Art-making at Magical Women is about being together, as a collective, autonomously so we can experience the collective unconscious at work so we can take notice of the symbolism and opportunity to reveal what we often only recognise in our dreams.
Stirring and conjuring is what experiencing the collective unconscious is, and these images occur on our paper as much as they do in the dreams and stories we all experienced as children when the doors to our soul were more readily visceral.
Our Communication cards require expression and not perfection, we need to free ourselves of ingrained ableism and realise the absolute earth quaking experience that is collective making, being together and expressing ourselves powerfully. Art can be made independently, but it is stronger in a group, when the collective unconscious is at play.
What do you want others to better understand about you?
What do you want or need most, but sometimes can’t ask for?
We shall be unveiling our communication cards on the 9th April on our main Facebook page! Find and buy the cards in our new Magical Women Shop! The Shop is CLOSED until 11th June. If you happen to buy anything in the shop it will not be sent to you until after the 11th June!
Meet our Artists behind the Communication Cards here.
Read on to discover the story behind Magical Women’s Communication Cards
What happened in this workshop?
On 14th November Magical Women welcomed 14 Neurodivergent women artists to participate in a Communications Cards workshop. Here, they were introduced to writing about feels and wants. Magical Women participants expressed these “I feel/I want” openly and honestly during the Share Gathering.
Then Magical Women participants were introduced to the idea of “Mantra” which is a repetitive sacred phrase, statement, sentence or word. Unlike affirmations that are motivational and can be quite damaging for ND populations who struggle with executive dysfunction then Magical Women artists could write the situation and what tool they need to reduce the barrier. Some of these overlapped with needs/wants and “I feel.” Again, ND artists were open, expressive and contributed generously. Feedback was generous, vibrating with a very loud and high resonance amongst the group.
Feedback from ND artists from the first workshop:
“I found the workshop really interesting it taught me a lot. Thank you 😊” - a new MW participant
“Hi, thank you so much for the workshop 😊 See you at the next one!” - a new MW participant
“Thank you so much for facilitating this, it was overwhelming and triggering in a validating way to be amongst so many resonant and wonderful women earlier today and I am so grateful to be able to contribute and connect.
I am really looking forward to exploring this further and will definitely share any more mantras as I reflect more over the next two weeks.” - a new MW participant
“Well done Elinor and Well done Megan, this has been brilliant, this has been just what I needed. Thank you very much.” - Regular MW participant
“This has been such a breakthrough for me, thank you.” - Regular MW participant
What happens next?
Magical Women’s project co-ordinator, Megan, will now be sending envelopes containing A5 card and a little gift to each and every workshop participant who will be asked to not open them until the next workshop on the 28th November.
How are they free?
These workshops have been funded by the Arts Council Emergency Funding during Covid19 and this is why we have been able to offer these workshops for free.
Why is this project so important?
Magical Women invites participants to share their experiences and creativity to help create an innovative set of communication cards, made by neurodivergent women artists for neurodivergent people worldwide.
Communication cards support communication in a visual and concrete way. They can go beyond material needs and wants to communicate emotional states, pet hates, or ND traits you might want someone to be aware of. They can be anything you want them to be.
As far as we know there isn’t yet a collaborative set made. We want to draw attention to the amazing talent of ND women artists and do something truly groundbreaking that can be used in the Magical Women workshops and ND led system and structure, and much further afield.
To be part of this project:
ND artists were invited to sign up to the first (free!) Communication Cards workshop, which will be facilitated by an Autistic/ADHD writer/artist. This will involve creative journeying, time to connect with your art practice, and relaxed sharing.
Next you will receive a communication cards pack in the post which will have the card for your artwork and a stamped envelope for you to post it back. (Please note, we are also happy to accept contributions in other formats including digital or text based).
There will be a second workshop to further develop your work before you post it in.
Artworks and words received will be shaped by a designer into a deck of new Magical Women communication cards that will be printed before Christmas* (Due to Christmas post this might be pushing it so we might be seeing a New Year reveal!)
ND participants are invited to donate their artwork, so we can run a silent online auction of the original artworks to fundraise for the next stage of developing this exciting project.