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Taegan MacLean's avatar

Indeed! Love that last one - terrain. Great work Duane

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Duane Toops's avatar

Thank so much Taegan! I have to admit I was hesitant about '"terrain". The benefit of making something simple everyday is that you build up creative momentum and a kind of muscle memory. You get into the rhythm and ritual of making. But, as I'm sure you're keenly aware, somedays even making something simple can be an act of great difficulty. This was one of those pieces on one of those days. I threw things together desperately. trying to check off my index card for the day., haha. That I suppose is the other benefit of this daily making project, you become increasingly less precious about the outcome of a single piece. It's more about playing the long game. Building a daisy chain of days strengthened and compounded by consistency.

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Taegan MacLean's avatar

I can definitely relate. Sometimes for me on a day where things aren’t going well I’ll even consider sitting down in my office and simply going over where I am at on the current film, watching segments, tweaking the essay, etc “enough” — like you said it’s all about the daisy chain of events rolling into one another.

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Duane Toops's avatar

It really is all about the little steps and their accumulation. Everything grand in scale is supported by millions of infinitesimal things.

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Richard's avatar

'that feeling' - tricky to define. The 'spark of poetry' referenced by Max Ernst perhaps. Either way, there's a vitality about your collage and I instantly connect but I couldn't define why - they just look and 'feel' right and get my neurones firing; 'Yes, that!' and I instantly want to try and replicate (and typically fail!).

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Duane Toops's avatar

It's the undefinability, that's the trick of it. It's the openness. The risk. That which is always 'to come'. "Perhaps", is a good word to describe it, maybe even the most fitting. It's the "perhaps" of things. Not so much an existence but an insistence.

Ernst has ben on my to read list for quite some time, but I haven't made it there yet. Anything you'd recommed?

I'm so glad you like the collages. I can promise you that each one emerged out of, because of, or is, in some sense, a failure, haha. Sometimes that's the most interesting part of the process. Thanks for reading!

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Richard's avatar

Appreciate the reply. No specific reading recommendations I’m afraid as it was an isolated quote I picked up and hoarded for a while.

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Duane Toops's avatar

No worries. It's a great line. I like it a lot. Definitely apt. A "spark" encapsulates that sense, a flash emitted and vansihing, a trace of something with intensity that is made all the more poignant by the fact that it is momentary. And yet, "perhaps" it's the one moment that changes everything. The catalyst, the ignition.

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Jul 17, 2024
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Duane Toops's avatar

Excatly that! "There is a crack in everything", Leonard Cohen says, "That's where the let gets in". It's the place of possibility. A small window of chance and opportunity. Thanks for reading my friend!

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