An Artist Date: Collage Your Creative Dream (And a Starbucks Giveaway!)

by Cathy Baker @CathySBaker

There’s little doubt that I’m a Julia Cameron fan. Her book The Artist’s Way impacts my daily creative process. In a previous post, Inviting Your Creative Self on a Date on The Write Conversation, I shared a section of her book that speaks of Artist Dates. Julia asks her students to schedule one Artist Date per week. 

I tell students to seek mystery, not mastery, on their dates. I urge them to explore with childlike wonder rather than adult intellect. Artist Dates are intended to be fun.- Julia Cameron

One of her Artist Date ideas involves creating and designing a dream collage as a visual reminder of our dreams, goals, and priorities. 

“Collage your creative dream. This exercise is a potent form of prayer. Working with a dozen or so magazines, tear out images that speak of your dream. Paste these images on a sheet of poster board. Add a photo of yourself. Place the photo centrally, surrounded by images of your creative dream. This is a visual prayer. It is very powerful, as it bypasses our rational mind and its resistance. Seeing is believing!”-Julia Cameron

And now for the fun part: 

You’ll need:

• Poster board (I purchased the 1/4″foam board)
• Magazines, photos, quotes  
• Scissors
• Two-sided tape or glue stick 

Create what you sense God is calling you to do, and perhaps more importantly, whoHe is calling you to be. It’s your story, your dream. 

While there’s no one-way to do it—which is freeing if you’re a recovering perfectionist like me—I began with the center. An image of a man scattering seeds reminds me of my ultimate target—to share the love of Christ. In addition to images from magazines and copies of old photos, I included scripture references, as well as biblical reminders.

Then I moved to the bottom, adding images to illustrate foundational truths for my writing. One, a fuel gauge, reminds me to keep my tank full—spiritually and creatively. How can we give to others what we ourselves don’t possess? 

Moving up the board, I added pictures to inspire my writing, like my grandmother’s house that was the muse for my first poem. I also used pictures of her garden, as well as pictures from an outing to Carl Sandburg’s home in Flat Rock, NC. 

Finally, the top of my board represents what I pray will be the result of writing with God in the center: “Write so that heaven is different.” -Lee Roddy

If you’d like to see my storyboard, click here to access my post Storyboard for Inspiration.

In a very real sense, it is a visual prayer.

Who or what will take center stage on your dream collage? Be as general or as specific as you wish. If you have a collage, would you consider sharing it in the comment section? 

In celebration of your date, enjoy a cup of coffee from Starbucks on me! Simply leave a comment below to be entered in the giveaway. A random name will be chosen Sunday, October 7.

TWEETABLES
An Artist Date: Collage Your #Creative Dream (And a Starbucks Giveaway!) @CathySBaker on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Tips to create a visual prayer to encourage our #creativity from @CathySBaker on @EdieMelson (Click to Tweet)

Cathy Baker is an award-winning writer and author of Pauses for the Vacationing Soul: A Sensory-Based Devotional Guide for the Beachas well as Pauses for the Vacationing Soul: A Sensory-Based Devotional Guide for the Mountains. Cathy is a Hope*Writer and Bible teacher who has taught numerous studies and workshops over the past twenty-five years. Her work has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, The Upper Room, and Focus on the Family’s Thriving Family. She is a monthly contributor to The Write Conversation; Writer’s Digest 101 Top Websites for Writers. She and her husband, Brian, live in the foothills of the Carolinas with a beautiful view of Glassy Mountain and a soon-to-be tiny house. 

To connect with Cathy, visit The Tiny House on the Hill@ https://www.cathybaker.org. Become a part of the THH community and receive a free gift, “10 {Tiny} Prayers that Offer Great Hope.”The tiny prayers included in this pocket-sized publication might just surprise you!