Fusing Images - Rakefet Hadar

Creating a Collage with the “Soul Pages” Method

Eleven years ago, one of the most difficult periods of my life, I was just beginning mycareer as an art therapist while also caring for my mother in her final days. I was constantly on the move, driving back and forth between home and my young children, the daycare center where I worked, and the hospice where my mother was staying.

One morning, I decided to take some time off to nourish my soul and made plans to meet a close friend of mine from school. When I arrived at the café, she was sitting with her back to me, and what I saw her doing became etched in my soul as something truly magical.

At the time, I had no idea that this meeting would change my life.

She was immersed in a small notebook, surrounded by colorful markers, a glue stick, and torn pages from magazines scattered across the table. People passing by cast curious glances at her work, yet she remained fully absorbed in her own world.

It was a revelation – the idea of creating art in a small, intimate journal that I could carry with me anywhere! It felt as if a door to an entirely new world had just opened before me.

When I got home, I created a journal of my own and began exploring ways to create art and express myself within its pages.

I searched online and experimented with different materials and techniques. I poured my thoughts and emotions onto the pages, then buried and concealed my words with paint, glued images, and then connected and separated them. For months, I wrote, glued, connected, painted, sewed, cut, tore up, and then connected again.

My mother’s illness and the difficult experiences I went through pushed me to release everything building up inside me.

Looking back, I realize that the process began emerging from within me before I knew what I was doing. Slowly, after filling more than ten journals with soul pages bursting with color and images, I began to understand the magic behind it.

This led me to develop the SoulPages® method for visual journaling.

The method is based on seven elements: intention, magical coincidence, background, color, images, lines, and text. It is unique because it walks the fine line between art therapy and creative expression for pure enjoyment. Every page created during the sessions becomes a kind of treasure map to the unconscious, using the images we select, the way we arrange them on the page, and how we connect them using the other elements (lines, color, text, etc.). This process creates a complete story, visually and conceptually.

The SoulPages® method allows for endless experimentation with materials and techniques, connecting and fusing images to create a collage that appears as if it were crafted from a single piece. To me, creating the SoulPage is like delicate jewelry-making, fusing different metals together in a unique, alchemical process that forms something harmonious and complete.

So, how do we transform a SoulPage into a piece of jewelry that is also a treasure map?

SoulPages® are a process of focus and refinement that give clarity and insight into any subject we explore within ourselves. Here’s just one example of a multi-step process using various techniques.

At the beginning of the process, we allow ourselves to step into the unknown and unfamiliar – into the realm of the unconscious – by letting our hands guide us, selecting the images that seem to call to be part of the creative process.

Step 1: A watercolor background to expand and open the unconscious

The background is the foundation of each SoulPage. We start by covering the page with watercolors, letting them flow and spread, usually no more than two or three colors that resonate with how we feel in the present moment. The interaction between the colors can form organic shapes, creating fascinating splashes of color that we can later use to connect to our selected images.

Watercolors have a unique ability to help us access the unconscious – like entering a river of associations that gently leads us toward the subject we will work on.

Step 2: Cutting and gluing images – focusing the unconscious to uncover soul fragments

We allow the unconscious to select images from old books and magazines, trusting our hands to choose and cut them out, leaving a small border around each one.

We then glue the images onto the page wherever it feels right, letting our intuition guide us without overthinking. This is the beginning of the soul refining process, because the potential to tell a specific, meaningful story starts as soon as the images are glued to the page. It's important to glue the images flat on the pages, no edges lifting.

In the next step, we connect the images in various ways to fully understand the story that has begun to emerge.

Step 3 – Fusing images and background to create a treasure map

·       Lines

We create connections and relationships between the images with lines. In addition to visual delineation, they also add layers of meanings that we can reflect upon later.

At this stage, the SoulPage begins to take shape, revealing itself as a treasure map. To me, this process is like a dialogue with the unconscious, both personal and collective, where I allow my hand to flow freely, guiding the movement and shaping a story in which certain elements come together in their own unique way. Sometimes, I extend the image into the background or use lines to connect one image to another.

·       Bold color

Since the background is created with watercolors, I use acrylic markers as “binding glue” to seamlessly fuse the images. Acrylic colors are bold and opaque against the delicate background. I choose shades that closely match the color of the image, then extend it outward using splashes of color, dots, and lines, blending into the background and from there connecting to other images on the page.

This technique creates a unifying layer that assimilates images and background, until the edges of the cut-out images disappear and become an integral part of the artwork.

The layer of bold color is especially important; it connects the images to the background but also creates different connections and relationships between the images themselves.

·       Text

At this stage, I step back and look at the artwork I’ve created, letting it “speak” to me. I usually try to bring up a mantra or message from my unconscious and then write it in a way that connects the images. The text can be integrated into the artwork in different ways, creating a visual connection between the various images and the background.

·       Doodling in black and white

Doodling is a technique that lets us create repetitive shapes that add more texture to each soul page. Working with a fine-tip marker, usually in the final stages, is a way to Illuminate the work.  Delicate, embroidery-like doodling allows me to add my unique signature and the small recurring symbols that guide my imagination (for me, these are tiny houses and stick figures, stars and moons).

This is the stage where many insights surface and I start to understand the deeper meaning of my work, “listening” to it.  My movements become sharper and more precise, working with fine lines and creating more connections between the images, and between the images and the background. This unifying layer is the finishing touch to the soul page.

Conclusion

The creative process of fusing images involves multiple techniques, too many to include here. However, the core intention remains the same – to create artwork that is colorful and coherent, connected visually and by meaning. The result is a treasure map of the unconscious that can be used to uncover and understand what it brings to the surface.

This method allows us to embark on an internal process of artistic expression, uncovering soul fragments that are ready to emerge from the unconscious into awareness.

Ultimately, the finished work reflects the soul, like a beautiful jewel.

The soul pages collage method enables us to create a complex and meaningful piece, connecting fragments that might otherwise remain hidden, learning to embrace and love these parts of ourselves.

All artwork was created by the writer.

Rakefet Hadar:

rakefetlink@gmail.com

https://soul-pages.com/