Objets Trouvés

The term found object originates from the French objet trouvé, describing art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered materials from which art is made, often because they already have a non-art function.

My own objets trouvés would have to be described as art created from existing art. Not only do I take delight in finding and then extracting smaller compositions from something larger I've painted, but also I have long delighted in finding what I think of as prose poems in novels I read, i.e. lines of text that, when I quote them, I arrange visually and compositionally into what become tiny bits of poetry to my eye and ear.

Below you'll see source material for a series of soon-to-be posted found compositions and prose poems. The art is mine; all quotations will be from Michael Downing's novel, Still in Love.

Fairy Dust
8 x 8"; acrylic, ink, and pastel on canvas paper
abstract
2016