Creative Journaling

I just spent a lovely afternoon in the light filled, high ceilinged rooms of the Old School building (Denman's first school, built at the turn of the last century). Seven women gathered to while away a January Saturday making art and sharing life insights. We did some dream collages and shared them, then began a collage about visioning a more balanced life. I teach lots of fun and sometimes complex mixed media techniques, and I love to play with all kinds of art materials, but today I wanted to play with keeping it strictly casual, cheap, and low-tech. Our main tools were old magazines, glue sticks, some donated paper, and our rich and vivid lives and imaginations. As often happens in an all-female group, the talk, and focus of the art, turned to the many challenges of the various stages of the feminine life cycle.... and the challenges of staying peaceful, healthy, and balanced while juggling a multitude of commitments and relationships.... but hooray for us for taking a whole afternoon for pure creative play and self-care!