Collaborating - The Return...

At the beginning of the summer holidays a friend and I agreed to share some of our creativity and use it to inspire each other - I was really excited by this, as I love what she does. 

There were a couple of sneaky peeks at the piece of felt I gave her here.

Just before I went on holiday I received her wonderful work....and here it is, accompanied by a full view of the random wooliness:

The Return

Foamy surf, the blue-green ebb and flow of life on earth,

The never-ending motion of the pull against

The yellow sky, not a sunset, almost ominous,

Sulphurous, a backdrop for shadows.

 

A lumbering bulk, clumsy on land, hulking

Against the sandy vastness.

A silent, indistinct almost formless something,

Moving into the rhythm of sea.

At last, in the smooth depths, dugong-like,

Strange grace from great weight; waves lift and caress,

Silver threads weaving in and out of cerulean space,

Bubbles rising to the surface.

Finally, sunset comes, the shepherd’s sky,

A promise of good, and on the shore,

A perfect footprint, as big, as deep as a turtle’s laying nest,

Not formless, not indistinct.

 

I love Karen's poem, I have read it many times and find new depths.

The most amazing aspect of the collaboration has been how the image has been interpreted.

After I had read and commented on her poem Karen shared some of her thought processes. 

The piece of felt had been made with the sand at the bottom and I had intended the dark form as a footprint...but Karen had looked at it the other way up and revealed a shadowy figure....how fantastic!

After my initial reading of the poem I realised this, but found it hard to see 'him' and a tryptich came to mind..(Picture of a figure with yellow sky and sea below; watery scene with smoothly swimming whale form and bubbles; and the existing image as a footprint  on the sand) 

However as I re-read the words and gazed at the picture the figure lumbered into view ...

I could see 'him'! I felt quite emotional!

So I have used the same image both ways up to accompany the poem, I hope you can see him too!

I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Karen and she has sent me some more of her amazing writing. 

I hope to make something in response to some of her powerful work and I have an idea for another piece of wooliness to prompt some more creative writing....

Thank you Karen...may this be the first of many creative collaborations!