If facing the paper, your thought is 'I am an artist', you have no clue what to do. If the concepts of your function are, 'I am a shape maker, an entertainer, an expressive symbol collector'...then you have an explicit road map. Edgar Whitney

Friday, April 16, 2010

17 April 2010

The title of this poem is a quote by Marianne Lettieri, an assemblage artist I admire. Kieth Lobue is another, his site is stunning. The title comes from the book Art Making, Collections and Obsessions by Lynne Perrella, Quarry Books, published in 2007. Many of the pages in the book resemble my studio. I have a vast and ever growing collection of curiosities and trinkets. This poem is inspired by my never ending search for ways to store my junk.

'Pieces of string too small to use'

Foreward
this book is about how to save things

i
flakes of text keep best in small corked bottles

ii
bind together with twine impulsive wire spectacles and
their more conservative cases

iii
wind rusted imperial tape measures
around grey palm pebbles

iv
separate yellowed crochet castoffs
in pigeonholes of an old secretary like this -
lengths of lace : round doilies : lace edge lawn hankies

v
fashion humble twine into self supporting nests

2 comments:

  1. I like this - but did you mean "foreword" in place of "forward"?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oops, yes Catherine. You probably recognise some of the items in this poem :)

    ReplyDelete