Influenced by a Winston Plowes poetry workshop a couple of weeks ago (see previous post ‘Butterflies of the Night‘), the work of poet and artist Helen Ivory, and the boxes of Joseph Cornell, here’s my latest composite fiction.
I’ve used the found text I am devoted to nobody but myself as a starting point, then created a series of paper butterflies using copies of a photograph of myself taken when I was 19. Although I’ve worked with a single photograph, each butterfly is unique. The whole thing has been incredibly time-consuming but utterly absorbing. Partly, it’s been a problem-solving exercise, and that’s good because it’s made me think in a different way. It’s been a case of literally thinking outside the box!
I want the next piece to include more text, but having an idea is really only a tiny part of the process. The main part is actually doing the work. So much changes along the way that I can’t really predict the outcome. Still, I know roughly what I’ll be working on for the next few weeks, and that in itself is quite reassuring.
Julie Mellor - poet 