Sunday, September 14, 2008

Time's Hands


There is a place where time ended,
And a place before it began.

And in between, soft single moments,
Blended like palms and hands.

Light holds these unseen moments,
And moves them one by one.

Dreams unfold their passing power,
And our eyes keep them undone.

The sky will be soon clearer,
While water turns cold and dark.

And this moment will move quickly,
Just before the dark.

There was a time when this place ended,
And a time when it began.

Each and every dream we give,
To time's still turning hands.


Time in a lot of ways reminds me of poems. You can guess and guess all day why the writer wrote what he did, but there's no guarantee that you're right. You'd have to ask him yourself.
So, for this assignment, I wrote a poem and for the first time ever, explained the meaning behind it in as best I could. I added how the photo-shopped picture refers to parts of the poem as well.

"There is a place where time ended, and a place before it began." These lines refer to time being set down, and in a sense having become unalterable. We cannot physically enter these places, only in our imagination. The picture shows this through the sense of light coming from a place above, and the sense of darkness covering a place beneath.

"And in between, soft single moments, blended like palms and hands." These lines reference my idea of human lives being separate but still strung together or attached like fingers on a hand. I used the word soft to describe our moments or memories because regardless of disposition, our memories are dear to us. The picture shows this by a hand reaching gently up or "forward" (in my mind).

"Light holds these unseen moments, and moves them one by one." Light designates where we get our idea of time, a sun dial. It holds the invisible hands of time along with our visible memories or images...we can only see (to remember) when there is light. The random particles and dots represent our memories flowing through time.

"Dreams unfold their passing power, and our eyes keep them undone." We dream often taking time along with us. We can dream of the past and the future...it is powerful...and it passes by us every second. We can usually only dream fully with our eyes closed. When our eyes are opened, the dreams become undone. It is sad in a sense because we can seemingly only do one or the other...dream or live. The picture does not represent these lines, the reader does.

"The sky will be soon clearer, while water turns cold and dark." Reminding us that our dream must be met by a reality. The sun is setting, and the sky will be clearer to see the stars. The water will follow suit...but will keep turning or flowing on with time. The blue hues in the picture give the illusion of water.

"And this moment will move quickly, just before the dark." As if to catch ourselves before waking from a dream, reminding us that time still moves quickly to it's end. Referring back to the darkening sky and water...each of our lives will end, but new ones will continue moving (water). There is a beauty to be seen after our time, when our sun shines no longer (night/dark) there will be the stars for us to see and continue our memories (life/place after death/time).

"There was a time when this place ended, and a time when it began." Remembering how similar these lines were to the first few. That's when this time/place began...and now this moment/memory will end soon.

"Each and every dream we give, to time's still turning hands." Telling us to see reality for what it is (we are bound by time), but not to fear it, because it is still moving onward to a clearer dawn.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Bible Dipping - the cover

I'm sitting in bed...a friend woke me up with a phone call...there's a stuffed moogle and pikachu starring at me...I looked at the Seeing Sideways book and read the whole cover for the first time. I feel like the words hold meaning, and tell myself I understand them...when I realize it's more likely that I don't understand them at all. I want to write about the cover, but try to find a scapegoat by getting a "deeper", "easier to write about and prove I'm smarter" page in the book. And I just realized it's almost impossible to direct you to the page I opened. It's yellow...and has chopstick instructions at the binding. It talks a lot about great artists...musicians...tatoo-ists...all strangely of the asian variety. You know, I feel like that sometimes. When I draw I picture or write a poem...when I try to convey any message...it's like trying to direct you to a page in a numberless book...a page in my mind. Why does it take so much effort to express oneself? Should it be that way? I can see it from the "labor of love" angle and the "free your mind" angle. Time never answers life's questions until it's over. I guess another thing that erks me is why I want you to know whats in my head anyway...IT DRIVES ME! And, to an extent I don't even know why. Yes, I care about your wellbeing and such...but it's not that I can suddenly give you peace...it's more like I'm a child who has a pretty picture that looks like crap, but really wants to show it to someone. I want you to smile. I want love in return. I want an excuse for why I want affection in some form reciprocated...but I have none that justify it being...typed.
My mind paused. Why do I write to "you"? I was skimming that first half and wondered who "you" was. Yeah, I'm writing to the whole class/teacher, but I'm not imagining you and your reaction like I would with a paper for W131. To a degree, it feels like I'm writing to my mind...I won't type anything down until it is satisfactory to me...and yet I'll give up and just splotch anything down randomly. I'm not an artist. I'm a person. This is it so far, I need to get in the shower now...brb
Okay, so now I'm sitting here with a bowl of cereal. Raisin Bran Crunch...the best ever cereal. Showers are good for thinking. I find I can get frustrated easily because I personalize everything. And I feel like normal people don't do this - like they get some aspect of life that enables them to not care about eachother. But truth is, I love to take things to a deeper level...and if I'm sitting over in a corner staring at a tiny acorn, pondering it's existence, while everyone else is gazing at the forest...so be it.
My brother just came home with a double-decker from tacobell for me and I didn't even ask for it...raisins and beans...that's a lovely combo.
So, why is there hatred and bitterness in the world? Everyone thinks differently. I would come over and look at your forest, but I'm still engrossed by an acorn. How about we have dinner later and you can tell me what you find beautiful, and I'll share mine. We won't change each other's minds; but the next time you look at a forest, or I look at an acorn...we'll think of something different. And then, just maybe, we'll get somewhere.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Egg & Zachly

So, I went in circles for two weeks trying to make a billion things from this egg. In the end, I only developed an extreme hatred for chicken eggs. It wasn't until I went to an Art Show at Harrison Center for the Arts on Friday (yeah, I was cutting it close) that I started considering a comic strip. The name for the comic came from a previous idea that flopped. (trying to see how many different words had "egg" in them - it was sad.) I drew sketches Sunday morning (during church...forgive me.) and then re-drew them with a graphic pen when I got home. I also bought a scanner/printer/fax combo - I'd wanted one for forever! Then I scanned the images and cleaned em up in Photoshop. I'm happy with it, ya know? I've never made a comic before, so I learned a little. And, in the end, I did something that I actually enjoyed!