CrowdSourcingLove: Day 3 - The Found Poem and the Altered Page

Note: As a lead in to Valentine's Day I have been posting some ways that convey I love you that do not rely on purchasing gifts and I have invited you to do the same where you blog.  If you make a post could you link it to this post?  At the end of two weeks I am curious as to what interconnected posts about love we might make collectively.

Mixed-Media altered page by Seth Apter. Found here.

The found poem. With words, or images or both.  Like the love letter, this handmade offering is one to treasure. A found poem is one you make from an already established text.

From Wikipedia

 1. Altered Page and Found Poem

Found Poem/Altered Page by Sherry Chandler. Found here.

An easy method to make a found poem as visual art is to simply take a page from a text and color the words you don't want using a black crayon (use a light touch) and then circle and color the words, phrases, that you want to remain.

Sherry Chandler takes the opening page from James Joyce's Ulysses and alters it, forming a poem in the process. This is her poem:

Buck Mulligan
mounted the round gunrest
blessed gravely thrice the tower
the awaking mountains

Stephen Dedalus,
displeased and sleepy
leaned
looked coldly

soul and blood and ouns. Slow music, please.
One moment. A little trouble about
the loose folds of his gown,
sullen oval jowl

Stephen Dedalus
wearily halfway
watching him still

2. Found Poem and Altered Art Page

A found poem can be incorporated on an altered page.  Beginning with a random page from a book or a newspaper sheet, isolate the words you want to remain--the one's that are your written poem.You might want to tape over the words/letters you want to remain. Then cover the remaining page with white gesso, thinned white glue, or gel medium. Apply this lightly so that some of the words can bleed through a bit. 

Then it's time to play with a bit of color, if you like, photo transfers, line drawings, etc.

Found Poem, with gesso, watercolor, and image. (M.A. Reilly, 1/2012). Source: Pride and Prejudice, Chapter III, p. 6.

3. Altered Pages 

The altered book can feel like a big, big project. Worth doing, for sure--but it might not fit well into a two week window.  I like the idea of taking a few pages and altering them as an extended composition.  These can be presented together as a completed composition. I love Will Ashford's work and find his art is highly motivating. He couples sets of pages together as slideshows.  Works well.

Will Ashford's work.

The idea behind this gift is discovering what you feel by working with words and image and conveying what you come to discover to the one you love. 

FYI: You may even want to submit your work to The Found Poetry Review (they are accepting submissions up until March 31, 2012 for the spring issue).

Have fun.