away with a clear plan for the first half of 2019. And more than a little excited as I don't think I would have been able to create this plan from my board without this journaling technique.

The others in the group also stated they were going much deeper than when creating previous vision boards. That can be a scary process at times, not always within our comfort levels. By working in a small supportive group, we offered each other encouragement and reinforcement. And there were a few 'aha' moments along the way!

While working on finding images is the fun part, taking the time to put the right pieces into place ensures we each have a vision board that works, and a much more achievable plan for this coming year.

I plan to write more about this journaling technique in a future blog post, as I continue to explore Dr. Capacchione's research and her suggested exercises and activities. Simply fascinating I think.

Related post: Annual Theme? Or Vision Board?

ANNUAL THEME? OR VISION BOARD?

Do you set an annual theme? Or make a vision board? Or maybe both?

I started using an annual theme as a tool a few years back to keep sight of the direction I wanted to go in. The theme can cover personal quests, family, work, creativity, hobbies, health, bucket list, financial, and more, essentially whatever areas you feel you need or want to work on. It can cover all of these or a few or just one area.

The theme does not identify a specific goal such as "lose weight" but is more general in nature. For example "reduce" could cover a number of areas you wish to work on: losing weight, reducing spending, getting rid of clutter, watching less t.v., and so on. 

Discovering your theme for the year is usually done after setting goals or creating a vision board, but for some there could already be a theme you’ve been working towards that you have intuitively figured out. And not all of us follow the calendar year to set or re-set a theme. I seem to update mine about every 8 months or so. 

As you set goals for the year or make a vision board, a theme starts to emerge – one of mine from a few years ago was “connecting” and for another was "building successes". This latter one was not just about, well, building successes, but also about creating three dimensional fibre art buildings for an art exhibition, the first time I had worked in 3D.  Other people have identified intentions and themes such as “slow down”, “network”, “healing”. Usually one word or a short phrase is all that is needed. 

Vision boards are a process to help us create the life we want, a visual representation that we see daily to remind us of the directions we wish to pursue and the goals we set. Just like the theme, it can cover many areas or a key goal or purpose. It's an intuitive process, unlike the theme that describes a connection among the areas we wish to work on. Thinking in pictures can be a very successful way to keep on track, a form of visual journalling or storyboard, speaking to us in images and symbols. Athletes are a great example of people who use visualization techniques to pursue their goals and achieve success. 

Goals identified on a vision board can be big ticket items, but could also be steps that you wish to take toward something bigger, leaving us feeling less overwhelmed. It can be a good way to get started on something new: a workshop you want to take, a new exercise to try, connecting with family every Sunday - things that are of significance to you.

Creating the vision board helps us dig a bit deeper to see what our heart desires. By working with images, we are accessing our dreams and creative side, not just our logical brain to discover what we need to focus on.

I've been making vision boards for a few years now, and recently came across a very different way to create a board, digging even deeper than before. I think this new vision board will fit perfectly with identifying a theme for the upcoming months.  

I will share this new vision board process in a future blog post, once my board is complete and with some feedback from others who are using the same process. It's a process I already think is better and I'm excited to see how my board turns out. 

Do you set themes or create vision boards? I'd love to hear from you.