talking to myself
"Talking to Myself" - Dreamfone
There is one question that plagued our species since it's slow and dawdling evolution. One we are still currently still to this day. I determined my answer years ago, and it's never changed. I don't know about you, but I decided I always want to hear the bad news first.
The bad news is that working on this piece was an absolute cluster-fuck. In last week's playlist I mentioned that I thought my work was getting too busy. This piece proved it to be true. It started out so simple and then went so far off the rails.
I found some old issues of Life Magazine at an Antique Mall recently. For a collagist there is no better material than vintage paper. It does most of the work for you. It carries so much character and personality. The yellowing. The wear. The stains and discolorations. The natural distress. Don't even get me started on the typography.
I made a collage from one of the images. It was good. It came together better than I expected I was happy with it. It was done. It needed nothing. But...I've never seen a "well-enough" that I thought should be left alone. I started thinking about what else I could do with the collage and that's when things got ugly.
The good news is that I reached out to Krisztian Szinnay, a fellow artist on Instagram, for some advice and it turned into a collaboration. The moral of the story: if you refuse to exercise restraint, make sure you have contacts that are more talented than you.
cut me open
"Daphne Blue" - The Band Camino
I don't remember which of the near numberless playlists I was listening to when I heard this song, but after I did, I listened to it on repeat for days. I'm almost afraid to replay it now. The earworm that bore a hole through my auditory cortex is likely to return to finish off what's left of my temporal lobe. Had it not been for the fact that I had two song requests to do for this week's playlist, this newsletter could have become an ode to The Band Camino.
There's not much to say about the art. Sometimes I have a plan. An idea. An outline. A sketch. Sometimes I just have scraps. Leftovers I try to put together, hoping to discover something along the way. With this one, I got lucky.
are u ready
"Ready for This" - Jet Black Alley Cat
There's a kind of domino effect when it comes to creative discovery. One book, one band, one piece of art is the gateway drug to another. You look up who they were influenced by. Who they're influencing. Who are their contemporaries. Who's doing something similar. It's turtles all the way down. Everyone is standing on the shoulders of another. “[A]ll ideas are second-hand," Mark Twain says, each one "consciously and unconsciously drawn from a million outside sources.” And that is one of the best and most beautiful things about creativity.
It's also how I tried to ween myself off The Band Camino this week, and thanks to Spotify it's how I discovered this band.
The art is another plan-less exploration. I amass so much detritus from other collages and experiments that were less than successful. I try to challenge myself on a regular basis to put the remnants to use. If for no other reason than to manage the out-of-hand accumulation of materials that seem to be overtaking me.
nothing at all
"I Might Be Wrong" - Radiohead
In case I haven't said it enough. My favorite part of this Collage Paper Playlist project is receiving requests. It's solitary work making art and writing, and I relish that. I need it. But I also need to feel connected. It's good to be a part of something. To contribute something, at least in some small. To give something like a gift to those who give me the gift of listening. Of reminding me that I'm not just talking to myself.
There were a couple great requests last week.
asked for "Learn to Fly" by Foo Fighters, and recommended "Neat Neat Neat" by The Damned. This week we've got two more requests that I was thrilled to receive and work with.This one is from
who was concerned that she might be listening to "an unhealthy amount of Radiohead". I assured her that there is no such thing. But..."I might be wrong"...
around me
"Your Ghost" - Kristin Hersh
At the same Antique mall where I purchased those old issues of Life Magazine, I bought one of the best art related tools I have ever purchased. A vintage Royal Typewriter. Just look at how gorgeous it is!
Some of you may have noticed an increase of typwriterly fonts in some of my recent work, and this is the reason. Everything that comes out of it looks amazing. Some mornings I type out passages from books I'm reading just because the click and the clack of it is so cathartic. Just because it makes every word look and feel more meaningful. More profound. More sacred. More true.
I tape them into my notebook because I don't know what else to do with them.
says that "if you aren’t filling it with with mistakes you aren’t doing it right." And says that "There's no right or wrong way to keep a notebook." I try to take their advice.
"Transience is the force of time that makes a ghost of every experience", John O' Donohue says. A ghost, a haunting; it's not so much a presence or an absence, but the presence of an absence. The palpable sense of something fleeting. The absent-presence where someone or something used to be. The shape of teh emptiness around something we wish we filled. The present-absence engulfs us. The immanent vacancy "driving circles around me". There are many names for this, you know. This tangible-intangibility. This disembodied-embodiment. Sometimes it's called grief. Sometimes it's longing. Sometimes it's something like what hope is.
Thank you
for suggesting this one!
That’s it for this week’s playlist. If there’s something you’d like to request or recommend for the next playlist, feel free to leave it in the comments.
Take care.
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)
loved this - creative -tangible - intangible process shared