VISION BOARDS MY WAY.
I took a class this term on creating vision boards. I had never made one before or even heard of them.
“The board, once you create it, will talk to you,” the teacher explained.
OK.
And just how do I make it?
I looked around me. I was surrounded by magazines and glue and 15 other retired men and women, all sitting at tables at Southern Oregon University. I did not know it then, but an adventure was beginning.
“Find pictures that speak to your inner joy,” the teacher said.
We ripped, cut, and snipped out pictures from magazines. We laughed like kids in kindergarten as we turned pages and smiled at what we found.
THE BEAUTY OF WORDS
Some of my classmates cut out photos of beaches, mountains, birds, art work and more. It was the words in the magazines, not just what they said, but the feel of words that seemed to attracted me.
The teacher gave us heavy weight matt boards, glue and fancy edged scissors.
“Play around with the layout of the photos you like,” the teacher said. “Take a picture with your phone of the layout,” We laughed, the child in us enjoying the freedom of being messy and creative.
WOULD THE BOARD SPEAK TO ME?
I had found some wonderful pictures in additon to the words. I layed them out in different patterns on the board. Sigh. The pictures did not talk to me, only the words did.
I took my board home for a week until the next class. Maybe it would speak to me at home.
MORE BOARDS AND OLD DOODLES
I found some of my primitive, first doodles in a box in my bedroom closet. I had done thousands of them since I first discovered I could do art at the age of 52. They were awkward, messy and some quite weird.
Yet they called to me. “Cut me out, cut me out and paste me on your board,” so of course I did.
It was fun to revisit my first efforts at drawing. Each one had a story to tell about where and when I drew it.
The problem was, I had so many doodles I needed a bigger board. I pasted the orginal board onto three more boards. Now I could cut and paste lots more doodles. I was delighted.
PAPER, SCISSORS EVERYWHERE
I sat on my bedroom floor cutting out doodle afer doodle. There were paper scraps and pictures everywhere, much to the delight of my Shtizu dog who ran through them.
I lay them out on the now bigger board in different patterns and took a photo of a design I liked. Then I began pasting. My fingers stuck. Paper got glued to my jeans. and my doggie got glue in her tail.
Super fun!
THEN CAME COLOR
Color said “what about me?” Of course I said yes and I painted and dabbed and added pastels too. I painted and pasted and painted more until 3 in the morning.
The next week I added more spots of color and shade each time I passed by the board.
I was gleeful…and messy.
THE VISION MESSAGE? One day, if you want to hear it, I’ll share with you the vision message that I got from this board but I thought you might like to look at it and create your own message.
