Tutorial: Found Poetry, Raw Art

Found poetry is the discovery of hidden words and phrases in text that was written for another purpose entirely–a catalog or magazine article, for example. The poem is not found all together, you’ll find a word here, a few more six lines down.

I find this accidental discovery a perfect match for raw art--which is drawing abstract patterns that are pleasing, exciting, soothing, or engaging. Both are a discovery and both result in the creation of something new.

You can make up a variety of rules to make found poetry more challenging–mine are simple: You choose a set number of pages from a catalog, book, or magazine and find words or phrases that, when cut out and placed next to each other, make poetry. No fair using song lyrics or pieces that are already poetry.

Be careful to cut out words that are grammatically correct in the place you want to use them. That might mean cutting out extra letters. Because you are creating a collage  the words can be different typefaces, sizes or colors.

Then you add raw art–in this case a repetitive topographical pattern, with a suggestion of plant life, to match the seasonal theme of the poetry and to emphasize the word “freedom” and the tribal feel.

Horizon Dust

Time around us moves faster.
The seed that was sown 20 years ago
sweeps into the season raw-edged and tribal.
New growth, striped in rich autumnal hues,
moving to a new feeling and a new freedom
blossoming forth.

All the words in “Horizon Dust” comes from a variety of clothing descriptions in two pages of the Sundance fall catalog.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer who stands in the middle ground between words and illustrations, believing they both make meaning and create art. © Quinn McDonald, 2009 All rights reserved

Tutorial: Easy Travel Journal

The journals I like to make best are ones that are multi-purpose and not too big. That way, I can use them in creative ways, fill them up quickly, and make another one. Like most people who make things, I often enjoy the design and creation more than using the actual finished piece. So I always leave room for the possibility of altering my work some more.

Travel journal made of #10 envelopes. You can fill the envelopes with airline tickets, menus from interesting restaurants, receipts,  whatever you want to keep from your trip. You can use one envelope for each day, for each country, for each town.

You can draw or write notes on the envelopes, describing how you got the content of each envelope. Make it before you go, and you won’t lose those small pieces of paper. Make a few, and you won’t run out of envelopes.

Materials: This tutorial uses simple things you already have: cardboard for the cover (I used mat board), number 10 size envelopes, masking tape, bookbinding tape (it’s expensive, you can substitute gaffers tape), cotton thread, a pointy awl and watercolors.

Purpose: This envelope journal has room to write in and room to keep mementos, but that doesn’t mean you can’t draw on it, too.

Assembly: 1. Cut black (or another solid color of mat board) into rectangles slightly larger (about one-fourth inch all the way around) than the envelope you will use. Put them next to each other, long sides together, but about one-quarter inch apart. Cut a piece of gaffers tape* about 2 inches longer than the covers. Center the tape over the covers and place it down gently. Lift the covers, turn them over and smooth down the piece of tape at the top and bottom. Cut another piece of tape to cover the space in between the top and bottom overlaps. Cut it long enough so you have all the sticky part of the tape completely covered.

2. Lay two envelopes, flap side down, in front of you, side by side. They should be about one-eighth inch apart. Tape them together, the long way, using one piece of masking tape. Create three sets of these. If you want to have the envelopes face in different directions, take into account that these pairs of envelopes will nest.

* gaffers tape is the special tape electricians use in theater productions. Not as gooey as duct tape, it makes a cheaper alternative to bookbinding tape, which you can also use.

3. Nest the pairs of envelopes and line up the top and bottom. Place them in the center of the open book covers.

4. Using the awl, or a self-centering screw punch (you get them from a hardware store) punch four evenly spaced holes in the tape between the envelopes and book covers.

5. Thread a tapestry needle with cotton thread. It should be thick enough not to tear. Starting from the back of the book, come up through the top hole. Go down into the next hole, come up through the third hole, and down through the fourth. If you want to make your book sturdier, come back up through the third and work your way to the top. The needle should exit out of hole # 1. Tie the thread off and trim the ends.

6. Decorate the cover. Paint geometric figures on the plain side of the envelopes. Leave enough space for writing.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach. She teaches journal making. Images: Quinn McDonald. (c) 2008-9 All rights reserved.

What Did You Leave Unsaid?

You know the feeling. You think of what you should have said hours after the opportunity is gone. Or you missed the chance to say “Thank you.” Or you should have said “Yes,” and you said, “No.”

Now you have a chance to say what you should have said. What you wanted to say. It’s another chance to get it right. Put it on a postcard–any size, any way–if the post office takes it, it counts. Sign it, keep it anonymous. It’s all up to you to get it right this time around.

Mail  postcard to:  P.O. Box 12183   Glendale  AZ  85318

Here is the first batch.

“Right Words” © Peg C.

Blank, anonymous

“Thank You” fabric on paper.©, A. Esqueda

Silence © Journey C.

Making Meaning With Your Decision

The earth heaves forward and you see the place where dawn will polish a hole in the sky.
You are the creator, this is your doing. You can call up the dawn, or you can step into the shadow.
Or you can step into the light and cast a shadow, falling in front of you.
You can wait until the sun is in your face, your shadow falling behind you.

You wonder if this creation is good, will sell, will become viral and make you a success, famous, a celebrity, rich beyond belief. You aren’t sure you care.

Genesis. Pitt Pen, watercolor pencils © Quinn McDonald 2009 All rights reserved

So you ask your committee to speak up.
The “Devil’s Advocate” who warns about the thing you haven’t thought of yet.
The Critic who says the public wants it smooth and cool, and you feel hot and sweaty.
The Marketer who says your portraits aren’t of pretty people, they are raw and ugly.
The Expert who says that people don’t like  hard edgy words now, they want it soft and easy.

You love this work, this scooping out of meaning from the blood-sponge of your heart.
You love it, but this Committee seems to know. Who is right? Who knows enough to advise you?

Sun pushes up the dawn. It’s time to know. Either you or your shadow will step into the shoes that leave deep marks and walk across the face of the earth.
This is no one else’s decision.
This is yours to know.
This is your creation.
For this one heartbeat, you are the Creator.

© Quinn McDonald 2009 All rights reserved

SPARK Collaboration for Writers, Photographers

Amy Souza runs the blog SPARK. It’s a creative jump start for collaborations between writers and artists. Souza says, ” Writers send artists a story or poem, and artists send writers an image of their painting, photograph, or sculpture. During the 10-day project period, each person uses their partner’s piece as a jumping off point for new work of their own.”

The goal is simply to give writers and artists a challenge, a new way of looking at the world and their work, and a chance to inspire another creative soul.” The project runs four times a year, and you can sign up any time.

The project continues each month and new examples go up. (See the most recent contest.)  My friend Lin Jorgensen participated in this imaginative exchange with Louisa Di Pietro.  Lin’s poem is below.

Lullabies for a Rainy House

I wouldn’t leave my house
Though the roof, unmended
For decades, sent rain seeping
Down through the walls
To meet water seeping
Up through broken pipes.

I stayed when the walls lifted
Away from floorboards
That sank, gaping.
With hell close underfoot
I stumbled tilting from
Room to room, amazed by
This decaying ark
Covered by a tattered tarp
Always damp and mostly dark
That I called home

Until, fifty years standing,
Thirty of them mine
Through ice and rainstorm
The elm tree let go

A quarter-ton bouquet
A rude awakening
A roaring boom across
The bow of the roof
Twelve feet from my bed
Shook the house
And ran my ark aground.
I knew it was bad before
I saw it: We’re sunk
I whispered to the cats.
It’ll never stop raining now.

The dog and I blinked
Through 3 a.m. murk
At a huge limb leaning
The length of the roof
Balanced on a single eave,
The crushing weight scarcely
Piercing a little room
I thought might be spared.
But already rain swept in. Soon
Every surface would I knew
Brimming, buckling, fall asunder

No more praying the elm
Tossing above in ice or rain
Stands fast until the morning.
Free from all hope, but things
Could always be worse!
That’s what we always said.
That’s boats for you. That’s
Staying afloat. That’s being
An elm tree, that’s living
Under one!  The dog and I
Crept back inside, weary from
Staring at the damage.

The worst had come and
It staggered, it beggared, it
Knocked all the wind out
And made me long for shelter

So I took what I could of the garden
And a slice of the elm and moved house.
New people bought my ark, razed it.
Built clean over my streaming sadness.
Cut down the elm.  I could never go back.
It’s safe here. The worst is over.
But comes a strong rain, I swear
A blue tarp frays and flaps like sails
I hear the steady hiss of hidden water
Leaking soaking sinking and
The elm tosses fifty feet above
Us, quaking, praying for morning.

Our old lullabies wake us:
The little cats keep close, the dog eyes
My face, then the window, and sighs.
We grow still, comforted, waiting for
The crack of doom together. Trusting
The ark of sleep to carry us home

—Lin Jorgensen

Traveling Journals Switch to Postcards

Is there something you’ve left unsaid? Something you didn’t say right and would like to say it now? Here’s your chance.

I’m starting the PostScript Project, a way for people to say the things they didn’t say right the first time, to say what was left unsaid, to say what they wanted to say but didn’t. It doesn’t matter if it was 30 years ago or yesterday. It doesn’t matter if it was in a conversation, a snail-mail letter or an email. If you left it unsaid, you can say it now.

Aha! Moment postcard by Bridget Benton ©2009

Use a postcard. An ordinary postcard is fine, or you can create your own postcard. If the Post Office will accept it, that’s all that counts. You can write, draw, paint, glue, tear. Use your imagination. Create a postcard and send it in.

Just to be clear: I am not going to forward your postcard. It will become a page in a group of handmade books I’m making. These books will join the Traveling Journals, whose time is coming to an end.

Need a postcard? I’ll send you a heavy watercolor paper postcard for free. Send me an email with your name and address to rawartjournals [at] gmail [dot] com.

Want to participate? Don’t wait. Say what you left unsaid, and mail it to:

Quinn McDonald
P.O. Box 12183
Glendale, AZ 85318  USA

Here’s the backstory for the journals, for those of you who are worried about contributing to them: If you signed up to add to a journal, you will still get one. But I’m not adding any more names to the project. When I started the journal project, I thought people would sign up, draw or write their contributions, return the journal and I’d scan the pages and send them on.

But like most art projects, it didn’t turn out like I thought it would when I started.

People didn’t send the journals back and I had to phone or write them to remind them. They weren’t always happy to hear from me. Some of them changed their minds about contributing and handed the journals to friends who weren’t on the list. People on the list didn’t want to wait.

I became the journaling police and an administrator, neither of which I wanted to be–I wanted to participate in an art journaling project.

The loose pages idea was the start of a more imaginative turn, but to date, less then 10 percent of the loose pages have been returned. Again, I spent more time reminding people than creating handmade journals from the pages.

I needed a way to involve people but let them be creative when they wanted to, without waiting. So I came up with the idea for the PostScript Project. People who have left things unsaid–in a relationship, in a letter, in any way at all, can write or draw what they still need to say and send it to me on a post card. Any size or material the Post Office will take is fine.

Want to participate? Don’t wait. Be creative. Say what you left unsaid, and mail it to:

Quinn McDonald
P.O. Box 12183
Glendale, AZ 85318  USA

A Shadow of Who We Are

We see ourselves in certain ways–”the patient one,” “the black sheep of the family,” “dependable.”  Maybe other people don’t see us that way, they know us in ways they experience us, instead of the ways we experienced our roles in families.

A cut-out gate and its shadow. © Photograph by Quinn McDonald, 2009

A good way to know who we are is to watch our shadow. How to we show up in the world? How do we represent ourselves? Even then it’s hard. That shadow we cast in real life on a sunny day doesn’t look exactly like us, after all. It’s hard to guess when the angle of the sun distorts our height, what we look like in a mirror.

You can catch a glimpse of what people think when you tell a story or give an example. “I’m not that extroverted,” you say, as prelude to a story of you dancing  on the sidewalk, and you notice people exchanging glasses. Uh-oh, they knew what you didn’t suspect–you are an extrovert.

An interesting exercise it to watch how people react to you–smile, cringe, lean forward, hug. The person we are when we are rushed or in a place where we don’t care about our behavior–in the grocery line, among strangers–is often the real us.

The gate below caught my eye. In the angle of the sun, it casts almost a duplicate as a shadow. Had I been there earlier or later, it would have looked different.

Journal prompt: Walking down the street, I turn and look at my footprint. I’m wearing ______, but my footprints are _______.

–—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

New Overused Word: A Prediction

The English language changes quickly and steadily. There is joy and hope in that. Impact was once just a noun, using it as a verb showed your ignorance. Now, hardly anyone remembers that. Impact is a verb, because every marketing expert promises to show you the impact of his (or her) expertise.

Book, ehow.com

There is another kind of change. Just like fads in fashion, there are words that go in and out of fashion. Heidi Klum, had she been an editor, instead of supermodel and host of Project Runway, might say, “One day it’s in, and the next day, it’s out.”

The relatively new crop of words are wearing out. “Awesome” now means, “OK, I heard you.”

“Passionate” now means “my boss wants me to do this,” at work and “my latest hobby” at home.

“Branding” –formerly a complex marketing process of logo recognition and audience expansion through service and product introduction to a bigger audience now means, “putting our logo on stuff.”

finding the right words

I’m predicting a new word for popularity. I’ve started to hear it used–and I predict it will be the new fad word. Formerly used only among artists and museum administrators, a “curator” is the expert on a museum exhibition who chooses what will be included in the exhibition and what doesn’t quite make the mark. In other words, an expert. I predict that the same people who once told us to “edit” our wardrobe will now become “curators.”

“Expert,” “guru” and “genius” have come and gone and now are synonymous with “trying to pretend we care.” So, as ‘passionate’ was replaced with ‘obsessed, ‘ the terms for someone skilled, in the know, and possessed of good taste, or at least a good eye, will become “curator.” Watch for it.

--Quinn McDonald is a writer, life- and creativity coach who teaches writing for business and pleasure. She follows word usage with great interest.

Altered Book: Fahrenheit 451

The Big Read is an idea sponsored by the Valley’s libraries. Each year a book is chosen and libraries sponsor events to encourage people to read that book. One of the events involves artists–I was one of the artists chosen to alter the book for a display at one of the libraries. This year’s book is Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury.

What makes the book interesting is that the 1953-written book has elements of  current reality–a society obsessed by television and celebrities, a fear of intellectual discussions at social functions, a minority kicking up a fuss about books, which are subsequently banned from libraries, and my favorite, a love of wearing earbuds and being plugged in to programmed music.

In my approach to altering the book, I chose the idea from the final scene of the book, in which people become living books. Readers live in books, so I created a row-house made of books. In the image below, the central house is Fahrenheit 451, surrounded by other book houses.The pages of the central book are stuffed with message tags.

Altered book, Fahrenheit 451. © Quinn McDonald, 2009

Each house represents a genre: mystery, science fiction, art and poetry. Because love of nature was banned in the story, the two houses on the left represent winter and spring, and the two books on the left represent summer and fall.

Altered book detail, left side © Quinn McDonald, 2009

Altered book right-side detail. © Quinn McDonald, 2009

The tags are all quotes about books, all  from famous people. Ray Bradbury’s own quote, “You don’t have to burn books to destory a culture, Just get people to tstop reading them,”  is there, as well as Salman Rushdie’s quote, “A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it or offer your own version in return.”

Detail of book tags, © Quinn McDonald, 2009

In the heart of the book (I chose page 98 deliberately, as 98.6 Fahrenheit is the normal temperature of the human body), there are flames on one side and a matchbook on the other. The matchbook has a burning match on the cover, and the inside “matches” are the spines of books that have been banned in the past.

Right side detail, matchbook © Quinn McDonald, 2009

The matchbook itself is surrounded by paper flames that have already consumed the page of the book.

The tags are removable for easy reading, and can be used as bookmarks. I hope the book is displayed in a way that allows people to touch it and play with it.

Banned books as matches, detail of altered book, © Quinn McDonald, 2009

I read the book when I was about 10 and just discovering science fiction. My first big literary shock was discovering that Bradbury had made a mistake, paper bursts into flame at 451 Celsius, not Fahrenheit. Yes, I stuck a piece of paper in the oven to see it burst into flame.

It took me a long while to accept altered books. The thought of ruining a book was overwhelming. But the lure of transforming a book that was scheduled for the shredder into a piece of art won me over.

The satisfaction of planning out a concept and carrying it through was really satisfying. I am honored to have been chosen for this project. And yes, I do custom altered books to honor a special event or person.

–—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.

Theme Thursday #18: 9.24.09

Maps are fascinating. They help us figure out where we are and where we still have to go. They help us figure out what is happening near us and far away. They show us proportions, how high that mountain is, how low the sea.

Boston Ride, map by Bill Tipton, Compartmaps.com

Bill Tipton draws maps. An amazing amount of technical knowledge combines with artistic ability at Compartmaps. Here’s the really amazing thing: Bill told me he does custom maps. He also does photo-realistic technical drawings. But the maps are what intrigue me. That’s one of Bill Tipton’s maps on the left.

While I’m on the map theme: I occasionally get lost on the internet, and turn up someplace with no idea how I got there. Today I came across an orphan piece–a piece written two years ago with such yearning and hope that I became intrigued. Seanie Blue wrote a story of people who had no map of time or their lives. Blue hoped it would become a movie. The story is on his website, as is his hope to sell it. . . and then no updates, although he has posted often since then.

Ready to get back to writing your own novel? Chris Brogan will help you map what makes a story work.

Poems are a kind of emotional map using only words and the images they invoke. For a fresh poem every day, you can check in at Poetry Daily. Give yourself a treat before you start reading emails in the morning.

If you love typography–the way printed letters look on a page, watch this video of artist Richard Darill of Bit Rebels drawing a letter cascade with different typefaces. One of the best thrills on YouTube is watching artists draw. Here’s an artist drawing a picture of Betty Davis–with a mascara wand. Is this possible? Yes, it is. I tried it, and it works. I’m not a portrait artist, I stuck to a willow tree.

You can join in on Theme Thursday: post three links to sites you love or blogs you follow. You can do it on your site or in comments here.

Five Most Recent  Theme Thursdays: * * * Creative Play 9.17.09* * * Creative Play 9.10.09 * * *  Creative Play 9.3.09 * * * Creative Play 8.27.09 * * * Creative Play 8/20/09 * * *  Creative Play 8/15/09 * * *   Creative Play 8/6/09 * * * Creative Play 7/30/09 *** Creative Play 7/23/09 * * *

—Quinn McDonald is a life- and certified creativity coach. She teaches people how to write and give presentations. She also teaches people who can’t draw how to keep an art journal.