Monday, May 16, 2011

Mosaic Soul Art

What an amazing experience I had creating this piece of Soul Art. I wasn't prepared for the twists and turns that would occur when I allowed myself to enter a place of trust and flow.

This piece is 4 foot by 4 foot. I did it on a piece of wood. I wasn't planning on doing that but I was in the home improvement store and I just had to head over to the wood department and lo and behold I walked out with some wood.

I had my husband trace my body in the fetal positions. I THOUGHT I was going to do some kind of plaster work on it but when I went down into my basement to find some tools to use I came across my HUGE stash of mosaic supplies I've been holding onto for years.

I was overcome with all of it and suddenly KNEW that I had to create a mosaic.

In the past when I created a mosaic I would be painstakingly precise. Every cut was perfect, every groutline evenly spaced. I would lay everything out before gluing down a piece to prevent making a mistake. I longed to be spontaneous but I didn't know how.

That all changed with this piece. I spread the thin-set down onto the board and just started plopping things in. I didn't know what I was creating or how it was going to look and I didn't care. It was so freeing and I felt like I could fly.

The materials I used were bits and pieces that I've carried throughout my life. They were all a little part of me.


There are seashells my family collected in Florida,


stones from Michigan,


glass I carried back from Italy,


and things I always loved that I was too afraid to use because I loved them so.





I even had some gold tiles I brought back from Italy that were so expensive I didn't want to use them.

Crazy, I know.

I let loose and just did it. I kept spreading and placing materials with no real regard for the outcome. What an amazing feeling!


I played with texture and shine and just had so much fun being creative.



Everything seemed to be flowing...

beautiful...

and submerged in a perfect bed of concrete.


Organic shapes emerged and grew out of my soul.



It all seemed so perfect.


And when it was complete I lifted it up off the table and stood back to look at it and...

I didn't like what I saw.

How had it gone so wrong? How was it possible to feel so good making something and feel so bad looking at it in its totality?

Thank goodness there were tools to help me dive in and to learn from this piece. To get its messages and to connect it to the intention I set for it.

As I sat there and looked at...
talked to it...
and listened to it..

I learned


I grew


I expanded


I learned that even things that I don't like can teach me something...

maybe even more than the things I do like.



Even today as I talked about it with a friend of mine I learned more.

I went deeper.

I have a feeling there will be more to learn and room to grow with this piece in the future.

I am honored to have uncovered this tool to use my creativity to get in touch with my soul and to heal myself a little more each and every time.

4 comments:

  1. oh it's so fascinating michelle! to absolutely love the process and then not the result? oh my gosh. how powerful. please please share when you're ready, on what you discovered about after all that. wow. hugs!

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  2. this happens to me when I paint sometimes. I get so into what I am doing, I'm IN it, creating it, in the process..and then I step back and I catch myself wondering what on earth I just made! I've been working on just enjoying the process...and yes, learning from it. I've learned that there are layers to my work, many of which are not seen by anyone looking at...but I see them and they tell me something. This piece is speaking to you, and made you feel fantastic making it...I think that is the joy of art. At times, what we create isn't the art...its the feeling we had when we were creating it.

    (I still think its really magical and the fact that you had ALL that beautiful stuff around...WOW!) I just returned from italy and didn't grab myself any handfuls of glass...just a beautiful bunch of little sculptures in Murano. I wish I had!

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  3. You didn't like it? I think it's beautiful! Especially because you loved making it so much.

    "things I always loved that I was too afraid to use because I loved them so."

    I can't think of a better use of these things.

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