Part Two of my mates postcards (Part Ome is here). I’d like to think it’s mostly ballast, though the last fortnight has felt a little more like weights.
Image, Dave LaChapelle, and words from Women Who Run With The Wolves.
Compare and contrast below.
This postcard had a bit of an adventure before it even intentionally set forth on its way to Melbourne. It was blown twice from the balcony I was sitting on last week, while we were at Frew Park, and the second time it looked as though I had lost it for good.
We found it spooning the wall of the building.
I thought I had lost it a third time. Eventually found it nestled in the book that I had placed it in for safe keeping from the blustering wind.
Made from my 2015 postcard, and taken from the ten raw postcards I sent down to Adam at the start of 2016, #44 is my first dip back into that artistic landscape. The words were taken from my Elyora baggie of fragments.
I’m torn as to whether it is a summer poem or a winter one. What do you think?
This is a continuation from #29 and is the last of the excellent gothic front cover of the travel brochure I snaffled.
I think next week I’ll try for something a little lighter, or dare I say, happier!
Anyone following me on Twitter during the month of February, would have seen me building poems from existing texts using the cut up method.The poems were cut from Calvino’s “Six Memos for the New Millennium”, glued to rice paper and origami squares then mounted on re-purposed cardboard. I used Post-It Note Poetry as a kind of boot camp to see if I was able to build ‘on-demand’ as well as trialing a commission-style way of building for others.
At the conclusion of the month the answer to both those questions was ‘yes’.
AN EXTENDED FIELD OF CREATION
Two weeks ago I started sticking the poems to the zentangles I had been drawing as part of my sleep training practice. The ones not sent off for birthday presents I put up for sale on Twitter and Instagram with no expectation of what would happen next. I was unprepared for the speed in which they found new homes (thank you Chris and Sophie!).
My most recent foray into birthday presents have left five poems for sale (these poems are the second half of The Turquoise series).
Each poem square is:
Would you like one?
Poem Squares are $15.00 each, including worldwide postage.
You can claim yours by clicking HERE and adding in the comments the poem you’d like to purchase (each are numbered for ease of identification).
SHOP, COMMISSIONS AND BIBLIOMANCY POEMS
I’ll be opening to commissions and bibliomancy poems in the next few weeks, along with rolling out an official poetry shop that will include poems built during February.
In the interim, please email author(at)jodicleghorn(dot)com if you are interested in a commission or a bibliomancy poem.
Better late than never, a birthday present for my glorious friend Rowena. Rather than weave the paper, I chose to tear the beautiful handmade Japanese sheets for a soft, bleeding, vein-like finish.
This started out as a present for a different friend, the passage from Six Memos about the sky appeared perfect. But the words refused to cooperate and when I surrendered to the fact, perhaps this was not the gift I set out to create, the poem organised itself.
Another lesson in surrender.
Another lesson in letting go of perfection.
Another lesson in trusting that everything comes in its own good time.
“You know you need to think of it as giving folk the opportunity of doing something that will make them feel good. You are doing them a favour really!”
~ Kim Roberts
Yesterday, I did two things that pushed me so far out of my comfort zone I’ll need a telescope to try and ascertain the faint smudge of its boundary if I ever choose to return there. I could say that launching my first ever mentoring program was the scariest thing I’ve done all year (maybe for the last three or four years) but it’s only the second scariest thing.
DO IT YOURSELF
In The Art of Asking Amanda Palmer says there’s two ways to do DIY.
The first is “Minimal DIY” where you literally try to do it yourself. Where the emphasis is on total self-reliance and individuation.
The second is “Maximal DIY” which is about expansion and asking. The emphasis is on collectivism; you throw your problem out to your circles to see what solutions might arise. (Page 100)
GO YOUR OWN WAY
I have always been a Minimal DIY when it comes to business. For most of eP’s life there was me at the forefront editing, designing, launching, financing and dealing with the day-to-day challenges that arise in a left-of-centre publishing model. I was terrible at delegating. I had no money for help, so I couldn’t source additional paid help if I wanted to. I didn’t feel I could ever ask anyone for help for the love of it. It was one thing for me to do it, but another thing for others to give it. (The few months when Laura Meyer helped me with admin — because she refused to take no for an answer — was heaven and I sorely missed her when she couldn’t offer that help any longer!)
The irony of it is that all of eP’s publications exist because of collectivism. But for whatever reason (okay I could list them all but I wont), I would never allow the collectivist approach to encroach beyond the creative stage of storytelling.
TIME FOR A CHANGE
Amanda refers to a problem in her references to DIY. My problem was: right now I am in the middle of my 105 day social media sabbatical.
To promote For the Asking I was faced with two options:
I opted for number two, the Maximal DIY approach, and spent an entire day wound up and feeling sick at the idea of emailing every close friend, every old friend, every person I have ever worked in publishing with to ask them to help me promote my new program. But I did it, because I had no other option. In reality, number one never existed.
AND IT PAYS BOTH WAYS
Years ago, my friend and colleague, Janette Dalgliesh, said I had a responsibility as the head of my business to lead by example, to be a role model for those who worked with me. At the time it was in regards to ensuring I was completely honest with the people I worked with about how I was coping and for me to care and put myself first (especially with my mental health), get plenty of rest and to pause projects when I needed periods of down time to get well.
If this was the expectation I set for myself, if this was how I treated myself then not only did it encourage others to treat themselves the same way, it instilled confidence that they would receive the same understanding and allowances if they found themselves in a similar position while working for me.
Yesterday I thought of her again. I knew that by stepping out and asking, I was giving other friends, other writers, other creatives ‘permission’ to ask too. The confidence to say: could you lend a hand? If I could do it, then they could do it too. I don’t just want to be be part of a culture of generosity, of always being willing to help, and giving where I can, I want to be part of a culture brave enough, and stubborn enough (to get over themselves) to ask.
It’s something I know I have to learn to do. This is the beginning. Not the end.
Maybe now I am starting to ‘become’. I hope so.
What is one thing you want to ask help with but are scared to?
Pursuing Parallels 