Art - Experimental Poetry: Scars In The Darkness
The image and writing in this piece were brought along together in response to each other as developing compositional elements. The writing was worked directly into the piece rather than being written elsewhere or composed specifically for the image after the image was completed. This piece, image and words, evolved together as it is now.
My hand was scanned and the image was brought into PhotoShop Elements 4. I created the frame, writing and digital image placed onto the hand with the same software program. I like the visual results of the entire piece. It was created so that it could be printed as an 8 x 10 photograph in the archival-photo printing process that I like to use with digital images.
Writing is often visual for me. In some ways the image and writing in this piece are more like shotgun creating rather than shotgun writing. The writing has been allowed to stand as it was written with the intentional sense of poetry.
One aspect of the writing in this piece is in the structure of the visual work. Because the writing was brought along as part of the developing image and because of placement, I am reluctant to print the poem in a sequential format, such as in the body of an article or on a traditional page. I like the potential to read the stanzas in a couple of different sequences. I am not sure if this should be called Experimental Poetry. For me it is experimental.
©06 Daddario
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Comments: 21
And the product came out well also. Congrats! Good Job!!
Gautami - i would struggle in latin, i'm glad you put it in english. thank you.
Anne - i can see how the image brings this thought up.
Paul - Gautami is the owner of a number of Groups on Gather. She has helped bring this particular piece/poem to a significant number of readers here. i appreciate her effort in doing so.
Bill's Spirit - thank you on both accounts. i like this approach for several reasons, among them the opportunity to develop layers in a work on a number of levels that give insight into a moment. although this is not the first time i have used it, i am beginning to think more about this process as a good approach to get at the uniqueness of any moment.
vijay - i'm glad you find it so.
Mariana - i think the explanation helped me to understand the value of this piece beyond the personal risk i was struggling with to show the piece. i'm glad to know it is helpful for others.
Cindy - i like your encouragement to continue experimenting. yes, i like the mask rather than face for a number of reasons. it is almost impossible to show ourselves entirely to anyone - even ourselves, the mask i think helps convey this idea.
Mary - yes, exactly - i think there is something in human nature that hides things not only from others but from ourselves as well. physical and emotional scars are some of the things we hide. yes, darkness can be a place to hide - it can also be a component of revelation in the sense that if there is darkness there is also light.
Travis - cool too.
It certainly is experimental poetry and I look forward to seeing more of it here, by you! Thank you for sharing and also thanks to Gautami for letting me know about it!
I have come back to this most every day to study since you've published it and my first thought always returns with it and that is: "it takes a very big person to be this personal and experimental."
The palm is the 'inner surface' of the hand and within that surface are lines that have a purpose. Your palm looks perfectly unscathed but the natural lines are what's speaking to me. It's like the healthy appearance is hiding the scars. I'm seeing this as a physical representation of 'appearance' masking the scars that have painful meanings thus, the need for the mask (picture), to let us know that things are not always as they appear. What's behind the scars torment -- but are significant in motivating a pressing on and in the pressing (and exposing), one finds some relief from the pain.
There is also an unusual shape on the end of the pinky finger. Look at it closely and you'll see it.
I've found this painfully intriguing. . . perhaps that is one of the needs for experimental art! I'm glad you've chosen to share it with us. I'm going on to your enlarged picture now to study.
may be you have now seen the larger image. some of what you have spoken of may now appear different than when you were responding to this smaller version.
even in that larger version there are things i have placed into this piece that are not easily seen. when it is printed i hope some of these things will still be subtle as that was the intention, however i know they will also more likely be a little more visible.
there are two other things i'd like to speak about - one is that there are two main physical scars that have some personal significance to me on this hand. one i remember well when i got it as a child - it slices down through the ring finger and into the palm. it creates the tiniest bit of webbing between the middle and ring finger. the other is at the base of the palm i dont remember getting this as it was not long after i began walking - i walked at nine months according to my mom. but i have heard the story behind it and i remember the telling of it well.
the other thing is what you are noticing on the little finger. what you may be seeing is something i wondered about as i did this piece - it is part of the process of scanning the hand. (this may not be what you are seeing too.) i deliberately made it as minor as i could but i needed to touch the glass in a couple of places because i wanted my hand to be stable. i like the fact that i can see the print texture of the hand in this image - at least i hope it will be there when i print it. the thumb is also touching the glass. i dont know that this is what you are seeing, but it might be. i do know that without aid i cannot straighten my little fingers - i stretch them open all the way and they remain slightly curved. it has always been something i found curious. all of my fingers have that same curving to some degree, but it is easiest to see it in the little fingers.
thanks for your observant looking. - Aloha Wrick
This was amazing. Brilliant.
even tho some of yours have not worked, those are the ones that enabled you to appreciate this with a greater awareness. i hope you'll keep doing yours, because i have to believe that experimenting in our own way is what teaches us about our self and eventually does work to bring out the uniqueness that we are as human beings. thanks for your comment - have fun. aloha - Wrick.