My recent creative endeavour, mostly centred around “Water Snake”, has been picky and finicky work. Don’t get me wrong – it has been absolutely engaging but has involved cutting fragile pieces of fuchsia candy wrapper with manicure scissors and applying glue with toothpicks. Definitely detail stuff.

Detail- Water Snake #5 in process

So, it is with great relief and a sense of fun that I have taken on another art project – this time one that involves other people and more specifically, my friend, Rebekah. An art project that is not finicky in the least! Rebekah, her friends and family will be joining facilitator Judy Humphries  this week to begin work on what is called “Rebekah’s PATH”. It’s a way of identifying Rebekah’s deepest dreams, her goals, the people she needs to help her achieve these, the supports they all need, and specific goals week by week. (PATH stands for Planning Alternative Tomorrows with Hope. You can google this to learn more.) I have been asked to participate as an artist (and general fun person) because images as well as words are used to capture Rebekah’s PATH.

This most fun part of the process for me begins with the North Star, the place that images of Rebekah’s dreams are attached to. (I love that the North Star aka Polaris features here. The North Star stays in one place while the other stars wheel around it.)  I have recently done a watercolour with a whole lot of funky stars so I send a picture of this to Rebekah and Brenda. If Rebekah likes one of the stars, I can replicate it in tissue paper. Of course, Rebekah picks the hardest star, the one that really doesn’t look like a star at all but more like a turtle with big wings. (It is the top star in the picture below). Keeping in mind that Rebekah has big dreams, and wanted the North Star to be big, I began cutting! Snickers the cat comes to help.

I am happily cutting  large sheets of crinkly tissue paper, slapping the glue on, testing the colours out on windows where the sun shines through. I am being SLOPPY! Exactly the antidote I need to shift from the details, darkness and depths of the Water Snake series! Next blog, I will share photos and reflections on the PATH planning party with Rebekah and you can see what happened to her North Star.

Part of the North Star with sun shining through

Snickers the Cat helps with the North Star

Turtle Star with Pink Wing or Rebekah’s North Star