PICK OF THIS WEEK -
Week # 48
* * * * * * * * * * This work is by Christie Burns
The Letters in Some of the
Words May Still Be Fragile
Oil Pastel, red and black stick ink, acetone transfer, and calligraphy on 90lb hot press Arches watercolor paper. Sometimes a poem is so evocative as to create an immediate picture in your mind. And with the skills and techniques learned from 26 Seeds: a Year to Grow, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I started by sketching out the shirt, roughing in where to place the words of emphasis and collaged the words to be transferred with photocopied letters I had written. Then the lines of text were freely written in foundational hand and the alphabet surrounding the shirt was transferred to the borders. Letters were scattered all over the shirt as a result of laundering the poet’s journal, as the poem describes. Oil pastels were rubbed into the paper for color and scraped off to reveal the letters. The emphasized words were filled in with a rich dark red stick ink. Skills from class that came together for this piece included: • Pressure-release Roman Majuscules • Foundational book hand • Acetone transfer technique • Grinding and using stick ink (a lovely process) • Combining contrasting letter sizes and styles in design • Fun and fearlessness. Fun is a big part of the tool box... On a Scroll of Sky By June Moreau My poet friend tells me in a letter how he left his notebook in one of his pockets while doing the laundry, how he dashed downstairs to retrieve it. I write back to him not to worry that the lost poems will turn up in the creases of his clothes. One shirt in particular would have an affinity. Be careful. I tell him, tuck it in gently, the letters in some of the words may still be fragile. Button it with great esteem, wear it with your favorite bow tie. All the while when writing this crickets are strumming outside my window and I think about all the poems we could write on a scroll of sky.
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