"My mind sees that I am nothing, my heart sees that I am everything, between these two poles my life unfolds."

Monday, June 20, 2011


Monday greetings! I trust your weekend was a good one. It was a soaker here, and at some points it poured for hours on end. Heavenly :) I've mentioned numerous times on this blog how much I love the rain. In fact, I distinctly remember as a child feeling quite dejected when the clouds eventually moved on and the sun reappeared. I obviously had issues, lol.

I am most contented when it gets right down to it and poursa little thunder (I can do without the lightening) thrown in just sweetens the deal... and when it rains, I often play Neil Young Unplugged. Don't ask me why, it started when I lived on an acreage on Peace River and it had been raining for a week straight. Somehow this album's melancholy seemed the perfect accompaniment; fifteen years later and Neil is still the cherry on top of my rainy day.

To amuse myself Saturday afternoon (with Neil as my muse), I pulled out my new book The Sound of Paper, which I profiled last Monday (here) and completed the 'task' after the first chapter entitled Setting Off. Following the author's instructions, I gathered seven magazines (these were all freebies I've picked up here and there in my travels) and went through them pulling the images which "spoke to me". I was not to concern myself with why they connected. The second half of the assignment, I trimmed and arranged the images into a pleasing vignette. The author states that "the resulting picture it is a portrait of your consciousness at this point in time. What you see in your collage may surprise, delight, or even alarm you. Seeing is believing, and one picture is worth a thousand words." I was then to take to the page and describe my personal discoveries. (This is actually an exercise I used to do on my own in my late teens/early twenties. I had filled numerous journals, which I foolishly threw away years ago.)

While sparing you the details of my resulting epiphany lol, (I am not a psychologist, but I play one at home... just ask my family) I don't think it's too much of a stretch to guess at the issues I am grappling with. Aging, reaching my full potential (before it's too late... haha), possibly heading back to school and procrastination, to name a few.

A side note: the two men above are one and the same; (obviously many years apart) Michael Snow, one of Canada's most renowned artists. Michael now 81, is still going strong, creating art in just about every medium you can shake a stick at. I read an article profiling his life many months ago with great interest and was struck at the time by these two photographs.

In the end, I am quite intrigued by just how congruent the above images are. My subconscious is speaking - am I ready to listen? I challenge you to do this exercise for yourself and share the results - I'd love to see them :) If you send me a pic of your creation, I will post them next week - either anonymously if you are shy, or credited to you, if you'd like.

So there you have it folks, it's not all kittens and rainbows here at Jane's Jewels! I leave you with a track from Neil's Unplugged album and hope you have a great day :)

9 comments:

  1. That's a great collection of images, and I am very intrigued by this exercise. I will try it on one of the rainy days coming up and see which pictures I end up choosing.

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  2. Interesting! I don't know when I'll have the time to sit down and do this exercise before winter, but it would be fun to do. You do come up with some cool stuff Jane! I need to try to keep up with your posts... I am sooooooo behind (here, there and everywhere)

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  3. That;s a really neat exercise!
    I used to keep a scrapbook, ts fun to look over the stuff I cut out...

    I love the rain too, I never thought leaving Vancouver I'd ever be saying that:)

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  4. I'm not sure if I want a confirmation of my issues... lol. As Martha has mentioned, this is indeed an intriguing exercise.

    So now I am curious. Do you subconsciously place items of more importance at the top of your collage?

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  5. I loves this and who knows, maybe I will find some time to do it.

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  6. Martha, If you do get around to it, I'd be curious to know if your choices 'speak' to you.

    April, Thanks for stopping by :) I'm not surprised you would have a hard time squeezing this one into your days - your brood (& I mean that quite literally, lol) keeps you hopping.

    LaelShine, I am kicking myself now for throwing mine away :(
    Good thing we like the rain - we've certainly had our share the past few weeks.

    WebDebris, It's good therapy and I figure it's cheaper than paying for it lol.
    As for possibly having placed items of more importance at the top... in some respects perhaps I did. I will give that one some more thought!

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  7. Love that exercise, may try it too with the stack of magazines that's about to be disposed.

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  8. Hi Tatiana, It was quite illuminating :)
    I plan to eventually do (& then blog) all the exercises in this book.

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  9. Hi Mel, It really didn't take that long - sometime when you have a free hour to spare. Send me a pic if you do :)

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Thanks for stopping by - and leaving your comments! I love reading them :)