Word Art

Much of the time I don't know how I feel. I know something is wrong, I don't feel quite right. I'm "upset" - that often seems to be the most specific word I can come up with to describe the turmoil inside. Because I spend most of the time outside my body, I simply cannot get in touch with what is going on inside. How could I? I'm not in there enough to understand the lay of the land. I'm a visitor at best.

For many years I have been using collage technique to get in touch with my feelings. I flip through magazines and clip out whatever words speak to me on a page. Not every page, just ones that resonate at first sight. I try not to think about it too much or for too long so as to get to my essence, the inner wisdom that lies somewhere down deep and wants to communicate with Real Me.

Here is one that I put together right in the middle of the Breakdown Crisis. Often times my collage will have 2 sides - the hopeless and the hopeful, both of which speak volumes. Looking back at this now it is easy to notice the theme of having a shameful secret, a dark horse lurking beneath the surface...

Don't Tell
Fake
The Secret Battle
Hide
Protect
Risk
Imagine less pain - that's my favorite in this set

Here's another I did a few months later. This time I was in a phase where music was speaking directly to my soul, so I incorporated a maze full of lyrics around my art. Again, the theme of secrecy is abundant...

Protect - that word alone appears 3 times in this set

Secrets

Frozen 

Blame

Warning

Defense

It could happen to you

That fellow on the left is Thom Yorke, the lead singer of my favorite band Radiohead. We shall dive more deeply into my longstanding fascination with dissociative music in a later post called Playlist.