Little Andy

Some time, when you're feeling introspective, try to imagine what your "little voice" looks like.

Your little voice is your intuition, the force that drives you in one direction or another.

You might want to call it your instinct, your gut, your animus, or your conscience.

And it can be fun to give physical form to this little voice.

Some people imagine something abstract, like a cloud of purple fog.

Some people imagine that their inner voice is a light.

My inner voice looks like me at 4 years of age, and talks like her too. I call her Little Andy.

The little girl in the following YouTube clip reminds me of me when I was little. 

If you want to know what my little voice looks like, this is the closest thing:

My little voice, or "Little Andy", is curious about everything and loves to play.

Playtime can be a lot of different things because there is so much joy and fun to be had.

When you've given your little voice a visual form, start thinking about what it likes best. Ask it what it dislikes.

Interview your little voice.

What makes it afraid? What is it's favorite treat? Does it like dancing?

This is one way to really learn about who you are and what makes you tick at the very deepest core of your being. The more you explore and discover, the closer you will be to understanding who you are, and accepting and loving all the various parts of yourself.
(and if you don't buy into all this stuff, just do it as a fun exercise for your imagination!)

About Little Andy

Little Andy really likes green apples, making tea, and things that smell like coconut.

Sometimes she makes her apples into puppets!

(Things with faces taste better)

Little Andy loves being outside, and looking at bugs, and inspecting things that grow.

She tried gardening one year, but was distracted by very important things (taking care of my Opa) so the garden became a little wild, and the lettuce grew a meter high!

{image found here}

She likes to imagine scenes for photo shoots. She loves fantasy environments, placing people in the impossible, and combining unlikely elements to create visually rich images.

Like these ones: inspiring examples of what I have in my brain, ready to launch out of me

Little Andy really loves Japan. Look at what shenanigans she could get up to there!

This photo was taken after a Tupera Tupera workshop!!

"Tupera Tupera is a Japanese art and design unit by Tatsuya Kameyama and Atsuko Nakagawa. Since 2002, they have worked on  various art projects — picture books, illustrations, craft, workshops, 3D art, animation, product design and instruction of craft making on TV etc."

The workshop was held at an outdoor market. 

Here are more pictures of the workshop from Hello Sandwich:

Someone very close to me asked me recently, "how do you learn to love yourself?".

Since then my journal has been ever open, receiving my pen scribbling furiously over it's pages, and this inquiry has given birth to some kind of manifesto. I've also been soliciting the opinions of friends since this is a very big question and it's nice to absorb other people's perspectives.
At the urging of these friends, I will be posting my journal musings soon.

So, this could be considered the first part of this mini-manifesto. Self-exploration.

First, identify your inner voice, and next, travel with them to explore your inner landscape.

(Andy's inner landscape is a blog post for another day)

I'm interested to hear about what your inner-voice looks like! If you don't want to comment in the blog you can always send me a personal message at andy@andymcparrot.com

And here's one last tidbit of inspiration for you, a Flickr stream from Chien-Yang Wang. Click the following link to view it:
HOUSE
"Privacy fosters fantasy and imagination. House, such an ordinary but exclusive to each individual, changes with life and thought. Here mind flies, and fantasy comes true. Interesting things happen everyday. HOUSE is a series of how the real us would be in an isolated world."