Word up! Poems to be red allowed

Back in 2016, over a period of a few weeks I was somewhat taken over entirely by the compulsion to make rhyming couplets…strange, I know. It was during a bit of a rough time for me, and it became a new kind of logic for me to express myself without images.

Some of them became like ways of describing the processes of generating imagery, while others loosely attach themselves to ideas of philosophy and self awareness, while keeping it a bit crude and rude.
I see them also as a device to slow down the pace of reading and looking in general. Through the use of deliberate miss spellings and opposing word meanings I encourage the reader to read aloud, quite similar to the moment of announcing a christmas cracker joke…

A THIRST FOR FIRST PAGE,
THIS MITE GHETTO BIT KNEW AGE,
LIKE CUMIN NOUT A CAVE, WEARIN
BISCUIT-BEIGE.
(But wier on the same page.)
SOW CUM MON NAN HAND DULL MY GAZE,
AND FLICK THREW THE PAGE, AS YOU ENTER THE MAZE.
WATCH ME DROOL ANOTHER FACE, SAME ICE, DIFFERENT PLAICE.

PROVIDE A ROOM,FOOL LOFT IN TENT-SHUN,
LEAF QUICK BE FOUR THEY-YALL PAY ATTENTION-
TO MAKE ZEN SOFT YOUR FLAYED-INVENTION.
DON’T MENTION, THE TENSION-COS WHOSE EVEN
THINKING ABOUT PAYIN-NIN TO THEIR PENSION?


WALL KING ON BEAR FEET,
YOU MITE THINK, “SO DISC/ CRETE”
LIKE CAN EYE-LAND OFF THE GREEK
FOUR THE MILD AND THE MEEK.
WUSS ONLY LASS WEEK, KIT BRUSHED
ON YOUR CHEEK,
LEFT A BREWS FOR SOME KNOOSE
AND NOW YOU CAN’T SPEAK.

THE PHASE ZIT FORMS SEW QUICKLY,
AND SLICKLY,
YOU-ALL-MOST-MISSED-DUH-TRIXIE,
MOVES YOU LIKE A PICK-SEA.

WHEN I PIG UP THE PEN-KNAW
BRUSH IF YOU MUST,
EYE STAR 0VAL-AGAIN NAN, AGAIN-
UNTIL THE FINGERS HAVE BLED,
ALL-LOVER THE BED-
CAN’T DISS
-STILL BLEW FROM READ-
BUT TIME STILL IN MY HEAD.

LAUGHING AT MY TRAGEDIES,
TURNING THEM INTO ALLERGIES,
OR FINE-FAN-SEAS-
LIKE SPECK-TICKLES, INFLECT RIPPLES,
AND EXPECT APPLAUSE,
WHEN YOU’VE GONE FOR PAUSE.
COS IF YOU CAN FIND HUMOUR IN LIFES TUMOUR,
THEN THE QUICKER DISAPPEARS THE RUMOUR,
OF THE CONSUMER, WHO-
FELL IN LOVE WITH THEIR HOOVER!



OBJECTS ALL AROUND YOU,
NOTHING GETS-SHOE, FEELIN
PROFOUND, SO YOU DO A NUTHER ROUND TRIP-
CLICK BACK AND TWIST YOUR
RIGHT HIP, FOR A QUICK FIX,
AND SOME CRUEL LICKS, SO
WIND-DOWN YOUR LIP-STICK,
SINK THE PINK SICK,
AND WATCH MY RIFF, MICK.

SO BESPOKE, THIS YOUNG ARTY-CHOKE,
A FINE LITTER FOLK, GOLDEN-YELL
LOW AS EGG YOLK!
OH, WEIGHT NO! IT SHOULD BE GREEN,
FOR AS FAR AS I CAN SCREAM-
THERE IS LIGHT HERE STILL TO BEAM,
GLEAM! YOUR BURSTING AT THE SEAM,
SALTY AS SEA BREAM, GOING IN-FOR-THE-LEAN..

COOL LAND THE TRENDIES,
WITH THERE GAB-BAN-NANAS AND FENDIES-
SO FAR OUT THEY CAN’T EVEN LEND THEE
A CUPPA COUGH
FEE OR A FEW PEN-KNEES

IN TEN CITY LAND, THERE ATE
KNOW PIT-TEA TO BE HAD
HOT TIERS, SAND
CHAI-DISH FEARS.
SIS, SAW YULE SEE FOR YEARS.

IN AMONGST, THE INNER MONKS,
THEIR LIES PEAS-FOOL HIDDEN
SIR.PRICE, AND UNTIL EWE
REAL-EYES THE VOWL-YOU OF THE LIFE LONG
LICE, EWE CAN NEVER
REAP PLY UNDER THE
WATCH FOOL EYE, OF A PASSER- BYE.

EYE YAM MALONE, AND EWE ART TOO,
SEW LET SNOT GET MONADICK-COOL-
OR RAD-DICK-COOL-
AT THE FACT WIER HEAR,
WITHER BURNIN EAR,
BLOOD, D –NOSE AND RED SMEAR.

ON BEAN A VEER-COOL:

ITS UNI-VERSE-SOUL—SO REEL-LATE-A-BULL. WHEEL WASH SHOWER CAR, SOME TAKE IT A BIT FAR, BUT ITS OWNLY A SHELL, GETS SOLD ON AND HAS A SMELL.

LIE-FAD-VICE:
BE BOLD, BEE GOLD,
AND DO ASS YOUR
TOLD, DONUT WAIT TO
GET OLD, OR FOUR THE SHEET
TO UNFOLD.

PRO-NOUN –SEE-ATION IS VITAL, IF YOUR COMIN TO THIS RECITAL,
SIT ON THE HIGH STOOL, AND GET HIGH FOOL, FROM A DRIP-BULL OF MY LIFE
DROOL.
IF FEW GET FRY-TEND THEN EYE MITE JUS,
BENDER LITTER CLOSER THAN IM SUPPOSED-TUH.

NAME A WORD THAT CAN BE HERD,
SPOT THE PATTERN AND THEN FLAT-
TURN THE LODGE-JICK OF THE NERD,
THAT LICKS THE LEMON CURD,
PRODUCES GOAL-DEN TURN-
AND TOUCH-CHESS ALL OBSURD!

here’s a similar example of one I made much earlier..not much has changed!

Drawing on muscle memory

I’ve always used the words ‘muscle memory’ to quickly answer the question of ‘How did you do that?’
Perhaps a bit ambiguous, but it’s an answer that makes sense for me. I started using drawing/painting seriously in my practice during the second year of my degree. I had been itching to express ideas extended beyond what my camera could do, however still maintaining a feeling of timelessness.
Going from photography, where light and real subjects are what you’re dealing with, to empty space and physical materials is now, a very interchangeable and freeing fluctuation for me… It wasn’t always so easy from the start!

From the get go I inadvertently created my own identity crisis: am I a painter? am I a photographer? I won’t bore you with that part..but as for starting out painting for the first time, I realised that my hand was always wanting to come back to the same lines, creating simple, recognisable forms like cigarettes and phalic like shapes. After spending some time feeling very perplexed, I started using the words muscle memory to unknot myself, and quickly lost the fear with ‘what is the imagery saying about me?’

Its funny, having been used to using my nude body for photographs for some time, it seemed more exposing to be generating imagery solely from my imagination and people seeing that. So having a few words and hazy patterns hovering over me as I painted, was quite useful.

Currently, I’m working on 6 large pastel drawings, and I decided to do some videos of the process. (Apologies for the shoddy quality etc, and horrendous yellow…)

What was going on inside my head to start with, was at most, a very out of focus image of something containing a person. I had the ‘variables’ the same: same colours, same paper etc..but no real clue as to what the picture was going to be in the end.

All of my ‘mistakes’ throughout the process of drawing, become the base of the next place I’m off to on the paper. And you can see, in some of them that there are several life forms existing under the accumulation of coloured dust. Being able to see moments of a drawing, does at times leave me wondering if I should had stopped an hour or two ago..but I guess it adds fuel for the next one!

The closest comparison of ‘muscle memory’ that I have managed to come up with so far is the moment you:

a) first came up with your signature.

b) the fluidity that your hand now has creating the same abstract line with ease, each time you sign something.

I see my drawing sometimes as an ongoing, highly personalised and cryptic signature.So, if you’ve ever been daunted by the blank canvas, perhaps take a moment to notice the lines that are formed naturally from your hand…(or foot or mouth!)