September 23, 2024
A Thousand Thousand
There are a thousand thousand
reasons
to live this life,
every one of them
sufficient.
—Marilynne Robinson
One of those thousand thousand for me: playing with asemic writing, i.e. journaling thoughts and feelings, wonderings and observations, and complaints and fears, with a pen, by hand, using lines and symbols which look like writing but do not conventionally convey meaning and which leave interpretation to the “reader.”
Incorporating this quasi-writing into my scraps diary project has revealed itself to be a delicious gift. I love the feeling of thinking my thoughts while my hand makes handwriting-like or intuitive marks. I love the flow, the feeling of creative fluency, the siphoning off of stuff from my mind, the way asemic writing engages me as I use it in service of composition, the feeling of letting thoughts move through me to leave a trace. The experience feels distinctively different from thoughts that pass through my mind with no accompanying writing and distinctly different from thoughts that I put into writing as, for example, I am doing here in these blog paragraphs. And I love it!
2.5 x 8″; acrylic, pencil, ink, oil pastel, and collage on paper
abstract
2024
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9 responses to “A Thousand Thousand”
It gives me great delight that you have landed on this creative practice of pairing your scraps with your asemic journaling. Clearly it feeds your soul….just what art should do.
Your thoughts and feelings are imbedded into this lovely piece….and we get to interpret and enjoy it in our own way. To me…it looks and feels like summer flowing gently into autumn. Yellow IS the transition color from greens to oranges and reds.
And….by the way…your description of it reads like poetry.
Dotty ~ I love the opening poem. To say “yes” to those thousands of reasons is the goal. I’m not a person who gravitates toward yellow. Usually. This page in your scraps diary is lovely, the yellow especially. I zeroed in on p.9 – I mean I really zeroed in – and loved all the lights and darks and the hints of pink. And is the white also bits of asemia? Maybe not, but it’s lovely there. LOVE that. The little window of black asemic writing seems so perfect to me as it sits opposite the branches. I do love the thoughtful way you’re creating this diary.
Roseanne! What a lovely gift to get this thoughtful comment, replete with bunches of visual language feedback. Makes me feel like the sky is blue and the sun shining brightly—when in fact cloud cover is the name of the game today.
The opening poem reflects the gratitudes and simple pleasures you and I often share, doesn’t it? … and reinforces that there are at least a thousand thousand gratitudes and simple pleasures awaiting our awareness : )
Aren’t those hints of pink fun? Delighted that you took note.
The white ink and the pencilwork with which it interweaves are both loose large-“font” asemic writing, offered to create a through-line across the two-page spread and to provide contrast to the tight small-font block of asemic writing on p. 10. Again, delighted that you took note.
Thanks also for your appreciation of the “thoughtful way” I am creating this diary. I hadn’t set out with the intention to engage so much with composition or complexity but the scraps keep calling out to me to dive in, and so I do! This little scraps diary has been SO nourishing in the creating.
Me thinks that sounds like a jolly idea! Hmm…
You are correct, I use writings in collage. Lyrics from songs, old papers I have found online (copyright free) or poetry. I rarely do hand lettering, I don’t feel strong in that area. Another reason to practice! Haha
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