The Surgery Journey Journal

As I mentioned, my friend Katherine created a wonderful journal for me. I found it very powerful to work in this medium. I prepared by copying excerpts from the many emails into a document and printed it on colored paper.


I used images of the pieces I created during this time, including the Warrior torso and the small Warrior doll, who was meant for the torso but in the end, was her own piece.

I gathered my crow motifs, crow feathers gathered on my evening 'recovery walks' with Dennis, ribbons from the flowers I received and so on. I used rubber stamps for text, chalks for highlighting and other images that spoke to me.

The journal was designed with 'pockets' where I placed all the cards I received during this time.

I added my own signifier images to the covers and in the end, had a full gathering of my experience.

Happy to be blogging again

I had surgery about a month ago. The scary part was that cancer cells were discovered in a routine test and the surgery could resolve the situation in and of itself or could reveal that the surgery was only the beginning treatment. Most fortunately, the cells turned out to be precursor cells and the surgery was all that was needed. But I must say, the two weeks between the words ‘malignant cells’ in the biopsy and the surgery certainly took me to some emotional depths.

My totem torsos [see July 7 entry] did me in good stead, as well as the many calls, cards and emails from my friends. So many good vibes, blessings, affirmations, prayer circles, rituals, and so on came my way that I can be most sure they are a good part of my good news and recovery.

My dear friend Katherine made the wonderful accordion journal you see here. This Friday we have convened a meeting of the ‘Art Girls’ and I plan to create a book of this journey, including those cards & excerpts from the emails, and ribbons from the flowers and so on. Look for it in the next post.

The last thing I did before surgery was upload the final version of Aspect Art – Art As the Soul’s Journey to Amazon.com. It was a perfect moment of completion as I stepped into the unknown. Just click this link to check it out.

Reviews are most welcome!

And I’ve revamped my website to a sleeker look. There are new images, an excerpt from the book and other things. And if you find a typo or broken link, please do let me know. www.alterede.com

And the last new thing I’ve done in the past two weeks as my energy came back, is my new shop at Ecrater –alteredEart.ecrater.com. I’m not on Etsy or Ebay right now, but this little site has a few goodies.

All is good.