In my art I love to trick myself with inspired limitations, that cause me to have to be creative to solve the puzzle of how to proceed, like in this painting called Goodness of Fit. It was painted in 9 panels while leaning over a small lapboard against the dash of our van, as we traveled across Canada in 1985. But how to put it together so the edges of the paper didn't show--how to make a good fit? The answer was in painting the rims of the paper so the image wraps around each edge and no white shows. The panels where then hung against a foam core backing with rice glue so each piece is still independently itself, and also makes a larger whole.
I decided I would let my paintings be the inspired limitation for how to structure my book. I divided the short version of the Journey of the Oracle now on my website into 14 paragraphs that could logically be developed into 14 sections of the book. I then made a chronological list of all the large acrylic paintings I have created since my partner and I moved to Cortes Island in 1990. And discovered there were 14 paintings. This goodness of fit was a very spirit-directed confirmation for me. I next matched the painting list with the paragraph sections without attempting to calculate why each was paired with the other. Painting # 3 goes with paragraph #3--how it does is the puzzle.
I next need to understand how each painting will "frame" the writing in each section of the book, and find the voice of the storyteller who will write this story. Still, discovering goodness of fit between my paintings and the oracle cards is a good beginning.
