poetic portraits

AN INTUITIVE WRITING AND VISUAL POETRY PROJECT

Emerging out of the course “Mind-Body-Draw” taken during graduate school in 2016 at MICA, fellow artists, designers, friends, seasonal lovers, and family were invited to engage with a generative experience. Together, we transformed selected words from my personal poems into short, potent narratives and visual records that illuminated our interior worlds.

“Mind-Body-Draw” is a studio class taught by Michelle La Perrière that recognizes the intimate relationship between mindfulness and the process of drawing. The course structure is described as a process made to “deepen one’s ability to create from a more holistic place” allowing us to experiment with “working from observed reality and felt sensations.”

We touched upon various tools and techniques (graphite, mixed media, and digital technology) with my interest in digital creative process meeting the sensorial nature of poetic storytelling.

Poetic Portraits is an intuitive writing and visual poetry project that explores the unexpected combinations of communal creation, felt sensations, fragmented poetry, collage, and digital technology. 

MY ROLE

Creator + Experience Designer

DURATION

Fall 2016

PARTICIPANTS

Over 80 people

CONCEIVED DURING

“Mind-Body-Draw” Course

After migrating from Atlanta to Baltimore for graduate school, I had pages of poems processing the heartbreak, crumblings, and sacred openings that came with the major transitions.

I wanted to feel and witness the poems—poems made from human experiences that many of us share—in another form: fragmented, reinvented, and collaged into narratives and multiple meanings that were no longer just my own. This was my process:

  1. Choosing 100 words from the poems I had written.

  2. Creating a “visual dictionary” with each word connected to a found (freely usable) online image.

  3. Inviting over 80 people to look at the list of 100 words and intuitively form a line of poetry (no more than 10 words) allowing their mind and body to express what’s alive at the moment.

  4. Matching every word with it’s corresponding image and designing a digital collage, with a 10-minute time limit for each creation process—all individually layered and transformed in Adobe Photoshop.

Capture of the first 25 words participants could choose from and their corresponding images. Maintaining an element of surprise and anticipation, participants were not shown these images when making their word selections and forming poetic sentences.

notice how the chosen word listening visually manifests in several of the poetic portraits

after the intuitive writing
and digital collage process

When the digital collage process felt complete, I emailed each person to share the poetic portraits made from fragments of my life—and now theirs—living as a time capsule and record of moments, memories, and felt sensations. The original poetic portraits included their name beneath the writings but have been removed on my website for privacy and anonymity.

15_fukushima.jpg
62_jain.jpg
67_dubow.jpg
9_dumas.jpg
26_wais.jpg
20_barnes.jpg
16_james.jpg
25_granny.jpg
33_dejesus.jpg

  • From its inception, I have been intrigued and excited by the elegance and richness of this project.

    The independence of each participant/poet, working within the limitations of the set words is liberating and fun. The give and take of the entire experience is surprising and deeply satisfying.

    — Michelle La Perriere, Mind-Body-Draw Instructor

  • I always like to write short sentences to amuse myself. And it feels really interesting and inspiring when given the lists of words to choose from.

    They say you get more creative when there are restrictions. And I think it makes me brave enough to share my feelings this way. When I see the beautiful visual that you created, I can feel the poetry and collage melt through each other.

    — Participant & Poet

  • I liked writing the line from your words because it felt like collaging language as I sifted thru for words that struck me and then played with putting different things together.

    I've never done something quite like this before and really enjoyed it. Also, I usually write in a really solitary way and don’t show anyone so it was nice to contribute to something with others.

    — Participant & Poet

  • I have been overjoyed. It's difficult for me to write publicly so I loved the idea of being able to work collaboratively, adding new life to your words.

    The word selection was inspiring and challenging as well. I really went inside of myself to figure out which words stood out to me and addressed my sentiments in that moment.

    — Participant & Poet

  • I loved our co-creation.

    It was healing. Your project gave me an avenue of relief, as well as the validation of the emotions via an art piece being made in connection with my feelings and a safe place to express these feelings in the first place.

    — Participant & Poet

  • As someone who does poetry and spoken word, what I loved about this project was that you provided just a glimpse of what your poetry is about through 100 words.

    There were so many emotions and stories within the words that I felt as if I had to keep creating my own poetry lines out of them. However, seeing my poetry line come alive through this project was inspiring. I did not know what image would correlate with a word or how all the words would merge together within one final image. It is breathtaking.

    — Participant & Poet

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