For years I was Alicia Wills aka Many Hats, wearing my left brain organizing hat.
Now it's time to put on my creative hat and be....
I am an organizer, a gardener, and one who loves images and words. After almost 40 years of spending the majority of my time on left brain tasks - organizing events and helping clients and non-profits manage administrative tangles - I now, in semi-retirement, have the luxury to focus on my creative side. I've created this site as an online scrapbook, a place to compile my collages, writing and photos.
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To whoever happens across this site: I hope you find something here that pulls you in for a moment or tickles your fancy. A piece that you can relate to or an image or idea that offers you a new perspective.
Thank you for looking!
A bit of history and process ...
Words: My writing most often emerges from a need to process life's transitions and challenges or when I'm grappling with an existential question, although some pieces are just figments of an active imagination. I've been an incessant reader my whole life. I scribbled stories as a child but started taking it seriously - learning and experimenting with the craft - in my early 40's. New works are born in my mind, often while walking in nature or driving, and live there for some time, building themselves by bits and pieces into a loose framework before they emerge through a pen or a keyboard. Writing has ebbed and flowed in my life, usually depending on how much of my brain was needed to focus on practical matters. As I approach retirement I hope the flow will become more prolific again.
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Photos: I come from a family of shutterbugs. I got my first real camera, a Nikkormat, at age 14 after years of fooling around with Brownie box cameras. Since then I'm most often found with a Nikon DSLR over my shoulder. I'd describe myself as an amateur with a good eye. My photos are whatever captures my attention when I'm out with my camera. I'm happy to have a place to post a few of my old favorites and any interesting new images that come along.
Collage: I began collaging when I was in my 40's, starting with workshop RoadMap collages and gradually moving into the use of collage for Process Work and as an art form. My method - for my work and what I teach in my workshops - is an intuitive process that brings the subconscious to light through found images. I begin by flipping through my hundreds of magazines and pulling out any images that speak to me in the moment, often with a current dilemma circling but with no end product in mind. Frequently the images I pull don't make any sense until I begin to cut and incorporate them on a board. Once the path and meaning of the collage become clearer, I can spend up to a couple months playing with it, rearranging and finding images that want to be included. I've found this method to be very healing and to offer rich perspective on my inner journey, as well as producing final images that are visually satisfying.