Monday, February 2, 2009

My latest ACEO. I love this one. More Chekov, you will be unsurprised to discover.


When I make a piece, I usually start with the paper-- I have some portion of my dyed paper that I think is well composed for my purposes. Sometimes so composed intentionally, sometimes serendipitously. Then I search for the words. I collect text as I'm reading, and I write some myself, and I go through all these collected bits searching for the right words. I try to feel the mood of the colors and pattern, see what they tell me. I can't go the other direction so easily-- starting with words and building around them. Sometimes I compose a piece just for that paper and that time. Sometimes I find the right sort of thing in my scrapbook of text, but it's too long or too short, and I set it aside for another project. Then sometimes I find one that fits perfectly in every way, like this one did.

At the beginning you just have some words, and maybe some pretty paper. But combine them in the right way and and you have magic.

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