Sunday was grim and stormy here in the mountains. A perfect day for art making with good friends. I lead them in a collage project that helps us draw from our own intuition and inner wisdom, an approach I learned from expressive arts therapist Jane Goldberg.
On the back of three pages, you write a question that you need guidance on. One of my questions was “what do I need to know?” You mix up the papers and tape them down so you don’t know which is which. Then you create some art. Collage works really well, but you can use any art material. After they are complete, write a description or story about each one, including a title. When I did it, I tried to find connections that I didn’t notice when I made the collage, similar to how tarot card readers find connections based on the position and symbolism of the cards
The next part is most magical when done with a group, but you can do it on your own as well. Carefully un-tape one of your cards without looking at the question on the back. Have someone hold it up for the group while you read the description of it out loud. Then read the question on the back aloud. Now, with the question in mind, read your description again, knowing it contains the answer. Sometimes the person making the card cannot see any significant answers, but others in the group will be able to see how the card provides insight. This is a wonderful activity to do with trusted friends, as often the answers or the process of reading out loud can bring up some emotion.
The collages created can be rough and fast, or real works of art. It is eery how the collage created, without knowing which question it goes to, is strongly and uniquely connected as an answer.
With set up, creation time, group sharing and clean up we took about 2 hours. Have fun with this wonderful, intuitive activity! Come back and share your experience, I’d love to hear about it.
