Michelle Casey, "Resurrection", Collage/Mixed Media Journal Page, 8.5 x 6 inches, January 2010. Text in handwriting: "I can't let go... you consume my soul."
So, some of you more timid souls might have gotten out your pens and markers and went about writing on your collages as I encouraged last week. If so, I applaud you. Perhaps, however, you’re still feeling frustrated. Maybe the words aren’t flowing out as smoothly as you’d like them to. In order to be successful at integrating words into your visuals, you must draw from all you are and all you can imagine within yourself. I know this will sound daunting to some of you; especially those of you who got Cs and Bs in English grammar and literature (like me) and who are probably saying “Hey, I ain’t no poet laureate or Pulitzer Prize-winning writer! Hell, I ain’t even no Maya Angelou!” Even so, I think you really ought to consider taking up writing in your art practice; it’s a strategy that can really help you draw from the depths of your soul. It’s also one of the most exciting elements you can add to spice up your art making. So many artists I admire, such as Frida Kahlo, have recorded their life’s reflections in their journals or diaries; these reflections are often echoed in their most powerful pieces. Writing allows you to get to know yourself deeply. Drawing from your writing, you’ll be able to secure the imagery and words that are most meaningful to you.
Writing Opened Up New Avenues for Me to Explore…
I don’t know about you, but by the time I finished high school the love of writing fiction and poetry was zapped right out of me! Determining my self worth as a writer by my English marks didn’t encourage this lover of stories to want to write her own. Even still, there was a tiny burning ember within me that still longed to write and, one day in a desperate attempt to find a creative writing workshop, I serendipitously bumped into a stranger who recommended reading Julia Cameron’s: “The Artist’s Way“. She said it fostered the habit of writing on a regular basis, which was crucial to creative writing. As Cameron advised, I began writing for 10-15 minutes a day (or almost) in my Morning Pages journal. I did this for a few years and it was good therapy for me as I was depressed about my life and art career at that time. While I didn’t feel I was doing any creative writing, I found my journal pages revealed a concrete portrait of myself through words. I realized, even with my troubled life, I had many fascinating stories, ideas and life altering experiences I wanted to share with others. Furthermore, writing the same complaints about my life down over and over encouraged me to acknowledge and change my negative life patterns. Keeping a written journal was such a godsend for me. Encouraged by this, I moved on to Judy Reeves’ “A Writer’s Book of Days“. For seven months I kept a creative writing journal and followed her weekly writing prompts. Soon my journals were filled with stories based on my life events (ordinary & extraordinary); favourite fiction and macabre news events I was drawn to. This was a scary and exhilarating experience for me. Many times I couldn’t believe this writing was coming from me! I felt proud of being able to invent things on the spot – I didn’t know I had it in me. Writing opened up new avenues for me to explore! For the first time I began relying on intuition* to create something expressive rather than planning things out as I often did in my art.
*Note: Writing prompts are supposed to be spontaneously written – so that means no planning ahead of time!
Writing is a Soul Sister to Visual Art…
Feeling nostalgic, I recently dug up my creative writing stories last month. As I reviewed them, I noticed much of their content and imagery was also reflected in my visual journals years later. I noted how my creative writing theme obsessions (recurring dreams and nightmares, family traumas, ill-fated relationships) were transferred to my visual journal pages and I realized how synonymous the two were for me and how well they complemented each other. I realized too, I could go back to my creative writing journals and draw many more stories for my collages from them – a real bonus! As a result, I could never be a person that believes that words have no place in their art practice. For me, writing is such a soul sister to visual art – the two feed each other beautifully and unleash so much more creative energy to art making.
Revealing Your Authentic Self…
Today my next recommendation to you is to consider getting into the habit of writing on a regular basis… even if it’s just ten minutes a day a few times a week. Write the things that immediately come to mind on any given subject that attracts you. You can follow Reeves’ or Cameron’s books as guides if you like and see what happens (see Goldberg and Morris below as well). What emerges will inevitably be the things that matter to you… the life-learning experiences that have shaped you and your thoughts. I promise, once you embark on this tremendous journey of getting to know yourself, it’ll help inform the type of words and imagery to begin to play with and experiment with in your collage pieces or journal pages. I truly believe it’s in having the guts to explore the murky depths of yourself more fully that you can begin to develop an authentic voice and style through your art that is uniquely YOU! Now I know some of you will also be saying “Hey, I don’t have several years to practice my writing – I want to do everything perfectly NOW!!!” To this I respond, all good things come in time… the clock is ticking, what are you waiting for?! When you’ve worked enough, you’ll know because the most poignant words will often (but not always) flow from you with the greatest ease – at that time you might think of it as magic, but in reality they’ll appear because of the effort you’ve put into your writing practice.
To conclude, let me share a piece with you. The journal page (top) was informed by a dominant theme: recurring nightmares I had over the years about my late father. When I wrote these texts I felt the words were coming from the dual view point (of myself) as a young girl and as a mature woman so I used writing styles that would reflect both written “voices”. My printing on the right side of the page was a tactic imparted to me by art therapist Dr. Lucia Capacchione who suggested writing with your non-dominant hand (in my case my left one) to bring out what your “rational” (my right hand) might not say. I liked trying this out because it gave the printing a very un-certain, child-like emotional quality that’s the opposite of the phrase in stickers which appears so sure, so exact. Here, for me it’s the varying and contrasting of writing styles that gives the page a further expressive impact and edge. Does keeping a written journal inform your art practice? I’d be curious to know…
Please Note: I will be away on training next weekend… back on May 5, 2013!
Other Related Links:
Collage Tip #8: Collaging a Dream Journal
Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones”
Cynthia Morris’s Original Impulse Blog
Dr. Lucia Capacchione
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