Create an Intuitive Collage

Intuitive Digital Collage - Shelley KlammerWhat is Intuitive Collage?


~ Carl Jung

Intuitive collage is a process of quieting your everyday mind and inviting imagery to express the story of your inner world.

Intuitive collage will always tell you something that you do not yet know about yourself. Intuitive collage will communicate the "growth edge" that is emerging from your unconscious mind.

I love intuitive collage because it does not require traditional artistic "talent." Over the past 15 years, intuitive collage has taken me on a journey to the depths of my unconscious, and it still continues to inform me today.

I have been passionately exploring digital collage this past year. Digital collage is such a fast way to process emotions and make the unconscious conscious. You can see my visual process and instructions HERE.

Intuitive Magazine Collage - Shelley Klammer

As much as I have grown to love digital collage. I still love the tactile process of getting my hands sticky with paper collage. Here are instructions on how to make a paper collage.

Intuitive Magazine Collage


You will need a sketchbook or loose paper, a glue stick, scissors, and magazines to cut up. 

Magazine Collage Process

1. Quiet your mind. Take three deep breaths and quiet your mind. Sink your awareness deep into your body. Set your rational mind on "silent" and sense into what you do not yet know inside yourself.

2. Tear out 10-20 magazine pages. Quickly flip through a magazine and instinctively pull out 10-20 pages that move you emotionally - positive or negative. 

3. Cut out your imagery. Meditatively cut out 10-15 images and words that emotionally move you the most.

4. Arrange your collage. Intuitively arrange your imagery. Lay down your largest images as your background and spontaneously layer your smaller images and words on top.

5. Glue down your images and words. Gently move your image arrangement to the side of your paper and glue down your background first and then layer on the other images.

6. Contemplate your collage. Hold your heart gently and soften your eyes. Sense into your collage and contemplating what it means to you.

Meditate Into Your Visual Language

Initially, an intuitive collage offers up a "feeling-tone" that might not have words. So bask in the "feeling-tone of your inner world in visual form.

If any insights or words "pop into" your mind write them down on the back of your collage. If no insights come, just enjoy the feeling of your honest self-expression.

Try to contemplate your collage for an entire day and then put it away. Pull it out at a later time and see if more insights arise.