(a workshop)

As a mixed media artist, creating a collage feels very much like piecing together memories of worlds and experiences, of bringing buried fragments to the light.

The Reverie Tree is an invitation to reflect on how we are all collectors of stories waiting to be shared, to be seen.

We will explore words and images, follow the journey they take us on. We will recognise the freedom art gives us to shape narratives and play with story.

Sometimes the story we begin with may be very different to the finished piece. This is the beauty of creating. It takes us on adventures. It gives us the freedom to shape our own narratives in the same way a small piece of paper can be transformed into a flower on a collage board or become vibrant pink sky warmed by the setting sun. It is our essence endlessly recreating itself.

William Butler Yeats put it beautifully in his poem, ‘Before The World Was Made’ –

If I make the lashes dark

And the eyes more bright

And the lips more scarlet,

Or ask if all be right

From mirror after mirror,

No vanity’s displayed:

I’m looking for the face I had

Before the world was made.

What if I look upon a man

As though on my beloved,

And my blood be cold the while

And my heart unmoved?

Why should he think me cruel

Or that he is betrayed?

I’d have him love the thing that was

Before the world was made.

‘The Reverie Tree’ – the image that birthed the concept – a keeper of poems