What a Collage Can Show You
I made this collage for my online masterclass Cutting Edge Collage: Invoking the Leader in You on 2/28/25-3/1/25.
Show Up by Carol Harada 2025
By letting one image at a time speak, I’m learning what the whole meaning of the piece is after I’ve glued everything down and had time to look at it. Here’s what it had to teach me.
“I am Monarch butterflies, instinctively leaving and returning home in cycles of transformation to continue through the generations. I am imperiled because humans have forgotten the cycles of transformation and have erased long memory. We must reduce pesticide use, have non-GMO milkweed, and preserve our sacred groves and waters.”
“I am Forest Queen, challenging you to step up so we can all thrive and continue. Do not look away from the beauty and the devastation. My scepter is the Scotch broom, whose spirit animal is Bat and whose Medicine is Rebirth. ”
“I am Evergreen Forest, making one giant tree where Water and Earth meet.”
“I am Archer, meditating, preparing my aim. I trail prayers and find an open space in solitude. I serve Forest Queen and the great order of Nature.”
“I am Fire Dancers heeding the call of the conch shell to protect the glacier. We all need ritual Fire, sacred Fire, not outrage and inflammatory behavior. Protected inner flame, not out of control wildfires. Right relationship with Fire will not melt the glaciers.”
“I am Earth Dancer, visionary and grounded. I arise from the heart of the Earth, and Super Baby arises from my heart. This little one is the future, and I make way for those to come to fly free.”
“I am 5 Smooth Stones, wrapped with intention. Natural beauty used as a tool to prevent tangles and snarls of the yarns/stories. The wrapping motion filled with prayer. The shearing or harvesting, carding, spinning, and dyeing of the wool or cotton a meditation of work witnessed by these stones. What are the stories and songs in this labor?”
“I am Flower Wreath, a crown set aside by Earth Dancer.”
“I am the Land — purple mountains majesty, desert, peaks and hills, glaciers, snow fields, forests. I am home.”
“I am Golden Lady, celebrating sweet harvest. I bring joy and track the growth rings. Is this a good, abundant year? Time will tell. My sisters Earth Dancer and Forest Queen and I are One. Obviously, I’m the youngest, Earth Dancer is the middle child, and Forest Queen is the oldest.”
“I am Apples, plucked and poured from a basket, some cut to show perfect juiciness and to tempt you. Each apple tree must be grafted, and so I remind you how wild nature needs the skilled hand of humans, and vice versa. What beauty and nourishment grows!”
“I am Tree Rings, telling you all you need to know of our recent past. Only in my death and transformation can I tell this history. But I go on, as a stump, as lumber, as fallen friend to fungus among us and all the forest creatures. I come from Earth and will return one way or another. Just like you.”
“I am Mountain Lion, Cougar, Puma. I am imperiled too, and need room to roam. Build me overpasses and underpasses, new nature routes that keep us safely away from your moving machines. I challenge you, like Forest Lady, to be on alert and remember how to walk in the Middle World. Test the ground with your front paw, balance with your long tail, use all your senses. And leap at the right time as a Leader.”
“I am Spirals — a winding staircase, the conch, the orange secret serpent of the land. I go inward and then outward in cycles, follow the path of growth.”
“I am Ninja Cat meditating, grounded and centered, prepared like the Archer. I am inside, he is outside. We make our own sacred space of reflection and clearing. Getting ready to serve.”
“I am Orange, the color of the 2nd Chakra. I am creativity, fecundity, sexuality, sensuality, the woman’s lower heart. See me in the Monarch Butterflies, the Fire Dancers, the aura of Super Baby and Archer.”
I hope you take time to learn what your artworks have to teach you. Deep wisdom comes through you.
