Art as Conversation

Over the last 6 months my brother and I have been collaborating on a body of work together. The intent was a dialog between artists. We settled on the size of paper, the type of pen and a few other boundries and began the conversation. He began each piece with a character or a landscape. I responded by adding to the drawing. Then back to him. And back again. Each image is composed of anywhere from 4 t0 6 exchanges. Eventually, 31 drawings emerged out of which we settled on 26 of them being our favorites. We grew in an understanding of one-another as artists like I never would have imagined. Some of the earlier ones reveal the differences in our style, but some of the later ones are almost seemless. We still don't know what we are going to do with this special body of work (suggestions welcomed)- but I will say that it has been one of the most formative experiments in creativity that I've ever been a part of.

How To Be a Poet by Wendell Berry

i

Make a place to sit down.

Sit down. Be quiet.

You must depend upon

affection, reading, knowledge,

skill—more of each

than you have—inspiration,

work, growing older, patience,

for patience joins time

to eternity. Any readers

who like your poems,

doubt their judgment.

ii

Breathe with unconditional breath

the unconditioned air.

Shun electric wire.

Communicate slowly. Live

a three-dimensioned life;

stay away from screens.

Stay away from anything

that obscures the place it is in.

There are no unsacred places;

there are only sacred places

and desecrated places.

iii

Accept what comes from silence.

Make the best you can of it.

Of the little words that come

out of the silence, like prayers

prayed back to the one who prays,

make a poem that does not disturb

the silence from which it came.