Sonoma Valley artist visualizes the future through vision boards

A Sonoma Valley artist helps people to outline their goals and plans for the new year through artistic boards decorated with visual reminders.|

Forget that New Year’s resolutions have already been made, maybe even broken. Sonoma Valley artist Thena Trygstad has a creative way to outline goals and keep them at hand throughout 2017.

She encourages people to outline their goals or plans for the new year and then turn them into artistic vision boards that serve as visual reminders of what they hope to achieve. The multimedia artist has been leading vision board sessions for more than a decade, guiding participants to highlight their goals and desires by making colorful collages.

The boards acknowledge everything from the need to lose weight and improve fitness habits to the desire for a new job or a new set of wheels. Trygstad, 79, brings a unique perspective to the process. A retired vice chancellor at UC San Francisco, she turned to art at age 56 after working in the corporate world for nearly 40 years. She’s as practical and analytical as she is carefree and creative, a problem solver with left- and right-brain talents.

Vision boards are helpful, she says, because they focus on a positive awareness and desire for change. They are a tangible reminder of the possibilities ahead - a nudge to tackle goals and make things happen.

“Doing a vision board is about focusing on being positive,” she said. “It’s sitting down and figuring out what you want that’s positive and making images about that.”

The idea isn’t new. It became popular a decade ago when Oprah Winfrey featured the bestselling (and controversial) book “The Secret” on her daytime talk show and explored vision boards as a process in the power of visualization and the law of attraction. In recent years, vision boards have been featured on the health-themed “The Dr. Oz Show” and the subject of numerous online blogs, videos and websites.

While there’s no shortage of celebrity endorsements, Trygstad acknowledges not everyone believes in the concept. Yet those with an open mind and a willingness to try just might be surprised.

She knows of many vision board goals that have manifested into reality, including her own. Last year she considered the idea of traveling outside the United States but didn’t have any clear destinations or time frames.

Trygstad incorporated images of a suitcase, an airplane and a passport on her vision board “and I went to Europe this summer,” she said. “I was hoping and I was ready to do that but I wasn’t sure if it was going to come about.”

And, she says, with new leadership in the White House, right now is an exceptional time to make a vision board.

“I think right now people are really looking for something since things are so uncertain. That’s why it’s even more important to know what you want in your life – your focus – and make it real,” she said.

Vision boards can be as simple as a poster board or sheet of scrapbook paper with positive images or inspiring words cut from magazines and secured with a glue stick in an eye-catching arrangement. It’s the message that matters, not just the artistry.

Once goals are outlined and corresponding images are found, she encourages her students to have fun creating a meaningful work of art they’ll keep on display throughout the year. Even those challenged by crayons and a coloring book can make an attractive collage.

“Collage is the most wonderful thing there is for people who don’t think they’re artistic,” Trygstad said. “Collage is just a really good medium for people who have ‘art fear.’?”

Once a vision board is put together, it needs to be placed where it’s going to be seen. The idea is to take action and turn those goals into reality.

“The whole point is, we are in charge of ourselves. Nobody else is,” Trygstad said.

While material things are common to vision boards, they also can include representations of emotions or ideals, like wanting the acknowledgment, challenge or satisfaction a new job can bring.

Trygstad knows firsthand the benefits of creativity and positive thinking. She is a founder and administrator of ArtEscape in Boyes Hot Springs, a nonprofit arts education program that provides free and affordable art and craft classes, teacher workshops, special events and exhibits and arts camps reaching underserved neighborhoods throughout Sonoma Valley. She also is a member and former president of the Arts Guild of Sonoma, the oldest arts cooperative in California. The gallery often features Trygstad’s whimsical multimedia sculptures made from found objects.

Trygstad was honored in 2014 as Sonoma’s treasure artist, an honorary position chosen by the Sonoma Cultural and Fine Arts Commission.

Her vision board workshops are one of many ways she encourages people of all ages to find their inner creativity – and their ability to improve and enrich their lives in the process.

For more information, call 938-5551 or visit artescapesonoma.com.

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