Every February, I participate in the online Spark project in which artists and writers are paired together, each sending an "inspiration" piece to the other, something written to the artist, a piece of art for the writer, which they then over the course of ten days, create a "response" piece from. My partner sent me the poem, "Behind the Eight Ball," which reads:
Behind the Eight Ball
It’s time to break
The saw toothed stick that helps you aim is ready
The cue, placed behind the rack and the break is on
Balls lunge and dance, skip and sort and it’s gaming time
The eight ball lurks a result of an unclear shot
Hard to see harder to manipulate
Like space and time
Completing tasks and getting on to dreams
Fulfilling oneself and keeping oneself afloat
Behind the eight ball stress bruises the sky and blinds the sun
Everything is made difficult
Eager to run the table one is left
With attempts, and failures, misdirections and miscues
Fighting for life and looking to tomorrow for respite.
Kathleen Finn Jordan
Behind the Eight Ball
It’s time to break
The saw toothed stick that helps you aim is ready
The cue, placed behind the rack and the break is on
Balls lunge and dance, skip and sort and it’s gaming time
The eight ball lurks a result of an unclear shot
Hard to see harder to manipulate
Like space and time
Completing tasks and getting on to dreams
Fulfilling oneself and keeping oneself afloat
Behind the eight ball stress bruises the sky and blinds the sun
Everything is made difficult
Eager to run the table one is left
With attempts, and failures, misdirections and miscues
Fighting for life and looking to tomorrow for respite.
Kathleen Finn Jordan
Reading through the poem, I chose the phrases that most moved me, and copied them onto index cards. The ones I especially liked were: "moving onto dreams" and "keeping myself afloat" (I personalized oneself for myself) After the project the card will go into my Affirmation Card deck to be used during my morning meditations. Next, it was time to find some images.
I always work intuitively, so rather than sifting through Geo's to find images that made me think of being "afloat" say boats or canoes and the like, I simply picked two random Geos, trusting that what images I would need to convey the energy of the words would be in there.
Next, I slipped the index cards under my working surface and started to create. And this is what came through. It's first title was "Almost Artemis" (as I see the branch coming out of the girl's shoulder as an attempt at deer horns) but it's since been renamed (and will most likely go through -several- more) "Unleashed" as the puppy at the bottom of the page seems to have broken free of his leash.
The piece, while constructed intuitively, surprisingly contained ALL of the elements of the phrases I was working from. While there aren't any boats, or water, being an avid hiker the concept of "keeping myself afloat" is conveyed nicely by the girl standing on the line of boots. The line of boots in turn remind me of the rows of boots one would see outside of refugios on the Camino de Santiago - a trek which I've completed 2/3 of and am planning on returning to finish out the final 120 miles this fall.
The walking woman seems to be counting off those boots and at the same time is being pulled by a mysterious white thread off the page. This, to me represents a "completion of tasks" and "moving on to dreams." Dreams that aren't yet revealing themselves, but which I hope and trust will "fulfill" me.
The walking woman seems to be counting off those boots and at the same time is being pulled by a mysterious white thread off the page. This, to me represents a "completion of tasks" and "moving on to dreams." Dreams that aren't yet revealing themselves, but which I hope and trust will "fulfill" me.
A student of mine recently pointed out the chickens were the original "crossers of the road" making me ponder the idea of crossing into new territories in my life. What's interesting is that thirteen years ago, as I was making the cross-country sojourn from Alabama to (what was supposed to be a year in) Santa Fe, chickens began showing up in my work. And now, here they are again. Causing me to ponder - what "crossings," what Adventures might yet lay ahead?
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