OK, so since I’ve finished my PhD and graduated, I have had a bit of spare time on my hands. One of the things that I yap about to myself and others, here and at home, is the healing power of distraction – preferably through simple, hands-on arts and crafts projects that take your mind off your pain.
So, I decided it was time to get my crafty on.
One of my favorite quick and happy projects I used to enjoy when I was younger was the cut-and-paste-craft of Decoupage. I have cut pieces out of old maps and glued them onto a set of drawers in the kids’ room. I’ve decorated chairs with roses and angels snipped from wrapping paper. I’ve covered little trinket boxes with messages of magazine-letter-love. And then you lacquer it all to stay in place (or you don’t and just accept that fiddly fingers will tear the edges off your art and add to the quirky appeal).
I confess that I don’t have that level of commitment or patience (at the moment). So, I decided to go the kindergarten route, and made up my mind to cut up old magazines and stick the pictures onto paper.
But what design to make?
A while ago, I was trying to teach myself how to use a popular clip-art program. I made two images on the theme of ‘illness’ and ‘wellness’ that included healthy and unhealthy looking plants, as well as the sun and the moon (to suggest that our health can wax and wane), and a green filter that makes everything look more sickly – or – more lush.
Here’s what the images looked like:
[Image source: me]
Whilst trying to decide what my theme could be for the decoupage, I decided to go down the same path and do a “I’m feeling healthy and fine” collage as well as a “today’s a bit of a struggle” montage.
Turns out (unsurprisingly) the average magazine (I used the supermarket’s free marketing one) is FULL of healthy / happy imagery and phrases… but does NOT include too many images of people feeling down in the dumps. Sourcing material for the ‘good’ collage was therefore easy, and in the end, I settled on strips of muddy colors that reminded me of murky brain-fog for the ‘bad’ collage.
Rather than just stick them onto plain paper (which gets very floppy with too much glue from a cheap glue stick) I decided to use paper plates. I covered one side with all the gloomy paper strips (and a single (glum) word that felt appropriate), and then once it was dry, trimmed the paper down to match the circular edge.
I was originally going to use a second plate for the second collage, but realized it was more realistic to have the two images as two sides of the same plate – or two sides of the same coin as it were – and so I covered the second side of the gloomy plate with images of vitality.
I reminded myself that this was a matter of participation and progress rather than perfection (and a bit like the doodling post I wrote recently (here)) the aim was just to have a go, not succeed in some sort of right or wrong way.
Here’s a collection of photos from my artistic endeavors:
Once I had let the plate dry out and both sides were pretty well set in place, I started waving it back and forth to have a good look at both sides… and then it occurred to me that the size of the ‘art’ was about the same size as my head… which made the craft a little bit like a mask!
[There are absolutely days when I feel as if I have to wear an “I’m doing fine and loving my life” mask when I would prefer to be crying. And, as I’ve written before, if I DON’T wear a mask like that, people think I have “Resting B!tch Face“.]
Anyway – inspired by the memory of my “we are ALL influencers” selfie-photoshoot a year or so ago, I decided the best thing to do with this new, crafty, revelation was to take a photograph of myself ‘wearing’ each of the different mood-masks…
Turns out (unsurprisingly) it is quite hard to take a selfie of yourself when your face is covered and you can’t see the phone’s screen… and when you have to hold the phone out away from you, and use your thumb to push the go-button… laugh all you like Millennials and Gen Z wonders, but I’m 50-something, and this sh!t doesn’t come easily.
Funnily enough, the disastrous photoshoot made me huffy and puffy (why do I always look so short?!) until it was beyond ridiculous and I started to laugh out loud and decided that these off-center, lopsided, images perfectly suited the concept of always being on the flip-flopping spectrum of illness-wellness!
Here’s what I mean:
The thing is – we are all perfectly imperfect – and there’s something loose and joyful about kids’ crafts that doesn’t let you take yourself too seriously… I mean who wouldn’t want to be a laughing lady with a crown of grapes and broccolini??
If you get time this weekend, why don’t you crack out a glue stick and give some kiddy craft a go!
Take care taking care, as creatively as can be, Linda xx
The Mindful Migraine 
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