Green-eyed Girl

I just read online that green is the rarest of eye colors existing in only 1-2% of the population. I have always liked having green eyes. They were like blue--but more exotic because not everybody had them. That identification must have been pretty strong. I remember reading once in a teen magazine that those with green eyes should wear purple eyeliner. At my young age, I didn't realize that each beauty hint from Seventeen magazine was not a dictate from God to Moses on the mount. If they said that purple eyeliner was the way to go to highlight what I considered my best feature, then--by the God of Moses-- I was going to wear it--as soon as my Dad gave me the okay to wear make-up. (Okay--I sneaked it on in the bathroom at school. A tricky and brazen maneuver considering that my father taught reading in that school and was in fact MY reading teacher.) But I persisted and eventually won my argument in eighth grade. Wearing the purple eyeliner led to me seeking out purple clothing. Pretty soon, I was incorporating it into my bedroom decor. Before I made the leap to high school, it became a signature color, until now---25 years later it is the base color of my personal website.
I have said before that everyone has a very personal relationship with color. Think of a color in your life and tell its story, the way it happened to you. I love blue bottles--collect them, make sculptures with them. Why? Because a blue bottle was on the table once when my mom and I had a special mother/daughter outing. I like Gerber Daisies for the same reason. They were in the blue bottle at the time. If you go to my artwork page, you'll find a series of Gerber daisy/blue bottle pictures. Red was a school color. Gold was the shade of some pretty awful carpet in my parent's living room. And green--sure it is the color of nature, but it is also the window to my soul and/or the color of the naughty M&M's.

The energy of color

I've facilitated workshops in the last two days. The first was a general workshop on journaling and the second was specific to color in journaling. In both workshops we answered a series of questions about our personal history with color. Questions such as :

What was the color of your childhood bedroom?
What colors do you associate with your parents?
What are the predominant colors in your favorite travel destination?
What colors are evident in your favorite meal?
What color or colors do you avoid wearing?

I found the results to be powerful. Color is light energy. Each color has a frequency that can be used in our daily life to send signals, balance energy, or attract people. I am fascinated by the psychology, by the physics, by the personal language of color. I think I could do a series of workshops on this aspect alone. My personal belief color has the vibratory power to heal through color meditations. If a friend of mine is going through trauma, I will often think of that person and imagine sending color vibes her way. Blue for peace and tranquility, green for growth, pink for healing and healthy tissues etc. I light different color candles for the same purpose.

I teach color as the first concept in creative journaling because it is the easiest to employ. If you are a journal writer, buy yourself an assortment of colored pens. Ask yourself a few questions to get an understanding of your own personal relationship with color. Then when you journal, select the pen that best relates to your mood for the day. Then, looking back over your journal, you can see patterns emerge. To me, color just lends itself to creative visualization. It is easy to grasp, and it is a wonderful way to take abstract thought and bring it to the physical world in small baby steps of actualization.

Mandalas: Focused Color in Journaling

I have long taught creative journaling classes that stem from the belief that the benefits of journaling can be compounded if you use art in your process. This gives the brain visual and verbal languages with which to process and communicate. I have given these workshops at many places, and the results have been phenomenal. I am preparing to teach a series of workshops on journaling. This is the first time I have done a series of workshops, and the hope is that I, and the participants, will be able to explore more topics on a deeper level. The first workshop delves into color and takes place Wednesday, October 17th from 10AM-12 PM at Radiance in Lancaster.

One aspect we will explore will be color relationships in mandalas. Mandala is a Sanskrit word that means circle, completion, or whole world. Basically, they are circular pictures that have been used in various cultures as a focusing tool to aid meditation and spiritual enlightenment. You can find examples of mandalas in Tibetan Sand Paintings, Native American Medicine wheels, and Rose windows from Gothic Cathedrals. Carl Jung, the famous psychoanalyst, saw the mandala as a representation of the unconscious self. He felt that work with mandalas helped him to diagnose emotional disorders in his patients and work towards healing the personality.

In my color workshops, I will be focusing on use of personal color codes in pre-drawn mandalas, though I hope to explore all aspects of mandala creation in later workshops. But for now the experience of color is a large enough field to immerse one's self. Try it for yourself. Here is a link to a Mandala. Pick up some crayons, colored pencils and go. While you are coloring in your mandala, feel the meditative state--the relaxing quality of primitive activity. Once you are done, you can analyze your creation.

What do the colors say about your mood?

What colors are on the outer edges of the mandala? Which colors are closest to center? What experiences and emotions do you relate with those colors?

Is there a color that isn't present in your mandala? Why is it absent? What qualities are missing in your day or in your life?

This is just one of the exercises we will be doing in the color class. My hope is to expose the participants to many forms of color journaling available so they have a plethora of ideas to choose from when they are journaling/journeying at home.

Technicolor cold

I have a cold, and it is messing up my plans. After hanging my art show, I was once again going to get down to business with a hard-core, don't-interrupt-me, write-in-the-morning, paint-in-the-afternoon schedule. Instead, I find myself directed by my waning energies more than some time-specific outline I penned a week ago. Lower-leg step workout at high noon? 1500 words of elegant prose in two hours. HA!

I've been trying to do things that are productive even if I am not doing things that take long periods of flowing mind power or much energy. Yesterday, I picked up books to sell at my artist reception. I took photos of a place I am considering for a landscape painting. (All feedback suggests I should do more of these.) I even went digital camera shopping with my parents. All of this came in and around my napping and food-network watching (great exercise to watch FoodTV when you have no appetite).

Today, I made myself a little nest on my chair and ottoman to work on my upcoming events. I surrounded myself with journaling and art books and books on color theory. This fall I am teaching 5 different courses on creative journaling--all on different topics. I am doing an introductory presentation to a group of professionals in the wellness industry. At Woman-to Woman, I will do workshops on morning journaling practices. Finally, I am doing a series of monthly Deep Journaling classes at Radiance in Lancaster. The themes for this fall series are: color, flow, and manifesting.

Today's research concentrated on color. I have done so much work with color over my life and have used this element in many of my workshop offerings, but I have never done a whole class on it. Now after doing some research, I see I could do a whole series on color journaling. This is exciting for me, as I am looking to expand my workshop business. I love to combine my love of art and writing and bring it to life for others. I come from a family of teachers, so that part comes easily to me, too.

In future blog entries, I will bring you some of the subjects I find fascinating about my work to bring my workshops to life. Maybe I can inspire some of you to begin your own creative journaling practices. Hey--if it can rouse me from a state of misery and congestion--think what it can do for you.