Sketchbook: I Am A Comma

by Valores Moon | Mar 16, 2016 | Art, Creativity, Interconnectedness, Mixed Media, Painting, Poetry, Stories, The Space Between

i am a comma

i sometimes stand in for one of the twins

when words from a past life are to be repeated

when i feel a little bit moody and out of character

i will team up with a no-nonsense full-stop

to make a hybrid statement

just for a giggle i sometimes apostrophise

and hope you notice when i shout with my hands around my mouth

“hey you giant, hellloooo, there’s something missing here!”

but,

when i am my favourite kind of me

i am the comma that adores the space

that has to happen when i happen

it could be a spectacular pause,

a space to breathe,

or just room to change your mind if you feel like it.

Note: The idea behind this sketchbook project was to complete the sentence I am a [metaphor]. I made it for the Misty Mawn Make/Do Art Workshop. Also for me and my very lovely handmade book that I bought in Venice some years ago! I had two ideas. First, I am the pink thread that runs through a white dress passed on from one generation to the next. Kind of like a timeline. And second, I am a comma. The poem came so easy and then the painting just happened. I painted the girl as a comma next to the letter ‘e’. I thought that I could illustrate a comma best next to a letter. I decided to make that letter an ‘e’ because a lot of wonderful words end with an ‘e’. Words like love, hope, peace, believe and bee :)

Like a beaded necklace

by Valores Moon | Dec 2, 2014 | The Space Between

Epeolatry is the worship of words. Now I wouldn’t go that far, but I do love words and what you can do with them. The value in words, I think, lies in how you string them. Like a beaded necklace. Week 3 in the Paperlove course is all about words. Work I’ve done before with words include The Knit of You, I can still taste the sea in my tears, Good Wolf Bad Wolf, The Fish of Far-sigthedness, etc. To try to name them all doesn’t really make any sense, because the pieces that don’t have text are still endowed with a story. Where would we be without words and stories?

More unique than fingerprints, is the mantra repeating to form the face of my painting: The Knit of You. Repeating phrases is good for the soul. I am still repeating my original mantra “one step at a time, one step at a time” regularly.

Poetry by Spoken Word Artist Sarah Kay – I absolutely love this. It is so easy to relate to.

Little books – perfect for lists and prompts. The insides are folded using only one piece of paper.

Little books – perfect for lists and prompts. Giving some old Bhoomie calendar pages a new purpose as book covers.

Some wonderful washi tape and a tiny torn piece of paper with a heart on that I couldn’t throw away.

Little books – perfect for lists and prompts.

from impossible blossom to impossible sweet blossom

by Valores Moon | Jan 30, 2012 | Blossom, Inspiration, Joy, Mixed Media, On wings

At the moment I dream of visiting Japan and as the cherry blossom season starts in Japan, I thought this beautiful poetry could lighten up Monday for all of us:

From Blossoms

BY LI-YOUNG LEE

From blossoms comes

this brown paper bag of peaches

we bought from the boy

at the bend in the road where we turned toward

signs painted Peaches.

From laden boughs, from hands,

from sweet fellowship in the bins,

comes nectar at the roadside, succulent

peaches we devour, dusty skin and all,

comes the familiar dust of summer, dust we eat.

O, to take what we love inside,

to carry within us an orchard, to eat

not only the skin, but the shade,

not only the sugar, but the days, to hold

the fruit in our hands, adore it, then bite into

the round jubilance of peach.

There are days we live

as if death were nowhere

in the background; from joy

to joy to joy, from wing to wing,

from blossom to blossom to

impossible blossom, to sweet impossible blossom.

PS. I recently watched a really great movie, Cherry Blossoms (original German title Kirschblüten – Hanami), that really moved me – it made me look at my life differently.