at the edge

Collage paper marginalia

Roy Peter Clark says that it's best "to think of marginalia as a genre." Maybe it's best to think of it as medium, too. Everything I make takes place in the margins. At the edge of something beyond me, at the periphery of something else. Something that pushes me towards...something. That's where it all happens for me.

Every essay that ever came to or through me, every collage, every piece art, arrived as a kind of marginalia. It happens when I read. As I'm reading. As I'm thinking about it. As I'm pondering. Annotating.

I capture the scraps and fragments. I collect them. I try to connect them to other things. Sometimes the circles become direct and form lines. Sometimes something fearful becomes heroic. Something distinct and orchestrated. Sometimes muddled thoughts turn meaningful. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes they eventually will. Sometimes I have to let them go. Sometimes I have to let them sit. In either case, I keep reading. I keep writing. I keep doobling. I keep scribbling. I keep making.

Recently, I've started putting out something I'm calling a Collage Paper Playlist. A weekly collection of collages, and the songs that inspired me to make them. I thought that it might be interesting to do the same thing with marginalia, with what I'm reading.

Below you'll find small pieces of art made to go with passages I've read that have inspired me. You'll also find some of my marginal thoughts to go along with them. Welcome to my Collage Paper Marginalia.

protest

"A world of propaganda, of endless argument, vituperation, criticism, or simply of chatter, is a world without anything to live for.

- Thomas Merton, The Sign of Jonas

In a world so full noise. With so many voices and distractions all vying for your attention. Silenc isn’t apathy. It isn’t laziness or complacency. It’s a kind of protesting.

feed the river

Holding on to one [idea] for too long will block the river and prevent new ones from flowing downstream. It’s best to take what the river gives you, do what you can with it, and move on.

-

Mark Luetke

, “An Abundant Mindset”

Annie Dillard says “spend it all, shoot it, play it, lose it, all, right away, every time.”  It’s a matter of catch and release. It’s being a conduit. A tributary. It’s about feeding the river. Keep nothing back. Let everything pass through. “[G[ive it, give it all, give it now”, she says. There is no such thing as scarcity when it comes to art. When it comes to ideas. When it comes to creativity. “Something more will arise for later,” Dillard reminds us, “something better.” Something beyond anything you coudl have ever imagined or dreamed.

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