Collaborate With A Writer
Consider collaborating with a writer. It can bring out something different in your work. There are many writer's in your midst no matter where you live, get to know them and perhaps you'll find an opportunity for a collaboration!
Recently I was approached to collaborate with a writer. As a partially blind collaboration we both made a piece. I created a painting and she created a short story, then we exchanged work for the next step which was to then create a piece inspired by each other's exchanged piece. I love to work with writers since I enjoy experiments in narrative. The work above is the piece that I created for her. It just a lady and a water spirit smoking and drinking. I wanted to do something a little different and unexpected for her. Yes, it's very weird!
The piece below was inspired by a collaboration between myself and the poet Hannah Stephenson. With her permission I used excerpts from her poems as text in some of my paintings. I was totally inspired to create this work because I could see some interesting connections between the narratives in her writing and those that exist in my paintings. You can check out her wonderful poetry here.
This last image below is also inspired by writing. It was inspired by reading the letters of my uncle to his parents as he sailed on expedition to the Antarctic. It was also inspired by stories of a more oral tradition that my father told me about the tropical island where he was born.
