So Many Ways to Make

Asemic Writing by Sam Roxas-Chua

Our friend Sam Roxas-Chua has been making asemic writing lately. The link below will tell you what that is better than I could, but, in a nutshell, it's writing that is what most of our grade school teachers would have called "scribbling." It's not quite writing, not quite drawing, but something in between.

He has also been carving paper to create beautiful images of swans, falling water, and other, visceral images. The paper is usually not quite pierced, but the top layer of it is raised by Sam's knife to form fascinating shapes. http://www.asymptotejournal.com/article.php?cat=Visual&id=24

Paper Carving by Sam Roxas-Chua

 Another creative explosion is IUOMA, a mail-art movement. I haven't read their manifesto, if they have one, but the point here seems to be to create a postcard or envelope, using collage, painting, drawing, rubber stamps, postage stamps, and send it along to someone in the group -- one of the points of what they're doing seems to be that the art is ephemeral and once it's made, it leaves your hands and goes elsewhere, sometimes passing through ungentle post office handlers, sometimes being opened by the Security Agents of the receiving country.

Sometimes these are "add and pass" postcards, where the recipient is expected to add their own art or poetry to the mix and send it on until the whole surface is full. Then it goes back to the original maker.  http://iuoma-network.ning.com/group/starthereatiuoma

I am fascinated by these ways of making poetry and art. They can give your brain a new path, away from words. Don't you sometimes feel like Eliza Doolittle: "words, words, words, I'm so sick of words...."?