Words Into Art?
Simple really, I take a novel and draw.
Basing my creations on the words, places or themes (sometimes all three smashed together) the book presents.
It's a strange hobby to be sure but no stranger than these...
If you'd like to read a review of this book, head on over to my Book Bio's, where I showed this novel some love.
Twice The Speed Of Dark by Lulu Allison
This week is Twice The Speed of Dark by the Lulu Allison where a mother and daughter circle each other, bound by love, separated by fatal violence.
Anna's (the mother) trauma at losing her daughter has caused a strange coping mechanism; she writes portraits of victims whose deaths make the news, but are also just numbers. A sinking refugee boat, or a brutal drone attack. She sits down on a morning, reads the newspaper and starts giving the faceless horror, souls.
She does this by writing in a journal, trying to imagine who each person was, before their deaths.
That's where I started with ideas for my Words into Art project.
The beautiful book cover was designed by the magician Mark Ecob.
The Research
I wanted to represent that mundane act of simply sitting down at the kitchen table with a pen and notebook, but also contrast that with the sweeping horror of the news reports. So I came up with an idea, drum roll for that Art collage favourite, mixed media.
I explored the idea that Anna would have magazines and newspapers and pens around her so wondered if I could mash these together.
I researched other mixed media artists and came across an amazing lady from the 20's called Hannah Höch. A German Dada artist Höch took different elements and smashed them together to produce startling and thoughtful pieces.
This one has the very catchy title; Cut with the Dada Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany.
But back to the job at hand, in Twice the Speed of Dark there are many dates that the character Anna writes about in her journal, but I picked the 30th of Nov, to print out and use as the backdrop because the imaginary was strong. The piece about a young woman hurting is harrowing.
A slight woman, dark and burnished by loss. She has black eyes flattened by the pain of losing her sister, her son, and her uncle to the actions of sky-borne military, another country’s flag glittering on a distant tail fin. She lost her husband subsequently to anger, to revenge. And so the chain stretches out. Her loss to be handed forward to new mourners, new carriers.
Twice The Speed of Dark
The Artwork
Here it is. My mixed media, doodled, creative hot mess. I kinda like it.
I'd love to know what you think? Art at it's heart is communication.
So head on over to either my Facebook page or The Twitter, (I am on both far more than I'd like to admit) and let's chat .