February 26, 2024
So Little, and So Much
LOL: How can so little a bit of artistic real estate and so simple a concept as an arrangement of a few cut-out circles of color challenge me so much? Couldn’t tell ya, but that was my story here.
In the end, though, once again: magic!
En route, I’d collaged a strip of text in place and wasn’t liking it at all. Firmly glued in place, it was. Which led me to search for a remnant of the plain background paper used to set this piece up, from which I cut a patch piece and glued it right on top of the text. Which led me to cut and affix more strips to carry on with the disruption.
Eventually, it was time to sign the piece. I didn’t like any of the spaces available along the bottom edge so added my signature perpendicularly on a side edge. Which led me to consider the piece in portrait orientation instead of landscape. Which led me suddenly to see fireflies in this CutUp. Which tickled my brain to whisper that it was pretty sure I had a firefly passage in my quotation archives.
I did not.
What I did find, though, felt magical: a writing appropriation exercise I did many years ago.
The ‘rules’ of this kind of appropriation exercise are to find a passage you like, written by someone else, to use as a template to write your own piece in the same manner, substituting your personal experiences as source material. For example, if the passage has seven sentences, match that number in your appropriation. For example, if the original holds an exclamation, your version should also. For example, if a scent is mentioned, include a scent in your piece, too. You get the idea.
From Schroder, a novel by Amity Gaige:
What do I remember of my own tender years, long ago? The wheezing of the kettle. My mother and myself deep in parallel silence. The pleasure of a banana. The friendship of a dog. A song about Lenin’s forehead. Flurries of pollen in springtime, steam tents, a cream-colored Trabant that suffered frequent mechanical breakdowns, searchlights, salted caramels in wax paper, the unique humiliation of being dressed in a bow tie. That’s it. So little, and so much.
My appropriation:
What do I remember of my own tender years, long ago? The click of a Brownie camera shutter. My mother and myself following a recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens Junior Cookbook with its red and white cover. The pleasure of cream cheese and grape jelly sandwiches. The friendship of Lucy Atwood. A song about Steamboat Bill. Flashes of fireflies in summer, cherry-flavored cough syrup, a wooden platform in the backseat footwell of the Plymouth, a bonfire at Old Kelsey Point, chocolate ice-cream sandwiches at the New York World’s Fair, the embarrassment of having my shoes off when my 2nd grade teacher asked me to read aloud in front of the class. That’s it. So little, and so much.
3.5 x 5″; collage on card stock
CutUp
2024
Postscript bonus magic: Hours after drafting this post, I went back to my quotations archives with a different search word. Found four quotations referencing lightning bugs! You say lightning bugs, I say fireflies, hahaha! I was delighted to have my original hunch that I had an apt quotation prove true conceptually but I remain even more delighted to have discovered my appropriation prose-poem with my first search word.
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8 responses to “So Little, and So Much”
Thank you! This was a very engaging piece to work on. I bumped into challenge after unexpected challenge but kept playing with one possible solution after another until I found what would allow me to move forward … to the next challenge! Many happy accidents en route and a much more pleasing outcome than I could have imagined until all was said and done! Grateful for your feedback, as I fiddled with numerous composition options and value contrast contenders before I discovered choices that worked.
What a wonderful journey of words and images Dotty! I’m going to give that “writing appropriation exercise” a try sometime. Yours is fabulous and many of your memories resonate with me. And I love how changing the orientation of your piece led you to see the fireflies! Magic indeed!
Fireflies were a big part of growing up on a farm in Wisconsin….and I’ve got a couple good stories I’m going to share with you in an email.
Thank you for taking us on your journey!
Sheila, yes! That ‘mistake’ is what ended up being the making of this piece—I had no idea I’d be adding depth, sparkle, and changing light by incorporating those little strips. They because such wonderful—and relatively subtle—disruption.
Thank you for your feedback!
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