A View From the Edge

I like the edges of things, where things come together and change because of contact with one another. I like the edges of things, where there is a rawness, a frontier to be discovered. I like the edges of things, where the water and sand burnish one another and leave each other softer, more rounded and energized.

I particularly like edges in my art work. I like to see two colors come together and create contrast. I like to see water media flow into one another and create an interesting trail of changes. I like to see textures, one abutted up against the other, making each more beautiful in the visual reaction. I like margins on the page, and breaking the rules and writing or drawing in that space just to see what comes of it. I just like the words “threshold” and “verge”.

And when it comes to ephemera, I love the worn, softened edges of 100 year old wheat colored papers; music sheets, handwritten diaries, and yellowed book pages. I like old photographs, poorly exposed, or badly composed, but changed by being pasted in an old back photograph album. I love my family’s collection old player piano rolls, some worn out beyond use. And I adore yellowed tape, no longer holding much together, but leaving a rectangle of the most beautiful amber color that can only be created over time.

I have created a little book using yellowed ephemera, the only criteria being the pieces have interesting edges, lines, markings, or signs of age. Making this book I was able to hang out with Kurt as he continues to heal from his surgery with his foot elevated, and still satisfy my creative urges as I found interesting tid-bits, arranged them and affixed them to stationary from World War II. I’m calling this book The Book of Edges.

And some of my inspiration came from Jo Horswill’s Quiet Book, which you can see here.

“We’re always attracted to the edge of where we are, out by the edges where it’s a little raw and nervy.”

E. L. Doctorow

“Energy gathers at the borders. It appears spontaneously at birth and death, at the beginning of a novel and at the end. It gathers at natural boundaries such as the new moon and the first day of spring, and at human-made borders such as presidential elections.”

Paul Richards.