For the last couple of days there has been a song stuck in my head and almost on constant replay!
It’s a song from the movie ‘Babe’ … not sure if its the words or the melody that grabs me - it goes
“If I had the words to make a day for you, I’d sing you a morning golden and new”
I’ve also recently become aware that words and writing are more important to me than I had realised and are closely associated with the ‘why’ of my art and its content.
In a past life, writing reports, presentations and speeches was a big part of my job, but not so much in recent years … except for this journal which I started in March 2016 and which surprisingly includes 88 posts!
Words first started to appear in my art in 2019 when I stitched some haiku , written specially, as a quilting design on some works made with photographs on fabric ….
With the move to collage and paint in 2021, the opportunities to incorporate words and writing into my art expanded.
It began with using text in the form of magazine and book pages as collage materials… my process is to build up the early layers with collage text, mark making and writing, building the story as I go.
The writing …. words, haiku, song lyrics …. hand written thoughts and feelings becomes the heart of the story, although mostly covered by paint or new collage layers some areas remain partly visible, not to be read but to create an energy and sometimes texture, that underlies the work.
Old paperback books and references like ‘Seasons of Content’ and Dictionary of Gardening and text from old copies of my favourite magazine Gardens Illustrated have all found a place in my ‘Songs from the Garden’ series. I’ve written quotes, lines of poetry and my own haiku occasionally too.
All these elements help me to give meaning to the work and to shape the final piece.
When it comes to the two canvasses I’m just starting to work on, the writing includes the songs lyrics that have been stuck in my head …..
Let’s see what evolves from here !
Thank you for reading, I appreciate your interest in my art. CC
Always
