Class with Kelly Kilmer Part One - Visual Poetry

Recent visitors to RMBM know that I have been enjoying exploring art journaling. Friends have heard ad nauseam about how excited I was to take my first ever class with Kelly Kilmer at Kept Creations in Whitman, Massachusetts. Well, lovelies, I was not disappointed. It was a wonderful day of creating, learning, laughing and stretching my limits. 

The first class was Visual Poetry and boy was it eye opening! Kelly's work is very striking, powerful and empowering. I did not imagine that I would create the pages I did. I love them! Looking at them it is hard to imagine that they were created by me. I tend to sit and giggle when I look at them. It's simply delightful. 

We collaged, painted, ripped our paper into pages, bound them and then started the actual collage and journalling process. Each layer added depth and strength. 

I finished the cover and the second page in. One page needs some finishing touches and the rest….well they are like an empty playground. They are ready for all kinds of things to happen. Open to possibility. They are conduits of bridging the gap between taking the class and regular life. Looking at them inspiration lurks enticing me to explore. Kelly, you are genius!

Taking a class like this, in person, stretches you. Looking at art journaling videos at home I learn so many things. I am grateful to live now, when so much inspiration is easily available. Still, there is nothing like a real time, human based class. One in which our hesitation is noted, our fears are confronted and our tendencies are checked. More than once Kelly challenged me. She challenged us all to reach out of our color comfort zone. 

Guess which colors I gravitate to….did you even have to think about it? 

Kelly challenged me to add a dark color…maybe black. It was surprising and invigorating. I even liked it… a little. The woman who sat next to me, whose name I remember but will not divulge, used black with abandon. Her pages dripped black, oozed black and boy were they powerful. I started wondering if I didn't want to use black too. I settled for adding a bit here and there and remaining true to my current vision. 

There are so many pages to explore new things. To try new layouts, new tools, and new prompts. 

Each will stretch me. 

Each will teach me something new.

Near the end of workshop number one, Kelly casually posed the idea that one way to approach a design is to challenge yourself to use up the color on the pallet. I looked down at the pallet in front of me and saw a lump of untouched red. It was a big lump. At first I said "no way" but later repented and started swinging the red paint around with abandon. 

I found there is more in me than meets the eye. 

The back cover is testament to the fact that pink and red can coexist quite nicely. 

Enough for one post. I will save class two for another post. Thank you, Kelly, for a wonderful class! Kept Creations, you will be seeing me again.

Found Poetry - New Year Improvements

I read about found poems and thought I'd try to make one. I thought I'd like to make one about my writing this year and this is what happened. All text was repurposed from Inspirations catalog of home furnishings.

Welcome 2013, Year of the Snake

Scratching itches

Scabs fly free

Scaly skin escapes

Slithering

Swirling

Spiraling forward

Sharp incisors

Slick sleek tongue

Sick saliva spraying

Scintillating

Sparkly

Spectacular

Snake, I see you

I succumb

Spurred on by strange circumstances

Softly you surround me

Silkily you insinuate

Reasons I should celebrate

Silently after a season of storms

You sneak in shrewdly

Showering serenity and possibility.

I've Seen Berets

I’ve seen berets

I’ve seen berets

Everywhere I’ve looked this month

I’ve seen them on the covers

Of poetry books of old

The books I’ve read to remind me

Of how I started writing.

Berets of wool, of cotton and of celluloid

On heads young and old

Male and female

I saw a young man with a beard

A leather jacket and denim vest

Tortoiseshell glasses on his nose

Wear a red wool beret

At a very jaunty angle

Walking into a big box store

The sight stole my breath away

It was a vision from the young ‘70s

A memory of the past

Everywhere I looked I saw berets

With matching coats

Sophisticated or street chic

They just popped out at me

I bought a new one of cotton

In lacy black

There were so many colors to choose from

It was tempting to try orange or yellow

But I knew I’d never wear them

The black one felt just right

I wore it and people commented

Asked if I was an artist

And I knew not what to say

My new beret

Of lacy cotton

Helped me to finally conquer

The beret

This month I wrote a great deal of poetry. I started out posting something each day. Some days I had to write quite a few poems before I could find one to post. Some were just too far away from being ready for the light of day.

Many days I jotted poems down on scraps of paper. I hope I can find them all to add to my notebook. It was enough to be writing them – good or bad, shared or saved until they are more presentable.

Some poems I shared with my students. They roared with laughter. Sometimes they told me the truth as they saw it – “That’s just boring Ms. Shoup.” We wrote many poems together this month, my students and I. We tried writing concrete poetry, acrostic poems (my favorite were the group acrostics of Sponge Bob Square Pants), and I have plans to use some lesson plans I discovered to help them write Triante poems. I tried quite a few myself with varying success. 

Many days I found, however, that though I set out to write a verse for children, the recalcitrant poem turned my intentions on it’s head and out spewed a poem that only adults would appreciate. Clearly, I have a long way to go before I can call myself a children’s poet. I'm on my way, though. 

Allergies

April 20 2012

Sneeze

Sniff

Snuffle

Wheeze

Whiff

Kerfuffle

Get me a new box of tissues

Turkey Lullaby

April 15, 2012

Wild turkey gobbling

Under my open window

Strange new lullaby