Her Mother

Double exposed photograph with blackout poem/found text.

Detail of photograph

Acceptance

'Her soul left her body in search of a God or Devil that would accept her as their own.'

(Vintage Photo Card, gouache, pen, and pencil)

Photo Booth thoughts x 3

Three new after thoughts to the project, 'Photo Booth Thoughts.'

You Lost Her..

'Still..You lost her, but I forgot her.'
Found photo, blackout poem, and shards from broken pit-fired pot.

Slowly but surely the different elements of my work which are always very much separate are quietly coming together.
I've become more aware how much the 'found object' is apart of my practice and am using it more and more; constantly collecting and putting together little sculptures and such.
Hopefully this is all leading to something great…

Abridged Zero - 47: A Many Splintered Thing

I had a poem published in Abridged Zero Magazine which accompanied an exhibition at Void Gallery in Derry, 'A Many Splintered Thing.' The below poem, which is untitled accompanies a photo by Irena Popova from her series Anfisa's Family.

'I can deal with none of this,

Yet….If I can bear it a while longer,

I will hear her soul.'

Needles to say I am very excited about this opportunity. I found the paragraph for the open call wonderful and a delight to be able to respond to. Here it is below:

Love is a Many Splintered Thing – Andrew Eldritch

“while everywhere love is breathing draftily” – Frank O’Hara

'Our sense of love is conjured vaguely in our sleep, without sound or alphabet, by the mixing of smells of our particular detergent, of breakfast crumbs, of tired bodies in tired bedsheets. Its potent moments are dissolved into our days and disseminated among the many, becoming the domestic dust that falls and fills the little crevices of our existence. The constant expansion of time drags against the climactic instants of love and their fullness. We are not accustomed to complete fullness, and do not have the capacity to sustain it. Love therefore must splinter into our long quotidian days. We must fluctuate lest we are to die from love and its devastating totality. We must choose to erupt with its moments, or to survive by allowing it to splinter and fray like a twisting rope. You will find it in your pocket like lint – it is the gunk in the cracks between the things we are sure of seeing, the gunk between the senses. You could call it love when you find yourself picking parts of another person from your skin, particles that have been wedged into your pores like soil or grime under your fingernails. It is the still morning light that bleaches our senses so we can really see the pimpled mossy stuff of love in its stark mundanity. Love is the nesting of a self within another, when duality glints into oneness. It is a closing in. We move closer and closer to the truth, and the inevitable falsities which become the essential truths. We move closer and closer until we cannot see wholes but only splintering fragments.'

To view the PDF online version please click here

Abridged were kind enough to send me two copies of the magazine, one for me and one to share! But the covers are different, how ever shall I choose!

Esc V

Look what I received in the mail! My contributors copy of the zine Esc V, which I  have 3 poems published in. Although a small publication it is a wonderful achievement to be apart of it.
Here it is below. For more information on Esc Zine please visit, http://www.esczine.com

The Belling of hounds

 

Fathers day card.

Black-out poem and drawing.

 

Happy Fathers day (or Commercialized racket!) Dad.

Photo-Booth Thoughts

Im currently putting together some new work using Photo Booth or wallet photos and found text using the black-out poetry method. The text and photo are scanned in separately they put tougher in photoshop using a background from an old album.

I am sure there are other names for these small photos as the majority were taken in a studio, I must do more research. I haven't decided a title i'm serenely going with Wallet Thoughts, but I am sure I can come up with something different.

Artists especially female artists have had an ongoing relationship with photo booths documenting themselves as their career progresses. These artists include Tracey Emin, Andy Warhol and my favourite Lee Godie.

I will add these the my poetry blog when they are all finished and hopefully make a book out of them when all is said and done. Watch this space.

Photo Booth Self-portraits by Tracey Emin, Lee Godie and And Warhol

A Not so Fictional…..Self-Portrait, 2014

'A Not So Fictional, But Somewhat Obvious Self-Portrait', 2014 

(Found vintage photograph, collage, newspaper text)

In-Between, Poetry Blog

Whats Wrong With Cats? And other tales..

So it has been a long time since I posted anything, to be honest I haven't had much time to do any work up until now.  I have been working on my black-out poetry though, that blog has been doing very well and since tumblr featured it I am currently up to 2,162 followers. It makes me wonder if I shouldn't start posting on my tumblr portfolio blog again. Its nice to have a bit of recognition, to know that people you don't know and will never meet like what you do.
Even though I have made little over the summer I have had a good few ideas, that have been loyally noted down in the sketchbook. And now that I am able to get going again hopefully the ideas will come to fruition!

 A big boost for me recently is that I was shortlisted for the 2014 Undergraduate Awards in the visual arts category, the 2014 Highly Commended shortlist to be exact. It is like winning the lotto! Although the likelihood of me winning the category is as slim as winning the lotto twice, I am still very lucky and grateful that I had the honour of being shortlisted!

'Becoming a winner, or even highly commended, means you are in the top of your field. The Undergraduate Awards identifies and recognises the most creative and nuanced arguments and ideas coming out at undergraduate level internationally. The overall winners are published in our annual academic journal. The journals are sent to every university library and is often requested by academics as a directory of the finest undergraduates from every discipline…….' -from the Undergraduate Awards Webpage. 

I have often babbled on about creating a  body of work to help support animals in need and I hope that now that I am not in college I am closer to that goal. Slowly but surely these things come together. I need someone to give me a deadline for a body of work then maybe I can kick it into gear!
Anyway I am fascinated and often appalled by people's negative reaction against cats, especially in Ireland.  People tend to stereotype against them, because of old superstitions and ideas that they are vermin. This is terrible, and I could babble on about it all day, being a cat owner myself. If you treat your cat like your dog spay and give it its shots then the world would be a better place!

Below are two needlepoints I did from sketches of my own cats, B.W and Garfunkel  I wanted to keep the needle point true to the sketches, the needle points are on five inch hoops. I plan to make a bunch of these. 
I am also interested in taking portraits of people and their cats, especially men, so If you read this and are interested please let me know.

Garfunkel and B.W.

Together

I am trying out a new variation of my blackout poetry and found text using vintage photographs. Hopefully this will be a successful development.

New Poetry

Don't forget to keep checking my Black-Out Poetry Blog. Its updated often and there are lots of new posts. It now has eighty followers and counting!
www.emilyrobardspoetry.tumblr.com

Etsy Store

Its official I have opened an Etsy store for the blackout poetry I have been doing. There are a few for sale in the store but I have a lot more to add.
Each 6x4 original collage comes in a simple wooden frame, which you can either hang or comes with an optional wire stand. Hopefully this will be a positive experience and will be a way to make a bit of money and create some good exposure! I'd appreciate it if you could share the shop around in case someone is looking to buy a prezzie for someone and is stuck for ideas!
Here is a link to my store http://www.etsy.com/shop/PoetryPlease?ref=search_shop_redirect
Some samples of the work below.

Sketchbook. July 20, 2011

Look Mum,

She Has a Face,

Call her Name,

Tell Her that I Love Her,

And Miss her Everyday.

This is one of those random spouts of creativity. I found this piece of paper while waiting for something in the workshop at college. I looked down at the front desk and there it was exactly as it is, I just crossed out some of the words. Its poetic in its own way,  even if it might not make sense.......