Another cheery set of images — but I am soooooo excited about what I’m learning, that it somewhat counters the content.

Making SoulCollage® cards (or anything, for that matter) depends to some degree on synchronicity.  I suppose this element of creativity is heightened with SoulCollage® because your palette is comprised of magazine images.  It stands to reason, in other words, that your collages will serendipitously depend on what images you can lay your hands on.

Well, that’s obvious, right?

THIS card started out as the sherpa from National Geographic, an EARTHWATCH magazine cover, with a few blooming baptisia from a gardening journal thrown in.  If I were a reader of Vogue, People, and Harpers, this would not have emerged.  (The red script on the right side is a snippet of another card — “Intuition”).

Lately, I have not been adhering the collages, necessarily, to a foundation.  So, when I flipped this collage over, I found the beginnings of another collage on the other side!! This clearly is less consciously designed, i.e. more synchronous, than the reverse (Sherpa) side.

It was almost spooky to see how the feelings evoked by the flip side very much correlated to the other side.  I call this one “Gloom”.

The oppressive issues of Global Warming as well as our seeming incapacity as a species to truly rally around them as challenges in need of direct, urgent attention induce a very deep gloom, indeed.

Standing at the color copier, I wondered what would happen if I integrated the images.

I may not be utterly pleased with the integrated version, but it certainly introduces a whole new element into this process that I find exciting.  What, for example, would happen (both visually, but more importantly, psychologically) if the front and back sides were totally dissonant with each other?

My collages are bigger than the 8×5 size of my cards and sometimes I want to frame different sections for separate cards.  I officially give myself permission to do so — even if I include the entire image in the deck as well!

PS  The EarthWatch card was an example of a time when the words were so much a part of what emerged that I felt that keeping them in the final product enhanced rather than limited its meaning.

To learn about this remarkable process, go to SoulCollage.com, where you can find out about Seena Frost, who developed SoulCollage®. Or, dive into the amazing work and teaching of Anne Marie Bennett on her website, KaleidoSoul.  Anne Marie’s passion for this work is evident on her site.