Inspiration Is Everywhere...

One of the required elements of the Art/Poetry Journal that I have been working on as a member of the ZNE Artists and Poets Group is that an inspirational poem, by any author, be placed on the inside front cover of the Journal.

For days I searched, wondering what Cathy might find inspiring, wanting to choose just the right poem, anguishing over what seemed to be a most monumental decision, and then I found it - "Picture Puzzle Piece" by Shel Silverstein. It reads as follows:

One picture puzzle piece
Lyin' on the sidewalk,
One picture puzzle piece
Soakin' in the rain.

It might be a button of blue
On the coat of the woman
Who lived in a shoe.

It might be a magical bean,
Or a fold in the red
Velvet robe of a queen.

It might be the one little bite
Of the apple her stepmother
Gave to Snow White.

It might be the veil of a bride
Or a bottle with some evil genie inside.

It might be a small tuft of hair
On the big bouncy belly
Of Bobo the Bear.

It might be a bit of the cloak
Of the Witch of the West
As she melted to smoke.

It might be a shadowy trace
Of a tear that runs down an angel's face.

Nothing has more possibilities
Than one old wet picture puzzle piece.

Perhaps it was the overly serious way in which I had been approaching the selection of 'just the right poem' that made this playful poem by one of my favorite childhood authors seem so appealing. Or, perhaps it was what I find to be this poem's simple message about the magical way that one can find inspiration everywhere that made it seem so perfect. Nonetheless, as soon as I read it, I knew I had my poem.

So, here is the inside cover of the Journal with the poem printed on what is supposed to look like a soggy sort-of puzzle piece. The piece rests on a background that I was hoping would look like the concrete of a sidewalk. Other smaller picture puzzle pieces are scattered on the sidewalk as a kind of border as well.

Having decided on the poem, I then decided to take the "puzzle piece" idea and apply it to the overall composition of the Journal as a whole.

Rather than use a bunch of soggy-looking brown colored picture puzzle pieces, I decided to sprinkle Cathy's Journal with random images shaped like pieces of a puzzle that would not only pull the whole of the Journal together, but might offer bits of inspiration in the somewhat abstractness of the images in the pieces themselves.

I guess we'll just have to wait to hear from Cathy about whether or not they serve as the creative spark(s) they were intended to be....