Duchamp Unexpectedly

I thought I was going to make a SoulCollage® card honoring the aspect of myself of persistence and determination.  Instead, out popped Marcel Duchamp, now in my Community Suit of people who guide and inspire me. I was initially surprised when I heard that Seena Frost's  Community Suit is the largest suit in her deck.  (She is the founder of SoulCollage®.)  The longer I am a Soulcollager, the more I understand it.  Duchamp certainly persisted in his own quirky vision, regardless of whether it was understood or appreciated at the time.

When I look at my new SoulCollage® card of Marcel Duchamp, I feel like he is telling me not to care what people think, to take artistic risks, have fun, and see the absurdity in it all!

I love how his hands are splayed out in one direction against the glass and the angel's hands are splayed out in the other direction.    He is standing in front of his famous installation "The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even..."  

Making SoulCollage® cards intuitively is an unpredictable endeavor!  I love its surprises.

The Trouper Carries On

Huddled in my studio with my coat and a space heater I did a reading with my SoulCollage® deck. The image above was one of four cards I picked, out of a little over 100.  It is my "Trouper" card - the gal who carries on despite chaos.  The synchronicity made me laugh!  That is exactly how my studio feels right now.  The pipes in my studio had frozen, but fortunately didn't burst.  Just a slow leak, and fortunately after we were back from vacation.  The drywall is opened up so the plumber can come back and finish the repairs. Everything is torn up, at sixes and sevens.

I managed to put in a little studio time wending my way away among the boxes and piles to gather materials for my 3-D Collage class which just started. And I will be in there again tomorrow working on my new piece.  The show must go on...

Aging Bodaciously

I loved making this SoulCollage® card at the four day Expressive Arts Therapies Summit in New York City in early November.  We met immediately "post-Sandy", "A triumph of Commitment, Creativity, and Community" as one attendee said.  700 art therapists and therapists who make use of the arts from all over the world managed the travel challenges to show up.  

I signed up for a full day of SoulCollage® with my Facilitator Trainer Kat Kirby, part of a group of 30, including 10 from Russia together with their translator.  It was fun to try a new way of writing about the card after it was made, by making an alphabet poem.  I love how nonlinear it is!

A  Aging
B   bodaciously.
C   Cold
D   daunting
E   environment.
F   Fight
G   groundedly!
H   Hahaha...
I    Intense
J    joy
K   kicking
L   lovingly.
M  Mornings
N   now
O   opening
P   purely.
Q   Quantifiable
R   riches
S   stream -
T   truly
U   underestimated
V   value.
W  Worries
X   xeroed.
Y   Yelling
Z   zestfully.

Harvesting Our Dreams at the Autumn Equinox

I'm excited to be offering a workshop on SoulCollage® and Dreams this Sunday, honoring the Autumn Equinox!

The Equinox is a time a balance, a moment when day and night are of equal length.  These moments of of cosmic shift are beneficial times to explore what our dreams are telling us about our lives and our world, as we look ahead to a new season.

SoulCollage® is a very natural way to explore dreams and their meanings.  Both use the non-linear non-verbal language of image, and both bring messages from our deepest unconscious depths. We'll be tapping into the crisp energy in the air and letting our dreams be part of the harvest that we reap!

I'm looking forward to taking this journey together with others!

To find out more:
http://www.soulcollage.com
http://www.soulcollage.com/susan-richards-lcsw

How SoulCollage® Works!

For a taste of what making and sharing SoulCollage® cards is like, watch this video of our SoulCollage® Facilitator Training made by our Trainer Kat Kirby!  It captures the flavor.

Synchronicity Strikes Again...

Daily Oasis, http://www.dailyoasiscollage.com, is a very aptly named website.  Every morning someone's SoulCollage® card arrives in my inbox providing daily food for thought: an incredible visual image combined with an I Am One Who... statement. (You too can sign up for this!).  I have submitted cards to be posted, and never know quite the timing of how long they will be in the pipeline and when they will appear.  This morning, as we are getting ready to leave for the SoulCollage® Facilitator's Conference,  the card of mine above appeared on Daily Oasis, along with this text:

Created & Shared By:
Susan Richards
Ardmore, Pennsylvania
http://www.susanrichardsmultiplevisionsstudio.blogspot.com

  "I Am One Who...

...is traditional and contemporary 
at the same time.
It is not a conflict or contradiction for me.
Both inform and enrich each other."

The second synchronicity of the morning was the message on the KaleidoSoul SoulCollage listserv , from Anne Marie Bennett, the creator and spiritual force behind http://www.kaleidosoul.com, and co-chair of the Conference:

"All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware."  Martin Buber

The words have meaning, for both inward and outward journeys.  They have a particularly special meaning for me, as words of Martin Buber.  I am ready for the Conference journey, and plunging into all of which I am unaware.

SoulCollage® Facilitators' Conference: a challenge just getting there!

There's a local weather alert for Baltimore today -  flash flood warnings and road closings, but we are undaunted.  By tomorrow afternoon when we drive to Bon Secours Spiritual Center outside of Baltimore for The Fourth International SoulCollage® Facilitators' Conference it will merely be thundershowers.  Nothing will stop us from gathering together or dampen our spirits.  Like a hero / heroine's journey, we will have overcome obstacles just to get there - starting with the drive from Philly. 

Above is the SoulCollage® card I made before packing up my card making equipment and personal deck to take with me. I feel calmer about driving just looking at it.  I'll remember to breathe, and trust our gang of three will get there safely and have a fabulous time.  I'll tell you about it when we get back!

The Homage of Irreverence

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my SoulCollage® card  for Kurt Schwitters (above)

 the original Kurt Schwitters collage (below)

I need to ice my foot, which turned out to be broken as well as badly sprained.  My physical therapist tells me that all will ultimately be well.  I try not to be impatient and repeatedly fail.  Yet despite being slowed down against my will, much has happened during these weeks of incapacitation. 

I immersed in SoulCollage® Facilitator Training in early June at a beautiful retreat center in the countryside outside of Philadelphia. Our Trainer, Kat Kirby, is an art therapist in San Diego, http://www.2katstudios.com.  It is ironic that all the years I lived in San Diego we didn't know each other.  Only when she flew across the country to train our group of eight, did we meet.  SoulCollage®, developed by Seena Frost, taps into the power of intuition, imagination, and the depths reached nonverbally with visual images.  No art experience is necessary - all that's needed is scissors, glue, receptivity and trusting the process.  Not to mention that it's fun! http://www.soulcollage.com.  I am excited about offering SoulCollage® workshops in my studio starting in the Fall.

Since the Facilitator Training I have been on a roll with making cards for my personal SoulCollage® deck. Each person's deck is  a unique reflection of their personality, story, and soul. This Kurt Schwitters card was made after three of us made a pilgrimage to the Princeton Museum to see his retrospective before it closed, http://www.princetonartmuseum.org/events/schwitters.  We postponed it to the last minute  because of my foot.  It was more walking than I had done since the break, but I acted like my mom, who went on an Elder Hostel to see the High Sierra Mountains for her 85th birthday.  Bedridden afterwards from the exertion, she said "it was worth it."  Some things are worth it.  To see so much of Kurt Schwitters work close up was a rare privilege.  Seeing work on-line, with the best of monitors and the highest resolution cannot capture the subtle textures and the sense of presence and connection with a master, when you are within touching distance, inhaling the essence... The Kurt Schwitters card is part of my SoulCollage® Community Suit:  my posse of allies, my support system, and my sources of inspiration.  

There are many relatives, friends, and mentors who I know I will gradually make Community Suit cards for.  Who knew a Kurt Schwitters card would happen first?  The cards seem to have a life of their own, and emerge as they need to.

I can't believe I collaged his collage.  Ultimate chutzpah.  And my ultimate homage.