poemimage
The visual & the poetic.
Category: Digital collage
July 26, 2021
GIF Experiments: 25 (Exploring Five Lines from Lyon by Pierre L’Abbe in Six Variations)
In the traboules of the Croix-Rousse
the shuffling silk weaver
the bile of vertigo rising in his throat moves left
in the stairwell only the balls of his feet
on narrow circular steps
(from Lyon, Pierre L’Abbé)
Pierre L’Abbé is a poet and fiction writer, he recently translated Palestine, a novel by Hubert Haddad.
July 10, 2021
GIF Experiments: 24 (The Ronettes… although)
I’m glad I was able to post a GIF today. I was working with a large volume of images interpreting five lines from Lyon by Pierre L’Abbe and need more time. I will (knock on wood) assemble that GIF this coming week. In the meantime I offer this ‘slow-moving river of a GIF’ featuring (ostensibly) The Ronettes, although they too were code for something else I suspect, considering when I drew them.
THIS GIF HAS SUFFERED SOME SORT OF DAMAGE OVER TIME. EACH PANEL IS SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE THIS (BELOW). I WILL FIX THIS (REPLACE) AT SOME POINT.
July 3, 2021
GIF Experiments: 23 (Napoleon and the Cook)
This one has a humorous air to it to go with the pathos of solitude. The ‘face’ of the striding emperor (can you see it?) is the same as the harlequins in the procession with yellow flags. I created a series of pages with that face & design. A shape accidentally happened, I noticed it looked like a face and saved it – it reminded me of my (deceased) brother.
I ‘sign’ these GIFs same as I would a drawing or painting. It’s not egomania that makes me put my name in there.
July 2, 2021
GIF Experiments: 22 (The Charge of the Light Brigade)
Although the title in the GIF looks like a book and the GIF looks like a book trailer it’s not. However I created poetic text after the fact.
*
The Light Brigade
As in
Let There Be Light.
Witness
The mechanics of charging light.
Witness traction activate
Clouds of unknowing known
As muscled determination.
The mechanical opposite to A sucker born every minute.
Touch your tongue to the tent of your mouth. Announce
Charge
Pronounce light
As in
Let There Be Light.
*
Notes on the GIF: Intimations of Runic script transform into curvilinear vegetal design indicating a charging beast. It happened visually by itself (so to speak) during the design process.
Finding ‘his’ footing. Gaining traction. The irony of a ‘massive’ beast doing double-duty as charging light. Charging like flashlight beams in a force field? Surely he is not disembodied.
This GIF ponders our pressing situation, universal as it is, and the question of something, anything, out of the blue in reply.
*
June 25, 2021
GIF Experiments: 21 (Crossing Timelines in the Imagination)
The Augustinian Francesco Petrarch travels backwards into the Dark Ages and witnesses President John Kennedy trying to calm Lyndon Johnson. Kennedy senses the unknown. The King of Naples in 1341 appoints Francesco Petrarch Poet Laureate. His sonnets, some say, become the model for lyrical poetry. He writes a book of imaginary letters to Saint Augustine. He writes about this experience. Kennedy considers the known and the unknown.
No martyr is among ye now
Whom you can call your own
So go on your way accordingly
But know you’re not alone
from I Dreamed I Saw Saint Augustine by Bob Dylan
I wasn’t able to find the name of the artist (painter) or photographer. In any case I do not claim copyright for the images used for non-commercial purposes of commentary and refashioning new art works.
June 9, 2021
GIF Experiments: 20 (Put It On My Account – 2)
I have incorporated Byzantine art and the traditional Sunday school image of Mary for non-commercial purposes of refashioning a new art work. Name of artists unknown.
June 8, 2021
GIF Experiments: 19 (Put It On My Account)
I cut through the Catholic school playground on my bicycle, looked in the windows at the pictures of Mary, and waited for traffic to thin before I crossed Canal Avenue. I had an account at the Frozen Dairy stand. “I’ll have a marshmallow chocolate milkshake. Put it on my account.”
from Meme-Noir, 2019
May 3, 2021
GIF Experiments: 16 (Take a Photograph of What You Love)
I divided 190 images (manipulated in Photoshop) used in these three GIFS into three groups – arbitrarily. Many were repetitive and yet many unique. I sought to give each GIF its own visual rhythm. Then I added a phrase to the third GIF: Take a photograph of what you love.
I reworked and juxtaposed two medieval paintings, a photograph of Jacqueline Kennedy in Dallas, and a photograph of Serge Gainsbourg & Jane Birkin.
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