Mom's Collage

Dear Diary,

I have always loved collage.  I always included it in my teaching and now I do Soul Collage whenever I can.  It is a form of photomontage which I also do digitally.  There was a time I also did textile collage and this is the one I did for my mother.  I liked the idea that it paid honor to my mother's love of embroidery and quilting but in my own way.

Looking back on this piece I understand that I got my love of animals from my mother.  She nurtured this in me by example.  I love the photo of her as a little girl holding her pet kitten and the photo transfer on fabric that I included of a little girl and her pet pig also reflects this connection she had.

Collage of any sort involves a layering of images or materials, one on another, to create a new reality.  It is a process of choosing and building.  There is even a technique to deconstruct parts of the collage by peeling back areas to expose what is underneath.  We create a collage of our life, day by day; sometimes adding bits and pieces and sometimes removing others.  When we do, what is revealed often puts everything else in a new light and we must adjust but isn't that what life is all about?

I will be leaving early tomorrow morning on my trip and may not have time to spend looking at and savoring all of your journals.  I hope you understand this brief lap of attentiveness.  I will catch up later when I return.