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Daniel Barber's avatar

Stunning artwork. It's impossible to pick a favourite, but there is something truly beautiful about the simplicity of the "around me" piece (even as I say that I want to compliment all of the other pieces... but this comment would just end up getting far too long)

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Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you! "Around me" is one of my favorites too. That piece took quite a few tries to get it write. Turns out it's difficult to arrange letters in a circle on a typewriter, who knew? 🤣

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Daniel Barber's avatar

Never would have guessed 😂

Formatting/arranging with restrictions like that can be so frustrating. I've got some writing going up later this week that I had the same issue with, where it felt like it took an eternity to get done. Always feels incredible when it's done though. And especially in this case, it was well worth it for the end result

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Duane Toops's avatar

Restrictions make things interesting. Sometimes it creates more creative opportunities. It just not as fun when it's too easy 😂

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Daniel Barber's avatar

Too true

I think that's probably why I force myself to bounce between genres so often. Helps to keep it interesting

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Duane Toops's avatar

Exactly!

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Poetry Symposium's avatar

loved this - creative -tangible - intangible process shared

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Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you so much! There's something alluring about the attempt expressing something paradoxical. Glad you enjoyed it.

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JS Hyder's avatar

This tangible-intangibility, love that description. And I like the over worked first piece too :)

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Duane Toops's avatar

Thank you so much! I appreciate the song recommendation, I can see why it stuck with you. At the risk of a pun, it is haunting. Glad you like the piece I nearly pulverized into oblivion. What can I say, I get by with a little help from my friends 🤣. Thanks again!

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Meaghan McIsaac's avatar

Ok great Duane. Now i can't rest until i have a typewriter to be able to add quotes to my own notebook! 🤩

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Duane Toops's avatar

It's the best thing ever! Can't recommend it enough!

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Christianna Joy Scott's avatar

Yep, I was just going to say: okay, I need a typewriter now. 😁 I’m really loving the idea of something tangible, embodied—to open a space for “the presence of an absence.” Love this description. And the art of it!

Also—love the colors this week. The first one and Radiohead especially! Keep using those remnants.

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Duane Toops's avatar

I was at scouring through another Antique mall this weekend looking for collage materials and found another typewriter, I thought seriously about buying it, but managed to talk myself out of it. Somewhere beneath the keys and behind the ribbon there is a magic that can't be duplicated. I'm constantly trying to think of more ways to tap into it.

John O'Donohue's book Eternal Echoes was instrumental in my think about the absent-presence. Definitely worth reading.

So glad you liked enjoyed the color palettes this week. I was and wane between working vibrant or monochromatic, it's rary between lol.

Love those remnants! It's the fragments that understand the most about what whole means

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Christianna Joy Scott's avatar

Thanks for the reading rec! I take any and all. I think I've read something of O'Donohue's awhile ago. His name has popped up a couple times recently. I'll add it to the list!

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Duane Toops's avatar

He's fantastic. I've read another of his books called Anam Cara, I recommend that one as well. If read either let me know what you think!

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Christianna Joy Scott's avatar

Will do!

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