Creative Bootcamp: Day One - Ivory

I am not going to lie:  I really struggled with Ivory.  Ivory?  What do I do with ivory?  Of course, my inner critic was in overload, worrying about what other people would think, what everyone else was doing and how the heck I was going to throw something together in a day.  I cursed myself for not being better at photography, or sewing, or drawing.  Me, my strength is in over-thinking.  So I over-thought it all day long.  I did research.  I free associated.  And then I grabbed my book, took a deep breath and jumped in.

In my atlas/altered book, I found a page featuring a map of Africa because I wanted to include the Ivory Coast.  Congratulating my cleverness, I sketched out the image of an elephant (for the ivory tusks!) around the shape of Northeast Africa.  On a serious tip, I felt it was really important to include the elephant because it remained the first thing I thought of as I was trying to conceptualize this and I couldn't shake it.  And then I took it a step further and added an ivory tower.  Do we get bonus points for overthinking?  Because I think it took it too far...and included an amazing quote I found about distinguishing true dreams from false:

Stranger, dreams verily are baffling and unclear of meaning, and in no wise do they find fulfilment in all things for men. For two are the gates of shadowy dreams, and one is fashioned of horn and one of ivory. Those dreams that pass through the gate of sawn ivory deceive men, bringing words that find no fulfilment. But those that come forth through the gate of polished horn bring true issues to pass, when any mortal sees them. But in my case it was not from thence, methinks, that my strange dream came.  (Odyssey, book 19, lines 560-569).

I enjoyed the difference between the gray-black and the yellow-white, both not quite pure.  The whole image felt very dream-like and unreal, so I let it be, adding found images to push this further.  I included my letter in an envelope on the page, because it all seemed to go together and the letter belonged there as part of the project.  And the letter I found easy-peasy to do:  it is a task I give to clients all the time, and have done before.

I feel strongly that more needs to be done, but there is another project to be completed tomorrow and so tonight I call mercy.  So take it as it is. 

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