Yesterday and the day before I was involved in some very serious anti-technology.
The assignment:
Create a writing technology using only things found in nature.
Well, it turns out that in -20 degree weather, this can be more difficult than one might assume. What is there to use? Sticks? Boring. Snow? Vinny's going to. Dog poop? Yuck. Looking out my window, options seem limited.
After racking my brains I decided to take this as an opportunity to do something that I've wanted to try for the last several years, but didn't have time to: make paper. I spent the entire afternoon and evening in my endeavors. I froze my ass off collecting birchbark and pine needles. Then went to the studio to begin my concoctions. The result... a nice wet pile of pulp. I made 7 sheets of paper. One, I must admit, is sprinkled with brightly colored sequence, another I screwed up and is in the garbage. And I must say I enjoyed myself more than I have ever enjoyed any form of technology. Yes, it involoved physical, mental, and creative involvement. Renee knows why this is important to oddballs like us.
But then what to write with? Aha! I knew I collected that iron rich clay from the North Shore for a reason. It's been sitting at the back of my closet for a couple of years now. Collecting dust and waiting for me to make a glaze out of for ceramics. Instead it is being used as an invented writing technology. Mixed with some egg-yolk and water and wallah-- iron rich, red tempera paint.
I am feeling ready to be deposited on a deserted island. If I had a bottle I would make paper and paint and write a note to throw into the sea saying: "Don't bother to come find me. I'm perfectly content." I'd use the solitary time to get some writing done. Luckily I would have the means to do so.
I have a lot more I want to write, but unfortunately I am not on that deserted island with time to do so.
Mental note: write more later.
For now: do everything else that needs to be done.
Yes, Renee, I think you are right. It has something to do with being pulled in too many directions. However, I do suggest trying the paper and paint experiment. It has the effects of making one forget about everything else, wasting a lot of time, and enjoying it.
3 comments:
One of the fondest memories I have is of taking rice paper and andmade paper and creating a story that spanned feet across the floor of my parent;s house. Though, I didn't use egg/clay tempera paints ... I used handmade ink from my uncle's print shop. The result was similar ... and similarly effective.
Perhaps it is an extensive pulling in direction, or perhaps it is a general discontent among feeling individuals?
Ooooh. Can I make paper strong enough to paint on? Will you tell me how?
And yes, I think it most certainly has to do with feeling individuals. Quite a lot of people don't feel the pulling.
I would chance to say that all people are "feeling individuals." Perhaps it is just us ultra-sensitive types that feel the pull more strongly, are more willing to admit what lurks below the surface, and then must find ways to cope with the act of this acknowledgment. So we flounder and dream and explore further and possibly more often than necessary... but this is what keeps us afloat.
T., lets make paper.
S., can you show us how to make ink?
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