Birthdays, Business & Collage

Best Birthday, Journal Page November 7 2009

Happy Birthday! … to my me, my new business and my blog! 

July being my birthday month really got me thinking.  At some point of every decade in my life, I’ve felt the need to transform it.  This began with my father’s death of cancer in my mid 20’s.  You see, I have often felt my father spent half his life working in a career that cost him his health and his happiness.  A musician at heart, upon moving to Canada from Pakistan, dad gave up this love to pursue a career as a sedate government clerk to support our family of 5 (and eventually 7).  Following in my father’s footsteps, I too, for practical reasons, chose such a career.  When he passed away, I asked myself if this was really what I wanted to do for the rest of my working life.  A part of me was dying to know what it would be like to pursue a career in my first love, art.  Quitting my full-time, well-paying job is a decision I often regret when financial troubles loom large. But even still, I wouldn’t trade the valuable experiences making art has taught me for anything.  I’ve been collaging now for 15 years; even longer if you count the Sears cupid-like hand drawn baby models (any of you remember those?) I cut out to use on my Valentines Day cards when I was 10.  In my teens I collaged the lavish lifestyle I dreamed I would have when I was older from images in Vogue magazines (NOT!).  In university, while studying visual arts in my thirties, I used family photographs to form mixed media and electronic multi media collages that enabled me to reflect upon my ancestral ghosts.  I even sandwiched photographic negatives together of business colleagues to critique the ideals of consumer/corporate society.  By the time I reached my forties, I finally found the courage it takes to want to share this skill with others — thus Collage Your World was conceived with the help and support of many dear friends and colleagues.  This is a longer story you can check out on Jennifer Lee’s Right Brain Business Plan Blog.  Thanks to taking a series of teleseminars offered by Jennifer of Artizen Coaching and Ariane Goodwin of SmARTist, I am managing, bit by bit to breathe life into a business as I embark on yet another life altering journey.  Along the way, my dear reader and, perhaps fellow or fledging artist, I invite you to share in the magical world of making collage.