Wednesday, December 4, 2019

The Ancient Rituals of the Magnolia Dance

The Ancient Rituals of the Magnolia Dance collage by June Anderson of Under the Plum Blossom Tree blog, collage by June Anderson, June Anderson collagist, June Anderson collage artist, collage art by June Anderson, dance collage art, floral collage art, magnolia flower collage art, Martha Graham dancers 1937 collage, Martha Graham dancers Celebration 1937, Martha Graham Celebration collage, embrace joy collage, welcome happiness collage, magnolia grove, magnolia garden, dance on magnolia petals in the rain

Friends, today's collage is a reminder to fully embrace joyful moments when they show themselves - to welcome with open arms that which brings you happiness, even if only for a moment. To feel joy as if you are dancing in the rain on soft magnolia petals while birds fly by without noticing that life is anything other than joyful or pleasurable. 

Although dance is not that old of an art form (in comparison to magnolias), it is certainly an ancient form of expression. The magnolia, on the other hand, is a prehistoric plant with origins dating from 20 to 100 million years ago. And if you've ever stood in a magnolia grove or garden and felt their presence, you might feel as I did - that they seem to be performing their own kind of dance as they bend and yield to the abundance of flowers that bloom on bare branches. It may seem odd to juxtapose the two, but I love to dream of new places and to challenge myself to create an atmosphere that is unlike the one I currently exist in, so my collage work in this season of life is an attempt to fully embrace that kind of mood. Right now it is central to the way in which I choose to tell stories with paper and glue.

A few weeks ago, as I was putting together the Amelia, It Was Just a False Alarm collage project, I found the Martha Graham dancers (circa 1937), above, in the same file folder as the Amelia Earhart image. I made a mental note to revisit the dancers because I knew at that moment that they would be performing The Ancient Rituals of the Magnolia Dance and I'm so glad to have actually gotten it made and very happy to share it with you here.

Thanks for looking!

 
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