palimpsest

acrylic, collage, pen, Sumi ink on w/c paper, 10 X 11″

voice booming out on the airwaves

fierce and strong

soft as a whisper

twirls in spiraling pearls

ricochets into the ionosphere

creates a web, an internet, a worldwide voice

step through that doorway, shyly up to the microphone

listen as the words come softly

blowing through the space between my ears

PAL – imp – sest – noun,  a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

In the Tuesday evening Muse group last week we turned our usual sequence (painting, collaging and writing) around and started out by doing our free write directly onto the watercolor paper with pen.  We each picked our own theme of current interest to write about.  Then we spent the rest of the evening creating a palimpsest by covering most of the words with paint and collage while allowing some to show through.  This was both frustrating, as when the words seemed too “important” to cover, and liberating when the words were covered with metaphoric images capturing their essence. At the end of the evening we added yet another layer of meaning to our pieces by writing about them again, with further insights arising.

My original free write (underneath the painting) was about how there’s always a way to tune into the quiet inner voices if you can just silence those big booming repetitive voices that keep you stuck in the same old groove.

But when I did the art, the voice became an outer voice, a bigger one than I usually allow myself.  An invitation or exhortation to speak in a larger voice those words that come softly from within.

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