As I work through the postcard project I find things that just go together. I read last week that artists should keep their tools tidy, but not their materials, and this is where this piece came from.
Maybe 7 years ago I was really into the e.e. cummings poem Maggie and Millie and Molly and Mae. I made books with the words of the poem in and even tiny installation pieces for our Coastal exhibition.
When I played with laser cutting at Sturt I cut a short line from the poem out of an old acrylic work on canvas paper.
This piece uses paper from my postcard project (scanned words and pix), an ipad keyboard box, a couple of beads and a ribbon, and those letters cut out all those years ago. The letter M on the cover I just liked. It’s got a lovely lilac cast to it.
In those days I used a buttery thick medium in my acrylic works so there’s great texture on the front of each letter.
The back of the letters I decorated with stamps – i have just bought a new bright blue stamp pad. Adrienne Crouch used to say that each work makes the next one happen – although I had all of this history in the piece, it looks like it does today because of years of art practice (and a tendency to try and use all of the beast, so therefore keeping things long past their normal use by date!).
The small green piece of paper in the box outlines the lines that are in the box. I think there may be too many letters, and I plan a series with the other letters. Since I’ve purloined individual letters for other works I may have to play a little anagram game with what I have left!
