Author: Christine

Christine http://www.mombie.com I'm a writer/storyteller/director/creativity & lifestory coach with a black belt in ITF Taekwon-do. I read voraciously and I write like my fingers are on fire. I'm the founder and Co-Chair of the Association for the Arts in Mount Pearl and I'm the current president of the St. John's Storytelling Festival. I bake a mean chocolate chip cookie.

Sunday Morning Collage

A photo of a collage
A photo of a collaged page with bits of paper and stickers. Images in the collage include a skull with a purple moth on top, a snake, a girl with an umbrella patting a dog, tulips, a stamp, a few vintage-looking photos of people and ads, small painting of coloured circles outlined in black on a brown background with black pinstripes, and text reading ‘impressions of reality…’ ‘crystal’ and ‘stones, bones, and skin’

Well, truth be told, I started this last night but I’m still playing with it this morning.

I was just holding a small piece of flower-printed paper over the right hand side of this collage trying to figure out where to put it when I was struck once again by how weird the creative process is.

When I’m writing, particularly fiction, the feeling of getting things ‘right’ is really strange.

Sometimes my words come easily and sometimes I have to carve each one by hand but they often (always?) feel like I am remembering or uncovering them rather than inventing them. As if they are something I already know but I have to go through a process to remind myself.

And when I am trying to figure out something about a character or to iron out a plot point, there is always this sense that I am trying to figure out something that already exists. Like I am guessing until I get the correct answer. Sure, sometimes I have to put an ‘almost right’ answer for the moment so I can keep the story moving but I always know I will have to come back to it.

So, there’s a certain feeling to it when the words or the ideas start to work. And then when I go to revise, there is a different feeling of sliding words and ideas from place to place until they fit- like figuring out the picture in one of those little square puzzles made from tiles.

A similar thing happens in storytelling or in creating a workshop, I uncover the ideas and words until I *get* them and then the story or the presentation is mine.

When I draw, I usually start with an idea of something to draw and then go through the process of discovering what else wants to be in the image, what else belongs.

With collage/junk journaling, unless I am using the process to work through an issue, it’s rarely about expressing a certain idea.

Mostly, I start with a piece of text or an image that appeals to me and then I flip through my current junk journal to see what kind of background page it needs.

Then I go through my bits of paper, my stickers, my ephemera, to see what else belongs with that starting piece.

That sense of it ‘belonging’ or (in drawing) of it ‘wanting’ to be there is very much the same kind of feeling as ‘remembering’ or ‘discovering’ in my writing and storytelling.

There is that real feeling that the thing I am making, be it a story or be it an image, already has a shape, a reality, and my job is to figure it out.

I often find myself saying ‘Oh, right!’ as I scribble words down, as I outline an image I have drawn, or as I finish moving an image around my collage and set it in the right place.

For example, the collage in the photo above, was going to be two separate things. I was just working on the left hand side until that rectangular piece of paper with the woman on it ‘wanted’ to bridge both pages.

That’s when I ‘discovered’ that this was a two page collage and that the left hand side would have one type of images while the right had something entirely different.

And my little piece of flowered paper belongs on the right, not the left, but I just don’t know where yet.

I’ll just keep moving it around until it tells me where it belongs.

Accessing Muscle Memory

In June 2022, I tested for my 4th degree blackbelt in Taekwondo and I had practiced the hell out of my last 3 patterns.

I had practiced them all, of course, but those last 3, my newest ones, those needed extra work.

By the time my test came round, I was pretty confident in them. I had to take the last one a little slower than it would normally be done but I still knew it.

My brain knew it and my body knew it.

Then summer came and I was working on other things.

And in the fall, I started a new pattern and those 3 recent ones didn’t come up all that often.

Should I have been practicing them regularly anyway? Of course I should have.

Did I practice them regularly? Sadly, no.

I think it’s hard for anyone to keep practicing things they don’t use regularly but my ADHD brain throws up some extra challenges for me when it comes to that stuff.

I have trouble prioritizing on the best of days so on any given day, I‘m probably not going to be able to prioritize something that isn’t urgent.

And with my, let’s call it fluid, sense of time, it can feel like I *just* practiced something and, in reality, months have passed.

So, basically, while these patterns are technically there, in my brain and in my muscles, they weren’t easily accessible.

I could do them step-by-step along with the group but I no longer had a feel for them and I knew I had to prioritize practicing them or I might end up burying them too deep to retrieve.

So, in the past week, I have tried 3-4 times to go through those patterns. The first one was no problem. The second one was rusty but mostly doable – just a few sticky spots.

The third one though? My brain was refusing to let me have that one at all.

I could do the first few movements but that was it.

Then, on Thursday past, my back was being a jerk so I couldn’t participate in sparring class. Instead, I went to the back of the room and practiced my patterns.

I did the easy one, just to warm up.

Then I practiced the rusty one and as I did, I felt it become more and more familiar, like my muscles were saying ‘Oh, right! This one!’

And finally, I worked my way through the elusive third pattern.

Slowly, slowly, slowly, with some input from my friend and from my instructor, I eventually managed to remind my muscles that we know this pattern.

And, before I left class that night, it was back, it was accessible to me again, it was something I can more easily practice from now on.*

I just have to keep reminding my muscles that “We know this. We know this.”

*Again, I know everyone struggles to practice but my ADHD adds extra challenges in the task initiation area so there are *bonus* layers to my frustration with getting started with these things. And when I know practicing will be really slow and especially repetitive, my brain throws up an incredible level of resistance to the idea.

New paints = big fun

I bought myself a new pan of paints on Wednesday and decided to give them a try last night.

I did a few brushstrokes of paint on the page and, once they dried, I outlined them with black marker and little faces and antennae to create these fun little creatures:

A small drawing of stylized figures made from a brushstroke of paint with details added in marker
Image description: my small drawing of a series of creatures created by making a brushstroke with light orange paint and then outlining them/adding details with black marker. The figures are mostly rounded with big eyes and look like little ghosts or bugs, some have antennae. My initials and the date are on the right hand side.

I’m delighted by the one in the skirt. What a fun little dance they’re doing!

(Yes, I can be delighted by my own work, aren’t you? I didn’t know it would turn out so well.)

Not quite spring

Last summer I bought myself this delightful disk swing so I could sit in it and listen to music, meditate or read.

Last fall, I decided to leave it out in case I could still use it sometimes over the winter.

And since we had very little snow for the majority of the winter I used it a fair bit.

Then we had a series of bad snowstorms and I took it down to protect it from the weight of the snow.

With the springish weather lately I decided it was time to hang it up again.

It’s not quite time to use it yet but that time is coming soon.

A circular swing hangs from a bare tree, it’s just a few inches above the above snow covered ground
I took this photo this sunny afternoon while standing on my patio. Image description: My circular swing with a green trim hangs from a bare tree in my backyard. The base of the swing is just a few inches above the snow that covers everything in the yard.

Story Cards

I had a great time teaching short sessions with story cards (prompt images drawn on index cards) at a local school today.

The kids had a grand time with my story cards and an even grander time making their own.

I was delighted by how they responded when I asked them ‘What is creativity?’ I was expecting them to say ‘Drawing.’ But instead they said ‘Making stuff’ and ‘having cool ideas’

Making stuff and having cool ideas – it’s a good way to spend your time.

Image description: a selection of simple index card drawings spread out on a table with markers and colouring pencils nearby. The drawings include a gold star, a crown, a flower, a dog’s face, and a cup of tea.