Spring Collage Camp

Since Spring Collage Camp ended last Tuesday, I've been reflecting on how to best describe the four-day experience. Of course I can state that it was fun, meaningful, relaxing, intense, and insightful . . . yet how do those words really describe the experience to someone who hasn't attend Collage Camp? Just like any deep spiritual experience or personal awakening, words to describe it are only like a finger pointing at the moon.

H. Harrison and P. Crasdal from their book, Collage for the Soul, state:  "When a collage is finished a transformation has occurred. Where there once was a random collection of found or created objects and images, there is now a cohesive work." Nowhere else in art-making does synchronicity and intention have such power and impact as in collage-making. By trusting the process of selecting images that resonate with intention and present state of being, a person is transformed by the collision and integration of all the metaphors and symbols that show up in a collage. Or not -- if they do not trust the process.

Collage is much fun! Children do collage -- anyone can do collage (maybe not as good as children). Collage is also recognized as a fine art form. Collage is everywhere as advertisements, serendipitous on street corner posts and fences, in galleries and classrooms -- It is popular because by using images and found objects, a person can make art without being able to draw or know color theory and all that stuff.

Collage also is a powerful process to learn about oneself; a tool for self-discovery. Something happens when we trust our intuition to create a collage. Something emerges when we reflect on the placement and meaning of an image and how it relates to our life. Something transpires when we interact or dialog with the symbology chosen for self-expression. That something is transformation.

So -- back to camp.  It is always a small group (no more than 6 women) to ensure intimacy and individual coaching. We spend four days, each about 6 hours, in each other's good company creating, reflecting, sharing, playing, envisioning, relaxing, journaling, re-creating, and more with collage. We all start by crafting a large collage which then becomes the "jumping off" point, or as Coeleen Kiebert calls it, "grist for the mill" for other collage and art-making projects during the remainder of the camp. One woman during this last camp made eighteen SoulCollage® cards that directly related to her upcoming birthday!

It is an awesome process! (I need to get some testimonials by camp attendees up on my website. Hint. Hint.) I feel very blessed to be able to offer this kind of opportunity. Perhaps you will join us for the next camp - most likely to be scheduled this autumn.