I could make a transformation…

I recently changed jobs and now get to work around and with art every day.  I’ve always been good at incorporating my own graphic and stylistic sensibilities into whatever project I am working on but its been many years since art was truly part of my day-to-day responsibilities. I’m not going to lie: it feels a little like a treat each time I open my office door and realize I get to spend the day surrounded by drawings, paintings, photographs, and sculpture…

I am in the process of taking down our most recent show (“Transformations: An exhibition inspired by Lily Clayton Hansen’s Word of Mouth: Nashville Conversations”) and preparing for our next ( which revolves around water conservation).  Translation: I have spent the past few weeks removing decal quotations from the gallery walls so I can repair and repaint before hanging the next show in September.

It was while I was working on removing the first quote that I decided it would be fun to transform the existing quote into a piece of poetry by selectively removing certain words.  Two other team members soon joined in on the fun and are making their own poetry.  We each have our own ‘writing’ style: I remove random words until the poetry begins to jump out at me while they prefer to plan first before removing.  Regardless of the method, we have all created some pretty interesting transformations along the way.

Want to try your own transformation? Find a quote and use a black marker to alter the sentiment by removing one word at a time, until a new ‘quote’ reveals itself to you. It’s a great way to exercise your brain and strangely addictive too.  Let me know if you end up transforming something – I’d love to see the poetry you end up creating…

*Star – David Bowie