Vanilla Skies is a personal project started in 2020, during the early days of the COVID lockdowns, which explores the flow state and how it can impact mental health for the better. As I’ve grown, into my career and personally, I understand the pressures that seem to multiply whether you’re a C-level executive, managing a household, or anything in between. Life doesn’t slow down, and today’s pace of life doesn’t allow for much space in our days to reset. Each moment can be filled with a little dopamine hit, every second begs for progress. The flow state is a stopgap built into our operating systems, to the sometimes overwhelming experience of being human, it gives us a chance to recharge exponentially, and without much forcing. Athletes and artists already know what the flow state feels like, but I’ve come to realize that lots of others might not, because it requires discipline as an adult. I am pretty easily able to drop into this experience if given the right mix of time and environment, but it’s something that I have to plan around to fit into my life. For me, and others I know, being engrossed in something, literally anything that lights you up, is incredibly rejuvenating and can provide the energy needed to jump through our next set of pressures and hoops.
Early 2020 was, for me, a blessing because it gave me not only the time but the permission to not feel like I had to be super productive. Some picked up sourdough, and although I’m kind of jealous that’s not part of my cache of skills now, I was able to marry two hobbies I used to do growing up - reading magazines and collaging. I spent days and weeks indulging in old magazines that, yes, I had kept in a few boxes and moved with me throughout my adult life. I love photography, typography, color, layout, all the fun designer indulgences, and started tearing out pages and cutting up spreads to put back together, in a new way. These sessions sometimes lasted all day, and absolutely dropped me into this flow state when the world around was….something. About a year later, I layered phrases, letters, and digital elements over these collages in Photoshop. What I was doing seemed a little different than other collage work I’d been watching, usually more vintage and analog in style. I wanted to take the cut paper and hand-placed imagery and layer what was going on in my mind over and within them - phrases to inspire and motivate, during times of wild confusion.
The collages represent the overlapping thought patterns that can sometimes come up for all of us, impacting our mental health. These combine found imagery, photos taken on long walks during these first few years of COVID, with typography inviting closer inspection. The provocative phrases are meant to be uncovered versus obvious, and create a layered piece that presents itself slowly, over time, requiring the viewer to pause. I later turned these into stationary and tiny motivational cards. One rests on my laptop stand as I’m writing this….Good things are coming. Something I need to hear this week.
Not every piece is finished, but that just means I get to spend more time working on these. My hope is that this collage series provides tiny boosts of joy and reminds you to put the pieces of life together a little differently, and change your perspective when things get confusing. You got this!