Art is a marvelous way to deal with FRUSTRATION. I plan on writing occaisonal pieces here that provide you with suggestions on how to use different Art Therapy Projects designed to help you cope with life's many stressors. The projects will be simple, so as not to add to your FRUSTRATION or STRESS. The instructions will be clear. The last thing I want is to receive a billion emails telling me that all of my readers are FRUSTRATED with my column. Let's look at a very simple, yet satisfying Art project now, shall we?
Your mission, dear reader, should you choose to accept it, is to create a collage that focuses on the good things in your life. Can't think of any good things? Come on, now, you're breathing! You can read! You have access to a computer! There're three good things coming from me and I have never even met you. Surely, you can come up with some.
Search magazines, old photos, food wrappers, whatever you like. Put together a collage that you can look at from time to time when you are feeling FRUSTRATED. Use it as a visual cue to start relaxing. Focus on all the positive feelings that the collage represents for you.
Go all out if you want, or start small. This collage can be on a small piece of construction paper. It can be an entire wall in your home. You decide. There is no right or wrong. No matter what you do with this collage, it's ok. It is your unique perspectives on the things in life that make you feel good.
If you knit or crochet, add some yarn to your collage. If you golf, then add some golf tees or golf balls into the mix. Are you an avid fisherman? Put some hooks into your collage. Got the idea?
One last suggestion, you can also have some fun at someone else's expense with a collage. Did a boyfriend dump you? Ex-wife rake you over the coals for child support and alimony? Girlfriend fail to return the engagement ring when she left you? Ex-husband constantly complaining about getting raked over the coals by your lawyers for child support and alimony? Create a collage out of the offensive individual's photographs.
Don't just cut him/her out of all of your photos. Have some fun. Get creative. Put his/her head where he/she would most dread finding it. Place him/her in a barrel going over Niagara Falls. Build your own version of Dante's Inferno and place this creep on every level of hell. This will result in a collage that is a bit more on the dare I say it, evil side, but hey, that jerk deserves it, right?
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