#21: Use Your Words
Or repurpose someone else's.
Instructions
Find some paper with words on it—or write some of your own.
Use that paper as a background for making art.
Incorporate, alter, remove, or ignore words or letters.
Words as Background
When I first moved to New York, wifi didn’t really exist, and BlackBerries were the cutting edge. Sure, the internet was a thing but (it seemed like) every Manhattan street corner had a newsstand and a Village Voice kiosk, and occasionally you could find a print edition of The Onion. Like many snooty New Yorkers, I made the deal with the devil that is getting a print subscription of The New Yorker. I had a long commute, and it was printed in columns so that the double-triple-fold worked well on the subway. And it had good stuff in it, especially compared to just staring at Dr. Zizmor ads on the subway!
The New Yorker is overall a good magazine, but it comes out WEEKLY and has A LOT OF WORDS. Add to that the general overstimulation of New York, the sense of striving perfectionism that grows like mold on every surface, and a baseline anxiety disorder, and inevitably you end up with a stack of magazines in the corner unread, gnawing at your psyche. For a while there was even a weekly blog that told you which articles to read/skip as “Your secret weapon against the Three-Foot-Tall Stack Of Unread New Yorkers Sitting In Your Apartment.” (I know, #WhitePeopleProblems).
So you can imagine my delight when I went to a life drawing hangout hosted by my pal Nate Sensel in his studio with tunes by Dan Nishimoto (aka sintalentos), and my pal Marit pulled out a New Yorker to use as drawing paper.
Image: One of Marit’s life drawing sketches using The New Yorker for background
Side-note: Marit has written great books for Art Educators that are worth backordering or getting e-books of. Marit and Nate have also since married and have a delightfully creative and opinionated daughter.
I loved this approach for two reasons: it got rid of the “where do I start?” feeling of beginning a drawing on a blank sheet of “nice” paper, and it gave the option to incorporate (or ignore) the text around it. Marit didn’t invent re-using newspapers or print, but it was a wonderful spin. The only problem is that the pile of New Yorkers can then become a pile of “precious artworks” if you’re not careful.
Words as Foreground
Playing with text and physical editing is also a great way to bring emphasis to printed or word. I loved this example of an octogenarian who writes and draws in her favorite lines from podcasts she listens to. It’s like creating your own coloring book!
Image: Cool doodles while podcast listening!
I’m older now and my phone eats away my life, so I finally gave up on The New Yorker print edition, though I still subscribe to The Sun and recommend it to anyone who likes words. Occasionally I get asked to do a writing or artmaking workshop, and one of my favorite exercises is to have people physically edit and cross out sections from a paragraph or two. It accomplishes that same hurdle jump of starting with words and hacking away rather than trying to begin with The Powerful Sentence.
Subscribe to a magazine (or two) that would bring some joy into your life—I’d skip Harper’s. Having something to flip through in the bath that won’t electrocute you is useful especially when reading a book seems like a leap. And then, use those pages to make stuff. It’s fun.
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