crisis…but not really
Several exciting things have happened today:
I PASSED MY SPREADSHEETS COURSE!!!!! Read my previous post to see just how big of a deal this is. I seriously just started sobbing when I found out. Such. A. Relief. I am so so happy :)
I finally filled the last page of the art journal I've had for at least 3 years. Bittersweet. Which means...
I broke in a brand spanking new one. That's right, I wasted no time in getting her started. 2 collages in one day. One to finish a book and the other to start one.
I also organized all of my collage stuff. When I'm bored, I rip words and images from magazines and throw them in a shoebox, then I have a nice filing box that I organize them in when I have time. It's nice, because if I want to collage but don't have a magazine to destroy, I can just go to my box and pick out a folder or 2 and get to work. They're organized by things like "happy face", "sad face", "swing", "quotes", "faith", "animals", "girls", "boys", "patterns", etc. I also have folders for different colors. I also have a bead box that I organize letters and numbers into when I find cool looking typography. Ok. Now that I've totally revealed my nerd status, we can move on.
Plus I went in the pool and now I'm blogging out on the deck and it's just a really nice day.
Another exciting thing on the books is...I discharge from IOP tomorrow!!!!!!! Oh my gosh am I just so happy. It's been a little over 10 weeks since I started this journey. Which is crazy. I can't wait to have those 3 hours back each day. In a way it's been a good thing. I mean, it's definitely been a good thing in a variety of ways. But one thing that I hadn't really considered is the fact that virtual IOP conditioned me to be ok spending 12 hours in my room at my computer each day. Now studying for an hour or 2 won't be such an inconvenience because I'm used to using that time to be productive. Plus I can eat dinner with my family, enjoy the pool if I'd like, and put in a few extra hours at work if needed. Not to mention the fact that while doing all of this - you know, living my life - I am in recovery. Which is a very big deal.
The last page of my "old" art journal.
So back to nerding out on collage and the reason for the title of this post. I use a variety of magazines. Basically whatever I can get my hands on. Time, Oprah, Magnolia Journal, National Geographic, Psychology Today...I even somehow got an issue of Allure addressed to me at work (still trying to figure that one out...). I'm mostly a word art kinda gal. When I flip through a magazine, it is the words that jump out at me more so than the images (although I'm trying to incorporate more images into my art these days...a picture is a 1,000 words after all). I don't really care what the article or advertisement is for. I can pull a negative word from a positive headline or a positive phrase from an article filled with negativity. Red or blue. Black or white. And everything in between.
But as I was sorting through my collage material today, I noticed something. I noticed how many times I had torn the word "crisis" out of the pages of a magazine. And it just struck me. It struck me that journalists use that word so often, for one thing. And it struck me how frequently that word jumps out of me. Out of a sea of words on any given page, the word "crisis" is the one that draws me in. Whether it's in the fine print of an article or the headline of an entire section, it's there. Calling to me.
Why is that?
Why am I drawn to the word crisis?
Does that mean I'm drawn to crisis itself?
When I sit back and think about it, I don't think I'm drawn to crisis so much as I am to chaos. The status quo doesn't seem to sit well with me and that's something I'm working on. But you don't see the word "chaos" so much. "Crisis" is as close as I get.
This afternoon, while sorting after passing my final exam, I threw all the "crisis" clippings into the "sad face" folder.
Thankful that I wasn't using them today.
And that's all I have to say about that.
The first page of my NEW art journal :)