100 THINGS
Click here to see my full list of goals for 2010

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Passionate Scribbly Experiments

This afternoon was perfect for writing.  Torrential downpours!  Dramatic thunderclaps!  I was working away in a Starbucks when the storm hit and it certainly did wonders for my productivity.  Equipped with photocopies of my sketches and unable to escape the coffee shop, I worked through the drafts of two new poems and then started experimenting with how I might integrate image and text on the page.

This process turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected.  I wanted the text to look emotionally written (passionate, frenzied), yet legible.  I also wanted to break away from a straight-forward linear presentation of the poem without making the actual sequence of the poem difficult to follow.  No easy feat!  I ran into similar issues with Pax Familia when I incorporated the poem into the maze and ended up sending the poem as a separate Word document when I submitted it to ensure that the impact of the poem would not be lost.  

I still don't think I found the right balance today, but some of the results were encouraging.  The poem I wrote to accompany one of the nude females wandered into the somewhat dark subjects of sexuality and the internet, which I don't think really suits the image. It begins:

An icon in the modern sense, digitized and abbreviated 
to make room for a thousand simultaneous desires
of which your thighs can satisfy only one

My first attempt was a pretty standard, linear layout, which ensures the text is readable but isn't very visually interesting.

My second attempt was a little more all over the place. You can probably read the whole thing if you click on the image (Let's hope it doesn't end up plagiarized in a Hallmark card!).  The poem itself needs work, but there's a good base to work from.  


The second poem explores themes of heredity (one of my goals, of course!).  Definitely a work-in-progress, but at least it allowed me to practice new text/image combinations.


I like the energy of the image above, but my favourite is this one below.


After today's experimentation session, I'm debating two directions in which I could take this series:
  1. I stick with a more linear presentation and make sure my writing is legible enough that no words get lost in the presentation.
  2. I go totally crazy/messy/abstract, throw all order out the window, and make the text truly an integrated, overlapping part of the image.  Then, if and when I choose to submit the works to any sort of publication, I submit the image and text as two components of the same work.
I would really love some feedback on this, so if you've made it to the end of this ridiculously long post then please leave a comment about which option you like the best (or any other crazy ideas about where I could take this experiment).  I'm really hoping to have a polished idea ready for October so that I can replicate the final version as a screen print.

4 comments:

  1. first off, your handwriting is beautiful. i really enjoy the first drawing and the linear text. but i also love the drawing with the slightly arching text. my eyes are naturally lead towards one direction so it feels easy to read (as opposed to the last drawing).

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  2. Thank you so much for your feedback, Tanya! I used to hate my handwriting, but I've worked on making it a little more fabulous over the years and now it's not so bad.

    I'm coming around more to the linear text layouts as well. I was so set on making things look messy and loose, but the image with the arching text is really the best representation of what I wanted the end product to look like.

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  3. I really love the first rendition of the heredity poem. I love the way the arching text flows with the sketch. I also really like the second attempt of the female sketch. The way the words are written really accentuate her curves (if that makes sense!)

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  4. Totally makes sense! Thank you for your thoughts on the images. It's funny. I really thought I would like the non-linear options, but the images with at least a little linear organization clearly have more of a visual impact. Good to know!

    I got the clothing package, by the way. Thanks for sending it up!

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