Life Stuff
Fragments are essential to my poetry and my art. I ofttimes partner poems with collages. Thoughts taken from my poem, Collage, delineate the mystery:
I gather dabs of life-stuff around me. They come in a drift,
or singly like snowflakes. Moments fall in my ears; their music, sometimes discordant, although mostly remembered as harmony.
I trim each chance to one-inch squares, line them up on my canvas, seal them—
a portrait of self. My family admires my effort, or mocks it—
this impulse to control past and present. Yet, I persist. Translate half—
or twice as much—of every emotion into these small paper pieces.
Bright hues—purple, hot pink, mango, bitter green, azure—tangle in my hair, in my art, blind my other eye. I edit images into these fragments, rearrange, attempt to appreciate
this life, this urge. Ampersands, seashells, bird nest, rocking chair, moose, spiral, moon. And words: The heart is the hub. Go there. Roam in it. I am.
So. Look at me now. A scrap-monger in a world of dots and words,
confetti of my life a swirl ’round my head, while the unremembered fall away—
fall upon my bare feet which tap and twirl without notice.
gaye gambell-peterson (website) never tires of piling words on a page or sticking bits of stuff onto a canvas. Frequent recognition in both the art and poetry worlds only encourages her. Two chapbooks feature her poetry and her collages: pale leaf floating (Cherry Pie Press) and MYnd mAp (Agog Press). She likes sticky mac’n’cheese.
Yeo! Gaye is super productive! I consider myself fortunate to be in her circle of friends and–most importantly–her sphere of creativity.
What a gift you have. I can hear you reading.
Beautiful. Your work welcomes, fractal by fractal (to invoke Alice Fulton again! thanks for jamming with me a little on her). Quilt underestimates the way viewing this is layered…spaced. Nan
wow your style will get notice your words speak..writer/poet/talent reveiwer/grassroot promoter/poet terry fernando newton
You are talented ,thanks for sharing.
How enjoyable it was to sit back peacefully this morning and hear you speak your art, my very talented friend.
so touched by the beauty of both quilt/collage and your words…………such a pleasure……….shared it with another collaging friend who is a bit more practical it would seem but i knew she’d so enjoy this…..thank you, gaye!
Miss Gaye … how to comment on such tallent … creativity … beauty … thank you for sharing this with your friends.
As a long-time admirer of this author’s ability to meld the visual and written arts, I love seeing this example with the audio dimension also. Beautiful and beautifully done, with a queen’s ransom of rich detail.
Oh the collage is beautiful and the poem so very clear a path of the creative process…