Where the Visual Meets the Verbal

Robert Miltner

continued . . .

Extending the Dialogue

Wendy Collin Sorin and I are currently working together on a book, Painting on Smoke, each of us drawing from the other's work; while I am writing poems based upon a number of prints Wendy produced during a residency in Dresden, Germany this past fall, she is working on prints for a new show based upon a sheaf of new poems I've sent to her. Speaking for both of us, in a recent email to me, Wendy commented,

I feel as though we're both in the right place, both personally and professionally, to work together at this time. And timing is (most) everything. That kind of euphoria is what keeps me at it, making me feel so alive. The Groove. Each groove, each body of work has its own kind of high, though. (Email to the author 26 December 2000)

Yet, there is more than merely combining our work together, one responding to the other. For now, rather than responding (poem to print or print to poem), we are developing work concurrently, discussing the process, so that our human dialogue extends upon our artistic dialogue:

This collaboration is different form the others I'm involved with (as people are different, so there are always those contrasts and comparisons) in that I'm not working from a completed text/ body of work but rather, we're developing this toghether. The call and response. (Email to the author 26 December 2000)

The extent of our collaboration has expanded to include found objects from our friendship into the collaborative art as well. Recently, I gave Wendy some books as a gift, wrapped in a box covered with question marks, to imitate those Grab Bag "mystery gifts" which used to be sold along with gag gifts on the back page of comic books; the wrapping paper from the gift box and a batch of recently-sent poems began to fuse, join, comingle, collaborate, as in the process Wendy discussed in a recent email:

As I've been moving through this day doing all the usual meditative work (dog walking, cooking) my thoughts have been on pushing/ elaborating our dialogue both for the purposes of doing the actual work. . . . As you've been sending the poems . . . I made notes, gathered images, sorted and shuffled and decided to focus on "The Open Boat" for what has become another set of four diptychs (open book, two halves, two people collaborating, yin yang, etc.) first, because this format just feels right to me now, but second (and more importantly) I have 8 very special sheets of paper. I saved the wrapping with ????? that you made for my Grab Bag. Folded a few times, stuffed into my sketchbook, waiting for its moment-to-come. When I was asked to be in the show at Dead Horse, and, also wanting to make further progress with our work, I thought it might be fun to use your paper, with the ? marker marks as the first move. (Found art, art made by my partner, art made unknowingly—betcha thought it was in the landfill by now, huh?) The beginning of a collaborative drawing. . . . I tore the wrapping on the folds which became the 8 pieces, half plain and half with the question marks. I paired them up (one of each together) and have printed once on all eight and today added some pencil drawing. I like parameters, assignments. This poem, that paper and format, these drawing tools, those colors—and a looming deadline! I like the "Open Boat" especially because of the subject matter: making art. These "aquamarine" drawings are just barely floating at this point. I plan to layer print with drawing. Figurative navigational maps, mind maps. (Email to the author 26 December 2000)

Mapping, yes, but mapping the route of our collaborative dialogue, as well. Text, image, object, all part now of our conversation. Collaboration, therefore, creates conversation, carrying an artist from one realm across the border to another artist's realm, and initiating an open-ended dialogue.

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