Here are the final versions of the bookmarks (in English and French) that I made for my friend Karen, the Angel Therapy Practitioner. I created the collage part and she wrote the words. Karen is selling these bookmarks.
--Vicky Lynn :o)
Happy Autumn! Happy Fall! In one way, it's funny to think of wishing someone a "happy fall"! Falling usually isn't something we want to do. I know because I fell on Sunday while waiting for a light to change. I was on my bike and had to stop for the light. For some unknown reason, I reached for the ground with my left foot instead of my right foot (which is the foot I use almost ALL of the time). I didn't plant my foot well and even though I almost managed to keep my balance, I didn't. And down I went! I have a series of evenly spaced scrapes on my right leg, where my pedal branded me and a bit of a sore left arm and wrist. Just a reminder of how important it is to maintain my balance.
I made a new doodle last night and it became the Angel of Waves that you see here.
--Vicky :o)
Her shield shines like the sun, reminding us that Light and Love can conquer any pain and any sorrow. The flower on her shield represents the blossoming and transformation we experience as a result of difficult times.
Her lamp shines even in the blackest of nights and during Life's darkest hours.
The web on her skirt shows that growth and healing (represented by the color green and the leaves) can happen in the most tangled of situations. She is the one who comforts and brings hope even in the most hopeless of times.
May she shine her comforting, healing, and loving Light on you!
--Vicky Lynn :o)
"Angel of Comfort: The Tear Gatherer" Mandala
Ink on paper, felt pens
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
The Angel of Service is all about Love and helping others to see themselves in their Highest Light and to achieve their Soul's Mission.
--Vicky Lynn :o)
"Angel of Service" Mandala
Ink on paper
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
"I am the Angel of Fire, Light & Second Sight.
My Eternal flames forever burn bright.
Creative ideas & a turbo-boost of Will are but two
Of the en-lightening gifts I have for you.
Sparks of Intuition & Insight I inspire;
Flashes of Wisdom & Foresight leap from my fire.
My wings are powered by a Spirit of play,
A reminder that too much "serious" can ruin your day.
A butterfly at my throat reminds you to keep Life "light";
Each moment the Eternal Eyes offer you "Second" Sight.
Love overflows from my Rainbow of Hearts,
It embraces your Soul and enlivens your art.
Never be shy to call upon me
My help & guidance are always free.
My deepest desire is for all to see
The magnificent Divine Spark you came here to BE."
--Vicky Lynn :o)
"Angel of Fire, Light & Second Sight"
Ink on paper doodle and poem
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
--Vicky Lynn :o)
"Venus Rising: A Star Is Born"
Mixed media collage and poem
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
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The Best Is Yet To BE
Happy Birthday, Michel!
--Vicky ;o)
Birthday card and Life Stamp
Copyright © 2009 Vicky Lynn Macchione
How busy life can get in such a short time! In the time since I posted last, we decided to move, found an apartment to move to in June, finished up tax returns for U.S. and Canada, prepared to show the apartment we live in now to prospective tenants, went to a family birthday party, and planned how we are going to take 7-1/2 rooms of "stuff" and put it into an apartment with 4-1/2 rooms! (By the way, here in Québec apartments are described that way, not by number of bedrooms. The "1/2" refers to the bathroom.
Before all this activity commenced, I was working on the idea of collaging my own postcards. The two shown here are for some mythical funky clothing company called "FlyDesigns," which is short for Butterfly Designs. (My apologies to any company, clothing or otherwise, who may use that name!)
One postcard is in the shape of a butterfly; an idea that came to me because I once received a postcard from a friend that was in the shape of her country. Of course, it helped that the background paper already had a butterfly on it!
-FlyDesigns Postcards...Just in time for Spring!
--Vicky :o)
FlyDesigns Postcards (I and II)
Paper Collage
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
Here is another example of my postcard play. I call this one "World of Advice." You may have to look very closely to see that there is a map outline of the world that forms the basis of this collage.
I actually started the text for this post a few days ago but got hung up with describing the collage and its meaning. Ultimately, I find it more rewarding to let others see what the collage means to them. That's the great advantage of images and collages. In fact, a friend told me recently that every time she looks at my Christmas card collage, she sees something new!
One comment about the title--"World of Advice." Have you ever noticed how much advice there is in the world? And with the Internet, we have all that advice at our fingertips; we don't even have to go to the library to look through card catalogs, books, microfiche, etc. any more!
I wonder, though, how much all that advice keeps us from finding and listening to our own advice, our inner wisdom. Of course, taking time to listen and then to actually act on inner wisdom is a process and certainly not instantaneous. Not like the Internet, which provides instant gratification day or night.
But living life based on instant advice is not the same thing as living life in the NOW. Usually I look for advice when I have a problem that I want solved immediately. That process of looking for the answer takes away from the time of being with and experiencing the question, or what I think is the question.
In other words, seeking a World of Advice for that which I think I need or lack keeps me from Being the World that I am.
--Vicky :o)
"World of Advice" Postcard
Paper Collage
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
In the last few days, I have been thinking a lot about postcards so I decided to create some. Here is my first one. The title is "Playing with Color Postcard." Yes, for some reason I included the word postcard in the title. ;o)
Much of the time, a postcard depicts a place or point of interest or some souvenir of a person's travels. My postcard seems to depict a spiral of colors both in appearance and in the way I created it. This collage began its life from the middle. Starting with the figure, the snowflake house and the peacock swirls, I just kept adding different blocks of color and melanges of blocks of color as layers. The final touch was the postage stamp.
I find it interesting that while most postcards are rectangles, mine is almost perfectly square. I'll have to figure out why that is. (Does it reflect my need for perfection? Is there anything more perfect than a square? Well, maybe a circle!)
There is also one very illegible word--"fairytale." I didn't discover it, though, until the collage was done and I used my trusty magnifying glass to see what those black scratches actually said. :o)
Postcards provide a rather intriguing way to communicate since they force a person to write either the most important messages or the most mundane. Perhaps postcards were one of the earliest versions of Twitter, lacking only in the instantaneity (yes, that really is a word!) of this present-day communication gadget. Surely most postcards do answer Twitter's question: What are you doing? Or at the very least, they answer: What were you doing when you decided to write?
Now, what was I doing before I decided to write this post?
--Vicky :o)
"Playing with Color Postcard"
Paper Collage
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
When I chose "the dying mind" for the collage in my last post, I saw that there was at least one additional meaning when considered together as a simple sentence. The dying mind.
Now, the interpretation of that sentence all depends on one's definition of the verb "mind." Here are three definitions from which to choose (thanks to One Look Dictionary and Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary):
Definition #2 was my choice of meaning. The dying care about their state. They are concerned that they are indeed "dying" and what that is going to mean to themselves and to the world at large. However, each definition brings a different shade of significance to the collage card.
The interpretation rests in the mind of the beholder/reader. Which definition describes and illuminates the collage for you?
--Vicky :o)
I scanned the card and filed it away, not really thinking much about it. Until today. I was reading a book in which this alien species had the assigned job title of "Worrier." As I read about the Worrier and how he/she/it(?) offered all the various reasons and possibilities to do or not to do a particular mission, I thought how well I could perform that job! I am so well versed in worrying that those few times when I was not worrying, I actually felt an empty space inside where the worries usually dwelt. That was an amazing and somewhat disconcerting feeling!
For some reason, as I was thinking about the job of Worrier, this collage card popped into my mind. Perhaps the message of worrying actually creates "the dying mind" pictured here--a mind that can't fully embrace creativity and inspiration when it is preoccupied with all the "what ifs" and all the possiblities of darkness, doom, and disaster. The card also points out that "dreams of day" and "dreams of night" all face the same end: they all pass. In fact, the same outcome holds true for "the dying mind": It too shall pass, along with all those worries that occupied so much of its time.
Now, if I can only embrace the ideas captured in this card; maybe I can finally give up the job of Worrier and find a job title I like much more!
--Vicky :o)
--Vicky :o)
We must know that the New Year is not a Genie that will bring us all that we have secretly been wishing for. We need to get inside that bottle and be that Genie ourselves." --Nazia Mallick
The above excerpt is from an article that I read recently on Ode Magazine's Readers Blog: "How to create magic in your life this year" by Nazia Mallick. In her article, Ms. Mallick continues with her own formula for creating magic in her life this year.
One of my favorite quotes corresponds quite well with Mallick's first bullet point:
"... for magic to happen in your life, you must believe in magic."
-- Grandmother, quoted by Lynn Andrews
If I don't believe that magic happens, then I certainly won't be seeing any.
As I continued thinking about the idea of making magic, I decided to look up the origin of the word itself. A very early definition (c. 1384) describes magic as the "art of influencing events and producing marvels" (Online Etymology Dictionary).
How well that definition corresponds with Mallick's second bullet. In order to make magic, I have to "be" the magician in my life--the one who influences events and produces marvels, the one who keeps on believing and being even when obstacles show up along the way. Here is what what Rob Brezny had to say about obstacles last week to those born under the sign of Leo:
"Obstacles are a natural part of life, just as boulders are a natural part of the course of a river," notes the ancient Chinese book The I Ching. "The river does not complain or get depressed because there are boulders in its path." I'd go so far to say -- this is not in the original text, but is my 21st-century addition -- that the river gets a sensual thrill as it glides its smooth current over the irregular shapes and hard skin of the rocks. It looks forward to the friction, exults in the intimate touch, loves the drama of the interaction. --Rob Brezny, Freewill Astrology
What a sexy way to look at obstacles! So now the choice is mine--how will I view the challenges that come my way? Will I continue to believe in magic and in my abilities as a magician? Obstacles are only obstacles if I declare them to be.
The collage above is from my Collage Journal and illustrates to me how I can make magic happen in my own life. The pictures and words are my magician's tool kit with its secret messages and magic spells. Now, it's time for me to add the "abracadabra" of believing and being.
--Vicky :o)
"Making Magic"
Collage Journal Page
Copyright © 2007 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
For the last couple of years I have tried to write in a journal each day--Morning Pages as Julia Cameron calls them. Lately, I have been having trouble making my daily 3 pages. So I have been rethinking those pages and how I really want to use them. In the midst of this Morning Pages reinvention, I got the idea to make a collage to mark the shift from 2008 to 2009. This new collage is posted here.
Many people like to make vision boards as a way to direct their visions and fulfill their dreams for the new year. That's what this collage is all about for me. Two phrases I particularly love are these: "Don't be a spectator on this trip" and "There's no death worse than just waiting around." Both of these phrases come from Michael Green's The Illuminated Rumi 2008 calendar. The poem goes like this:
Don't be a spectator on this trip.
There's no death worse than waiting around.
Set your heart on the hero's gold.
And go. --Rumi
Last year I often found myself feeling like I was waiting. If I had to describe what it was I was waiting for, I would say it was Life or maybe it would be more accurate to say that I was waiting for something I thought needed to happen so I could live my life. I would often have thoughts like: "When this or that happens, then I'll do this or then I'll feel that way." I was experiencing "delayed living," which in Rumi's view is the worst type of death. And as the days of 2008 went by, I realized more and more that whether I spent those days waiting, spectating, or actually living them right NOW, time continued to pass and days disappeared!
In 2009 I want to hang up my spectator glasses, end the "waiting-around-death" experience, and GO for the "hero's gold" of living each day as full and as well as I possibly can. I am using this collage to inspire me to remember and live my vision.
--Vicky :o)
Vision Collage: 2009
Copyright © 2009 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
May sweet sounds and tender moments fill the days of your Yuletide Season. --Vicky :o)
"Yuletide Musings" Collage
Copyright © 2008 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
Winter's Tender Gaze
Winter, like Love, waits for us
At the end of every road;
Her gaze, full of tender warmth,
Despite the bitter cold.
Intruding on our busy days,
Dressed in lengthening shadows of night,
Winter paints each tiny crevice with darkness,
Increasing the brilliance of Light.
As the stars that sparkle best in shadow,
We shine brightest under Winter's gentle gaze,
We sow the seeds of Hope, Love, and Happiness
Through the gifts and tender thoughts that fill these days.
May Winter's ever-watchful eye
Gently guide you on your path this Year;
May your Holiday Season be blessed with Light,
Your Days overflowing with Peace and Good Cheer.
--Vicky :o)
"Winter's Tender Gaze" collage and poem
Copyright © 2008 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
NOTE: Read on to discover the meaning of this picture for Michel and me.
However, as I post this picture, I realize that it might also represent what many Americans are feeling today after electing Barack Obama as our new president.
Many of us have felt that as a nation we were standing on a precipice overlooking an abyss that offered darkness and contained who knew what. And yet Hope offered us a way out if we could just stick together and exercise the rights and privileges we have to make a difference. And we did!
It was a "dark and stormy" October for me!
First, there was the multitude of "anniversaries" in October: my late father's birthday, October 9; the anniversary of my nona's death, October 12; the anniversary of my mother's death, October 16; and the wedding anniversary of my parents, October 24.
Then, there was the fact that we had to face October without our special friend Félicia.
Finally, I continued to be in a lost-and-alone space, reeling from a situation with a close friend that shook me to the core of who I am and what I believed. The pain of that occurrence, which started on July 20, hurt my heart so much that I still could cry when talking about it in October.
But then something happened. We went to visit Québec City, our annual pilgrimmage of sorts, a place we go every year since we met in 2000. And something changed. I can't tell you how it changed or exactly when. I do know that on the evening of October 19, I was extremely low--so low that I actually thought, as I turned down the sheets in the hotel, that the time had come to seek professional help.
The next day, I was still sad and negative and--okay, let's use the overused word--depressed. We had a wonderful day: the weather was beautiful, even though cold; we explored places we had never gone before; we had coffee in a café where they roasted their own coffee beans and where lots of interesting people came; we shopped for winter clothes; we ate dinner in a different part of the city and experienced an invigorating walk back to the hotel. (The picture posted here I took that day.) But as I look back there was nothing that stands out as phenomenal, as something that would have caused a shift.
But something had shifted. I realized it that night (October 20) when Michel and I were once again talking about my friend and the situation that happened during the summer. The pain in my heart just wasn't there any more. There were no more tears. There was no anger or frustration or blame or loss. We were just talking and it was all okay.
The next morning, although I was very aware that the pain was gone, I still did not realize the monumental change that happened. That change blossomed day by day and it continues even now. How do I know? The pain and tears have not returned. Sounds, sights, and feelings seem new and fresh. I have moments of pure happiness and peace. And each day, I find reasons to be grateful and more in love with Life.
As I express my thanks to the Universe/God/Source, the words "Thank You" just don't seem grand or glorious enough to contain all the gratitude I feel for being granted this shift in perception! This shift is a Gift of Grace.
Because of my own self-involvement, I didn't realize that Michel also was dealing with a dark and gloomy October! He captured his (our) experience in a picture that he created using Photoshop. We both contributed to the final result that is shown above. (By the way, the picture uses the French spelling of October. )
As a new month and a new page in the history of America and the world begins, I wish you a November that rains (reigns) hope!
--Vicky :o)
"Octobre 2008"
Photo collage
© 2008 by Michel Pettigrew; www.mpgraphique.com
Québec City Photo
© 2008 by Vicky Lynn Macchione
The night we said goodbye to Félicia I had a difficult time sleeping. So the next morning after Michel left for work, I went back to bed and I dreamt of Félicia.
I will write more about her in a future post.
"Cats come and go without ever leaving." --Martha Curtis
--Vicky
P.S. Today, several hours after I had posted this entry, we received a parcel in the mail. Perhaps Félicia was sending me a message? I like to think so. :o)
