The Exquisite Corpse
Workshop + Artists’ Collaboration = Exhibition (and $72k!) Fundraiser at Maine Media
CHART 1203
This piece, created from found objects, paper, ink, serendipity and poetry, includes hand-tipped photographs and unique letterpress debossing. Al and I had never met, and were put together by synchronicity. In the course of walking, conversing, playing, and engaging with our fellow artists, much arose. The poetry was inspired by our time together. The stones, pinecone, and hidden messages were provided by the Universe. An accidental spill of sumi-e ink led to the monoprints that served as background images. Access to MMW’s book arts studio led to the letterpress embossing of the last stanza of my poem onto the piece. The evolution and interweaving of our words, ideas, and all other marks on paper was wonderful.
This morning, open eyes
brought to light
all 5 elements
Expectation wakes,
shifts the heart
side to side,
left,then right.
You hand me mine.
Relax, work,
wonder…
– Al Crichton
A few unsold pieces, including this spectacular (and underpriced at $500) sculpture, that yours truly had a hand in, are still available:
“Curlicue” © Alan Crichton & Jean Miele
Steel sculpture with India ink on mahogany base, 22″ x 9″ x 21″
“During our invitational Exquisite Corpse workshop, painter Alan Crichton and photographer Jean Miele happened upon a twisted piece of metal in a ditch. The graceful folding and curling of the rigid steel inspired two poems, and launched a wave of creative output that led to some fun times with gunpowder and bottle rockets. The original metal remnant became a canvas mounted on mahogany, celebrating unseen forces and the power of the elements.”
This twisted ribbon of steel, indifferently ripped with the enormous force of winter from a drainage culvert and found in a ditch, is the inspiration for our collaboration and lies at the core of the imagery in our two poems: “You marveled aloud, wondering at the forces required, to twist the heavy steel into a little curlicue…tight and delicate…tenderly yielded…” (Jean) “…all five elements…expectation, heart, relax, work, wonder…” (Alan).