This morning I cut the sleeves off of the black shearling coat that my mother's friend Joyce gave to me five years ago. I have wanted to cut off the sleeves for more than four years. They were too big and I knew that, hidden inside of that enormous bear of a coat, there was a beautiful shearling vest waiting to be born.Today, because I finished my vision board last night, I cut off the sleeves.My Vision Board

• reminds me who i am
• infuses me with courage - and also, magic
• strengthens my will - and my willingness to try new things (because I have an end in mind)
• focuses and clears my thinking
• jazzes and juices my body. I don't know why. It just does.
• pleases me and makes me smile

My vision boardMoves what is inside of me outside of me so that I can see it and begin to make it real. This is an alchemical process - one which all artists already intuitively understand - even if they don't know that they do, they are using it all the time, translating images in their heads onto paper, into clay, onto the dance floor. Artists, whatever their medium are in the business of making vision real.Though vision boarding is often used as an end of year project, I keep my vision board brain on ALL THE TIME.I have a box (several boxes, actually) into which I toss images and words snipped from magazines, postcards, calendars, etc.I've written a detailed post about this process, with directions you can follow, here: Forget resolutions: Invent a world and step into it