Category Archives: SoulCollage

SoulCollage® is …

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the-one-the-many

SoulCollage® is a way to discover the One within the Many, and the Many within the One. (Here is a shot of some of the cards placed for the closing ritual).

a-path

SoulCollage® is a path. (This narrow lane wound its way through The Guest House property where the Facilitator Training took place).

illumination

SoulCollage® can be illuminating.

reflection

SoulCollage® reflects us back to ourselves. (This pond was right off of the deck).

the-guest-house

SoulCollage® lets us gather with others. (It was a little too cold to eat outside this past weekend — which means I want to go back when it is warmer!)

Phone-HOME

SoulCollage® is a way to look at the bigger picture (this painting graced the hall outside our meeting room.  It was such a great image to look at on our way in)

opening

while also examining the details.

I am now trained to facilitate SoulCollage® workshops.  If you live in my area and are interested, please let me know!

SoulCollage® is a trademarked process created by Seena Frost.  For more information about Seena, the process, or Facilitator Training, please visit her website www.soulcollage.com, or visit the website of Anne Marie Bennett, whose passion for this process is evident on her website, www.kaleidosoul.com.

SoulCollage® cards are made either from one’s own art or from images found in materials which have been bought by or given to the SoulCollage card maker. These collaged cards are used only for the cardmaker’s own inner exploration. SoulCollage cards are not sold, traded, bartered, or copied (except as a back-up for the cardmakers own use) as is stated in the Principles of SoulCollage®. Where SoulCollage cards are available to be seen by others, it is for the purposes either of demonstrating the SoulCollage process or of sharing the cardmakers’ inner process in the context of community.

SoulCollage® is grateful to the artists and photographers who make this deep awakening process possible and in all ways SoulCollage® seeks to be respectful of their rights.

SoulCollage® Weekend

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Cantor

It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression.  It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly, to keep the channel open…   There is no satisfaction whatever at any time.  There is only queer dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.

–Martha Graham

Today I am joining 11 others, plus two facilitators for a weekend of SoulCollage® — how exciting!  I hope.  I wish that I felt a little better.  Nevertheless, time away is a good thing.  Time devoted to looking inward, is a good thing.  And I expect that the group dynamic will be a good thing.  I consecrate myself to opening up to what is there and exploring it.  I also give myself permission to share as much or as little of what comes up as feels comfortable.

The card above is one wish for the weekend — I am calling it “The Cantor” — but it is not just about the person who leads a group into sacred space, it is about the way each participant calls down the life that is truly theirs and occupies it.  It’s a bit of a paradox, isn’t it, how one must let the personal story go to find the deeper, truer story one is living?

If only it were as simple as dropping a pair of pajama bottoms to the floor!  We would all run around in our actualized selves (our butt-naked selves?!! — just kidding)!  Voices connected to diaphragms.  Actions stripped of hidden agendas.  Sadness, anger, despair, joy, humor  — there in their full capacities, running like electricity through a wire, instead of lined up neatly on a tray —  cubes of mashed bread meted out to orphans, and then judged, to boot.

How much more energy I  would have if the ongoing processes of judging, allotting, controlling, gauging, and doubting took a back seat to being curious.

But, if this business of stepping into the — let’s call it, the “mytho-poetic” —  is difficult, rare, perhaps even an act of grace and not of the will, in my experience it is MUCH more likely to happen in a group that has consecrated itself to a process like SoulCollage®  than in any other setting.   And here I must give a shout out to Barbara Zilber.

Curious?

The facilitators this weekend are Anne Marie Bennett and Jeanne Marie Merkel.

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.

Earthwatch plus Gloom = Earthgloom

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earthwatch

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”.

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.

earthgloom

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.

Drama Queen

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drama-queen-sandpaper

The Drama Queen comes out again.

This photo (of a doll that I made) is stitched to paper (that I made) and could go in a basket of low-priced items to sell on a craft table.

An earlier post about this is stored as a word file, perhaps never to be opened again.

Suffice it to say that MY Drama Queen is Irish and, when activated, is cruising for a fight!

I don’t think anybody in the SoulCollage® world would care that under this doll’s velvet cape was a skirt made from fabric, including a fabric transfer of a collage that later went on to become a SoulCollage card®.  This doll, this card made from a photo of a doll, is not a SoulCollage® card.  Period.

♥    ♥    ♥

It is not my intention to teach readers about SoulCollage®, but rather to simply share what is percolating in my studio, on my pages, and in my creative process.

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.  I am lucky enough to be studying with her next month!

SoulCollage Card — The Abuser

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The Abuser_edited-1

Just like ‘The Creep’ card that I made last week, I have to sit with this one to discover what suit it belongs in.

The B&W face is actually a hero — Winston Churchill in an upcoming movie.  His stern face looks like a man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants (of course, that describes Churchill in some measure).  I include the face though, not as a hero, but as a figure of compulsion and waywardness.  A figure who will do as he pleases whatever the consequences.  Does every Abuser have a hidden Churchill? Working with aspects of self does tend to make one aware of the two-sided nature of things.

The screaming Catholic figure comes from a recent article about Francis Bacon, and carries his signature horror.  The doll is a piece of fitting Gothic imagery, and it is being held by Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend (model friend?)… I don’t remember her name… will supply later.  The red “D” is self-referential.

Process Note — This collage was worked large (about 12″ x 8″) and reduced on the color copier (by about 75%).  I used rubber cement sparingly to make the collage, knowing that it would be copied and not need to be totally glued down.  I used PVA glue, wiped on with a brush, to attach the color copy to the chip board, folding over the edges, like a present and gluing a piece of decorative paper on the back.  This feels like a comfortable way to work for me.

It is not my intention to teach readers about SoulCollage®, but rather to simply share what is percolating in my studio, on my pages, and in my creative process.

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.