Monday, February 21, 2011

Creative Visioning


A big part of my creative process involves visioning. If you haven't guessed already, I am a highly visual person. So it seems only natural that visioning would play a large role in my creative process. But not just my creative process for designing a collage, website or poster but also for creating my own life.

I've written about this before in Create a Visioning Collage to Inspire You, where I described the process for designing a visual collage of your dreams. But, I've never showed you one of my personal collages till now.

I started with an idea of what I wanted the coming year to look like based on the following quote:
"Kindness can make miracles happen!"
Then I followed the steps from the book Visioning: Ten Steps to Designing the Life of Your Dreams to construct what this would look like visually. I found images, words, and colors to represent and reinforce the image I created in my mind of what my goals for this year would be.

I placed this collage on the inside of my planner and look at it every day, when I open my calendar to plan events and goals for the upcoming day to support my vision.
  • How do you use visioning in your creative process?
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6 comments:

Cynthia Hanna said...

Discovered you via a link on FB from Disability Arts Alliance (they posted this blog post!)
I've used visioning to create an altered art piece, my vision window, using an 8 paned vintage window & collage. It hangs on the wall over my work area.
I'm currently working on a 16" x 20" mixed media/collage for visioning as well.
I invite you to visit my page at www.facebook.com/CreativeARTitudes!

Anonymous said...

Melanie, I love your collage. Another sign of your multipotentiality!

I tend to be dismissive of myself as a visual person, but as I reflect on it, I think there are a lot of ways I visualize. When I have a goal that seems quite distant, I'll imagine I've reached it and it makes it seem more tangible, and easier to do the multiple steps to get there.

When working on prose, I sometimes envision how the work will be structured, almost erector-set style, and as I write I fill in the construction, and can more easily see what is missing from the work because the structure is incomplete.

I'll have to reflect on this more, you've given me something to think about!

I'd note that before the SuperBowl, I read that Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers lies down the night before each game and visualizes each pass he'll make the next day, so when he actually makes them he's doing so with the familiarity of already having "made" them.

MELANIE said...

@Cynthia Wow! Sounds amazing. I'll have to check it out.

MELANIE said...

@artistsroad Patrick, thx for the comment. It reminds me of a goal setting technique that suggests words trigger pictures. Something to think about when you are writing...

D.M. SOLIS said...

Powerful stuff, this "VISIONING" thing. It has taken my art, my writing, and my life in whole new directions. Super-fun, serious play, and the results have been phenomenal. Thank you for always having useful posts that add so much value to the conversation.

With admiration,
Diane

Amelia said...

hiya, I totally agree! I am a visual person and I def believe scribing dreams in a very hands on and visual way is a powerful route to creating things literally happening in ones life. This is how I designed the Journal Your Dreams workshop, because so many dream and goalsetting things I had read were very logical and rational using mainly language . . . .

Amelia.x

PS And I think kindness is the BEST :)