The Right of Writing - Give Me back my Mo-Jo

No time to blog and keep up to date with social media - too busy with classes and the upcoming exhibition at eye4art - very exciting. The classes are feeding me as much as the participants and close bonds are being formed - many of which I feel will linger for years to come. AND I've forgotten to photograph sessions - o my...here is a golden 'oldy'from the last book making class.  This was a Babel collaboration (on-going) between 6 of us in three hours. We then took the chapbooks home to finish. Learning to work collaboratively is a new thing for a lot of artists/writers - especially ON TOP OF!

BUT it has engendered much creativity in its wake. These are two books from the last course - Trish and Merryl - others of us are still busy with homework! Another course started on Tuesday at 2 at Eye4Art - wonderful...but I forgot to take photographs... I will hold another Introductory class from the MoJo Studio on Tuesday 4th June. Classes will be held every two weeks.  Remember, all materials are supplied. Another book making class starts at the end of the month - looking forward to seeing 'Oldies', now well into their third Module. When I expanded the photograph Trish shared, I saw all the family she had made as trunks/pillars in her garden - beautiful.  Merryl has forged ahead, well ahead of me! Her Logogram book, Visual Poetry Book and Asemic Book are all finished and sewn into their pockets onto the large holding accordion spine - fabulous Merryl!  More books to come when everyone finishes their homework!

Saturday was simply wonderful. I think one underestimates the power of time spent just unpacking the humdrum of our life and investing it with creative meaning. It's a powerful thing to be able to express in color and unformed word - but word none the less - the power of our hidden resources. We all have artistic abilities that remain hidden because life/time or circumstance just cannot allow us to access them. Saturday was the last class of the first MoJo Module. We summarized, drew the major lessons from the module on  Accessing Creativity,  finished the paintings,  drew the workbooks together and completed an artists book, titled  The Self Portrait and the Seed.   We cannot (me included!) wait to begin the next Module, scheduled for 9 March D.V. at the MoJo Studio. 

An essential part of creative thinking is to unpack ones thoughts in a visual way. Ideas and concepts are made flesh and somehow, therefore become further evidence to be explored. The following are some wonder journal pages from the second and third group of creatives. We are unpacking seeds as metaphors for ideas. This is not everyone in the group, but these images give the idea of digging and delving, searching and revealing layers in order to UNDERSTAND. Most of us will be meeting again on the 10th November and then lets see how much more gets unravelled. We will also be painting and discussing The Medici Effect in workshop 3.  I am looking forward! We held this class at eye4art, but the next will be held in my studio at home. We will then revert back to the gallery space.

So! things got a little more complicated as each participant worked through their understanding of WHY and HOW I was using language as the subject matter in visual, creative studies, and what the relevance - if any of what such usage was.  We had a very fruitful discussion on the value of language in all its various forms as being the most accessible point of cultural entry and a very relevant departure point for creativity.  Unlike, for example,  a module dealing with landscape, or portraiture, language (the written word/prose/poetry/the letters of the alphabet/units/symbols/concepts/etc)  can be adjusted/manipulated/built up or destroyed and remade more than any subject matter a creative person wishes to access. Janina called my history lesson a 'skid' as I attempted to situate current visual poetry in a historic setting. I liked that :-) - 5 weeks to attempt a subject this broard, even at lightning speed, is just, well...impossible. Janina At this juncture, the im

being done in the studio - and participants are DEFINITELY getting back their Mo-Jo!! Today I decided to leave the history and academic discussions on concrete poetry, the Lettersits (Maurice Lemaitre/Pierre Albert-Birot, the influences of ee cummings and Calligrammes by Apollinaire, to just go with the creative act and join together in a celebration of word and image. 3 sorts of papers were provided - maps, telephone pages and plain white. The results are stunning and will be used as three entries for Edition 18 of Mail Art Makes the World a Town. An extra set were produced for reflection on the process. I forgot while we were working to take photographs of the mess - no - wrong term - lets go with 'creative disorder'! This is Ann Marie's  delicious station - can you imagine anything more delightful :-)!! Some results from last week to follow in the next blog.