Mindfulness is kind of a buzz-word right now: western individuals seem to be looking once more to Buddhist practices seeking refuge from the relentless stress of modern living. Adults are reaching to their colouring pencils with no shortage of 'colouring for mindfulness' books on the selves, or maybe taking up recommended meditation and yoga. Unfortunately for me, I struggle with even the most basic of asanas (even as a child I could not touch my toes) and the colouring book I bought is far from completion, as any time spent on it is a guild-ridden activity when I almost always have outstanding art deadlines. 'Mindful walking' is one thing I came across that suited me - I've often pretended I'm a cinematographer when observing on walks (I'm not sure if that's sad...I'm a photographer, I do it with everything?)
Anyway, I found that collaging, something I had only touched upon in the past, was something I could do regularly, dedicating a small amount of time to every day and feel productive about. It's not that these other things aren't productive, just that I find collaging especially so; cutting up magazines and books is strangely therapeutic and distracting in that your mind is occupied with the aligning of images and what you can say with them rather than whatever stressful rubbish you've got going on. I feel obliged to say don't rip up books until you have assessed: whether this book was expensive, whether you will want have this book intact at any point in the future, and whether this collage will be making better use of the book's page.
Here are some of the pages so far in the order they come in the journal.
