Writing in Images

My Sisyphean attempt and my difficulty articulating what I wanted to do in the blog post “How to Start” made me realize that I couldn’t create/think the “story” (tale) I wanted to tell about my public policy issue with words. I found that trying to write or think (with words) what I would eventually re-create in images was like trying to create a sentence that operated with the full articulation of all its metaphors simultaneously (a Shelleyean task that was way beyond me).

 

Perhaps incorrectly, I decided that my first story should be a story that has already been told—in poetry, prose, or painting. If I chose the image correctly, I thought it would provide the underlying theme that I could disrupt by turning the expectation it created (by its themes and overall impression) in a different direction. I couldn’t figure out my second story without letting my first story guide me to it (with aspects of the healthcare debate and cancer treatment influencing the direction I might take). I went with this idea and scoured the web for a painting that I could work with (I only realized, later, that I could appropriate—and detour—poetry too, which might have led me in yet a different direction if I had more time).