Stories, collage, friendship

I spent all of yesterday doing an art day with a friend of mine. We cooked nice things (and ate them) and made huge collages to hang on our walls. The last time I made a collage was nearly two years ago. I usually do them when I'm in a period of transition and feel I want something to shift.

Yesterday when I was scanning the huge pile of magazines I realised I didn't know what kind of collage to make so I spent some time thinking about this and decided I wanted to make one about bringing balance into my life.

Yesterday, I had all this in my head and this state of restlessness I've recently been in and I decided, yes, let me make a visual representation of a new kind, one that will reflect the balanced state I am moving towards and one that can reflect a new balance I hope to find in relationship. So I ripped and cut out lots of things and put them in a pile. Then a couple of hours later (after stopping for a chocolate break) I went back and started to glue. And what surprised me when I glued it all together was how even though the ripping and cutting stage felt like plunging head-first into the unknown (and I admit I was feeling grumbly and pessimistic about ever coming up with a 'balanced' collage) when it was all there, it was perfect.

There were elements I've never put in a collage before, even though I've been making them regularly since I was a teenager. There were also elements I'd kept from previous ones, such as images of beds! (deep psychoanalysis can be used here...) But even these seemed in better relation to the whole. And there are a couple of images that really seem to suit the calm place I'm heading towards slowly.

All in all, it was a great thing to do, even though it did leave me feeling exhausted somehow, it's all part of the process, I suspect. And then my friend and I made a lovely lovely deluxe Mac n' Cheese after her mother's recipe (think extra cheese and milky extravagance). So I came home feeling quite satisfied and a lot less pessimistic.