Up: [[Creating a Body of Work]] Related: [[Image]] Course: Visual Poetry Diary with Lina Botero on Domestika Created: 2023-08-23 I really want a marriage of word and image where each are essential. Visual journals can offer this. So can a visual poetry notebook, and perhaps more easily because poetry suggests images in our minds. ### Start from a Poem You Love - What words or phrases jump out? Avoid the literal ones - What do you feel? - What do you know about the context of the poem —i.e., the author, location, etc. Because that can help in creating images. - Ask yourself what visual images can further the metaphor. Again don't be obvious. You are looking for images that don't directly represent the words but, rather, evoke the feeling in you. If there's an image of fire, for example, think about colour or sensations, not a campfire or a flame. - Freewrite all of the associations I can think of to the poem. - Make a mood board with the images and bits of text. ### Or Start from a Theme - Ideas for themes could include: - a topic you are working on; - an emotion; - something you are passionate about; - the passage of time; - a walk or trip; - an experience or situation. - If it’s a large, abstract theme, for example a concept like ‘love’, and mind map it to get to the personal and specific. - After choosing the aspect of the theme you want to develop, ask all kinds of questions: - What elements surround this theme? - What do I see when I think of this theme? - What do I feel when I think about this theme? This is the place for all of the senses beyond seeing. - How does the theme look like what I feel? (creates metaphor) example - “Love is a bottle in the sand.” Allow any kind of words, allow the madness. Images are going to come from that. If there’s a pain, call it by its name. Then break it down by emotion, sensations, memories. - Freewrite again. ### Developing the Work - Using the above, decide on 8-10 words that represent your theme. For love between a couple, Lina chose: fragility, movement, uncertainty, journey, seed, flow, growth. The more absurd the words, the easier it will be to collect images. - Then take, create or find images evoking these words. Get lots of images. Images become poetic when they don’t reveal everything. They have to have multiple meanings. Color, light, shadow, depth, perspective etc add metaphorical impact to images. It’s super important that the images, from their form and their content, narrate the theme you want to show. - Look at everything you’ve done so far. Then write poems to accompany the images. Don’t write what the image represents. Write what viewers wouldn’t think of without the poems. Don’t be obvious. It is better to evoke than show. - When writing the poems, link to all senses. Allow yourself madness. Transcend the rational. “Love is like a lemon giving birth to a hummingbird.” - Go for several rounds of freewriting and highlight things of interest in the freewriting to use in the poems. A simple example of a visual poetry notebook, less emphasis on the poetry, is [The Day to Day Life of Albert Hastings](https://vimeo.com/465575833) about an 85 year old man in Wales.