For me, painting is always connecting the inside to the outside. But I discovered a very strange thing a few years ago - that I could draw from my imagination and the figures and images were very like the ones I draw from life. This rather freaked me out, as you can imagine. Now I try to trust 'dreaming with the eyes open while holding a paint brush' ... as a valid process to creating that conduit between the world and whatever happens in the inner mind with its strange and beautiful lunacies.

Susan Munro gave me an incredible acupuncture treatment last night. Tendonitis in my wrist... worn a brace for a month now. During the treatment, with acupuncture needles in my ankles and wrist and hands, in a darkened room, under her healing hands, my wrist felt like floating upwards, and I didn't resist.

When my forearm levitated it felt like blue sky or summer breeze, very gentle... it was as if the energy in the chakras in her hands pulled my wrist up so that the healing energy could surround it fully and completely... never had anything like that happen before, but it was effortless, could have kept my hand in the air for hours... and when I sensed that the treatment was over in the energy of her hands, I allowed my wrist to float down to the small pillow like a feather slowly falling.

"But, Susan," I said afterwards, "Can you levitate my whole body?" I'd sure like to know what floating in the air feels like!!! :) Haha, "No," she said, "No-one has ever levitated in my healings, or had their arm levitate."

Sigh. I still think it's worth a try!

Susan is a Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner, Chinese Herbalist, Acupuncturist, Reiki Master and Esoteric Healer (and sometimes Saint). Oh, and a poet too!

fleurs, la mort, le bouffon..., 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, multi-media.

Another page in the story of my challenge with black.

...at the edge of the world where flowers drop their petals...

What can I say, fleurs, la mort, le bouffon...

Papytroll Michel (on Facebook) wrote: "Que survivent les fleurs;un leger répit avant de mourrir. Un beau contraste couleurs chaudes/froides et noir/blanc. That survive flowers; a leger respite before of dying. A beautiful contrast warm / cold colors and black / white."

"Papytroll Michel," I responded, "you write poetry, beautiful. And, yes, so close to reality. You have no idea."

Then he came back and wrote another comment: "J'adore aussi le graphisme et le coup de pinceau incisif de ce personnage très empathique. Le trait noir rehausse l'expression et les volumes.J'aurai les moyens financiers, je te le commanderai.J'ai tenu une galerie d'art associative dans les années 1990 à Lyon(sud est france) et visité plus de 300 artistes en 2 ans (verrier-tapissier-céramiste-sculpteur-peintre-plasticien) pour mes émissions radiophoniques sur l'art.De beaux souvenirs me reviennent quand je parcours des oeuvres. J'en présente régulièrement dans mes articles sur ce site. Continues à me séduire, Brenda.

[He translates, or through Google translate, to leave his messages in English also] I also like the graphics(handwritting) and the incisive bow of this very empathic character. The black line(feature) heightens the expression and the volumes.

I shall have financial means, I shall command (order) it you. I held an associative art gallery in the 1990s in Lyon (the South is France) and visited more than 300 artists in 2 years (verrier-tapissier-céramiste-sculpteur-p eintre-plastics technician) for my radio programs on the art. Beautiful memories (souvenirs) return to me when I cross (go through) works. I present it regularly in my articles on this site. Continues to seduce me, Brenda."

VidPoFilm's January 2012 GROUP SHOW is live! Some great video/filmpoems were submitted!

Go and watch video/filmpoems by Steven Mccabe, Alastair Cook, Nathaniel Whitcomb, Marc Swoon Bildos Neys, Nic Sebastian, Dave Bonta, and Brenda Clews.

The Group Show is open to everyone. The only requirement is that it be a video or film poem. Submit your video/filmpoem to be included in the February show here: vidpofilm{at}gmail{dot}com. If you'd like to be included in the monthly reminder email, sent about a week before, send a note to that email address.

http://vidpofilm.blogspot.com/2012/01/group-show-january-2012.html

Three Cocoon-Nests, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, multi-media.



It is a little Surreal -just think what might hatch from those cocoon-nests... there is something strange about them.

I saw them in my mind last night when I was thinking about what to paint today. What are they? And what will emerge?

While there was a bare tree outside my window, it was too dark to see, and, yes, it's like yesterday's tree, but remember, I'm working in a Moleskine sketchbook, and that page was closed, so I painted from my imagination.

Profile By. R.W. Perkins from R.W. Perkins on YouTube.

General Description

Profile is a stream of consciousness combination of poetry and prose. The visuals of the film were intended to represent the chaos of thought.

Overall Description

There are several stories behind this film. Let's start with the genesis of this film poem. A friend had looked over some of my past written works, then started comparing it to my new films. He made an observation; that much of my older work would be considered stream of consciousness, and that I should try implementing that style in some of my film poems.

As the conversation evolved, this suggestion became more of a challenge; as we then tried to implement rules as to how something stream of consciousness could or would be filmed.

My first thought was the film would have to be written, shot and edited simultaneously, I still like the idea, but for my first attempt I decided it was a little ambitious.

So we decided that the rules would be based mostly around the written word. There were only 2 rules, but they were tough. I had 30 minutes to write, then 30 minutes to do a reading. Whatever I came up with in that hour would be the gospel, no edits or rewrites.

At his website, R.W. Perkins writes, "Both the subject and name of the poem where directly influenced by online social identities, blurbs about one's life creating a narrative of their day. I feel as though many people have begun to reveal themselves through still images and abbreviated phrases, it's almost as though brevity is becoming a new language. This "abbreviated language" in many ways reminds me of poetry. I started thinking of William Carlos Williams' "This Is Just To Say" as a text, a tweet, or blog post. Then I started thinking of the ridiculousness of someone sharing every waking moment of one's life. "Holy shit!" I thought. Sounds a lot like a poet or a writer. What great inspiration for a poem."

R.W. Perkins speaks about the process he underwent making this videopoem, from its inception through to the challenge he gave himself to write and record the poems within a tight timeframe of one hour, changes in the style after watching The Boston Strangler one night, "I was now shooting a 1960-70 action, adventure spy film inspired videopoem,"and the Kerouac and Nietzsche quotes. He says, "I wanted something that felt very gritty and real, like something that you would shoot and post on your facebook page to laugh at with your family and friends. So I started filming and shooting pictures from my iphone. I had just recently fell in love with my new hipstamatic app..."

R.W. Perkins has it all in this video. When I saw it I felt it was a marker of our era. That surely many films of this type will follow, but his was the first. Identity in the twenty-first century is shaped by social media sites. Your life is not contained in your private diaries and photo albums anymore; it's all on-line now. The notion of who we are has never been more global or more revealing.

One's Facebook profile updates and photo albums provide many snapshots of a life. R.W. Perkins has captured that sense of a collided life, a life of snapshots and home videos and snatches of writing. It is a fast-paced life. We describe ourselves to each other. There are millions of us. Facebook is approaching 1/7th of the world's population. It is a social media site that is creating a twenty-first sense of self.

Put it all together and you get, PROFILE. On his website, R.W. Perkins offers his essay on his videopoem, Profiles, as his Profile.
R.W. Perkins "is a filmmaker and poet living and working in Fort Collins, Colorado. A relative newcomer to the independent film scene and literary community, he has worked in video production for five years, producing many television and web commercials as well as many small business documentaries. In late 2009 Perkins created Juteback Productions as a means to showcase some of his more creative endeavors."

Profile is slick, professionally edited - superb timing, a dancing timeline of photos and videos, nothing hand-held here, so a profile that's already public, bare shots of the intimate here and there, a poem of depth that's echoes the Facebook Timeline. Look at the creation and expression of identity; our shifting subjectivities.

Writing this article I went through the videopoem slowly making detailed notes. Rather than summarize, I share with you my notes:

…begins with the speaking lips, moustache and beard appearing… Pink title lettering… then split screens, some present tense, the author/filmmaker, and others from stock footage, older, yet intense… by the end of the introductory title we know we are in the hands of a professional filmmaker, R.W. Perkins comes by this through his day job making commercials and documentaries, but brings those techniques to film poetry. The music has a great beat, tribal ambient. He cuts the video to the music, and it is very effective.

"PROFILE. I am awake," he begins, at the bathroom mirror. There are two images of him, from behind and reflected in the mirror, "prepared and ready for the day, prepared for the onslaught." The dogs get fed on a stage in which the curtains are their lines of stainless steel dog bowls.

The interspersion of Hipstamatic cell phone photos is brilliant. Coloured brightly, they stand out as markers of the photographed and post-processed world we live in.

Coffee is footage from an old diner… and so it goes. The lettering, when it appears, is consistent, and it becomes a striking visual element on par with the video clips and the snappy photos.

The working day is clips of factories from the 1940s: "Laborious: Working Hard OR Hardly Working" and the ubiquitous smiley.

The small pleasures to come of one's life roll up the side like a slowed film series of snapshots colourized in the Hipstamatic app.

He goes forward into the day; then we find out he hasn't left the morning mirror yet. There is a screen where he has a bathroom mirror video in colour, one running in black and white, and two bright red and yellow Hipstamatic iPhone photos. This is the modern Profile, indeed.

"Cut to: PROFILE." And there are a fast series of snapshots, some perhaps of the author/filmmaker, some of found stock footage, fast

"The existence of forgetting has never been proved: we only know that some things do not come to our mind when we want them to." Friedrich Nietzsche

Cut to. Lots of close-ups of the eyes of the author/filmmaker/

The supermarket makes an appearance in black and white with a change in music, to what I'd call 'skating at the park on friday night' music. Musak.

Yes, we all think about saving .20cents off a brand of yoghurt we know we won't like. This is very real. Songs get stuck in our heads.

Snap back to, PROFILE.

Beach scene, and the ear. Listening. We began with the mouth. Then the mirror.

Tints change on found footage and photos. There is a visual aesthetic that is honed to get your attention. Nothing drags, or is slow. Colours jump out of the screen. We are kept awake throughout.

"I exist as a solitary creature that craves the company and troubles of others." R.W.Perkins.

Then we are with him in his house staring up at the blue sky, "birds, clouds and jet airplanes". He watches neighbours who are out, a jogger, a woman in sun glasses pushing a stroller. "I do not feel small, rather… feel like a giant." And the word giant appears in white lettering in a split screen that has a black and white bird on the left and an unpolarized shot of his neighbourhood on the right.

"Perspective is important here. When compared to a virtual nothing I think you'll find I have finger, nose, toes and eyes, and …I am quite prodigious."

PROFILE

"I am a voyeur. From the comfort of my couch, my dogs at my feet, I can see the neighbours pace in front of their window" and we get terrific split screen of the voyeur in black and white watching as if from behind curtains a jogger… again split screens with different times of the events the author is relating… "She sees me; she is glaring back at me with the suggestive gaze, she is saying, 'her day is going about as well as can be expected… and she is thrilled she looks so good in her new sun glasses." they are in their homes and the jet airplane overhead is full of self-important… but I can't help but wonder-

can they see me?"

PROFILE

"I am awake. I can think, and I exist. And I can see that today I am prodigious. The sky and all that surrounds it will come and go, as I see fit."

PROFILE

PROFILE is a keeper - a defining film poem on our era. This videopoem may spawn a host of videos and films exploring the modern social media identity, in this snappy beat of a style, but R.W.Perkins did it first.

The original sketch of the dog, from life, and she wouldn't sit still, even with many treats placed on the windowsill, was in Private Reserve fountain pen ink that is not permanent. The image lost its delicacy with a matte fixative, which blended the lines. Then I created a loose background by looking at the bare trees outside my living room window. I quite like the effects in the background, but they do not work with the drawing of my dog stylistically. I was in a funk before I began - it's not surprising that I ended up with a funk. My morning Moleskine page from today.

I could turn my poor baby into some fetal thing hanging from the tree. Two Geists were working in me today (metaphorically speaking, no, no, I don't 'channel'!), and they weren't into each other's vision.

Springer Spaniel, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, multi-media.

'House Plant, 3', 4 drafts, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, oils.

Not to be undone by black, I begin again. A lighter black wash, and quickly brushing the main forms out of it.

The House Plant, 2, 4th draft, 21cm x 29cm, 8" x 11.5", 2012, Moleskine folio Sketchbook, oils.

Where it ended up. Dark, gloomy. It's the black. Most artists don't use it at all. It's very hard to work with. Oh, ok as an outline or as some clothing or a hair colour or to efface a section... but if I start with a black background rather than white I always run into problems. Even though coming from nothing, arising out of the blackness, works for me metaphorically, in paint... it's been most challenging. I had hoped my relation to black had changed and so I began optimistically with a black background (brushed, not fully opague), but it hasn't changed.

The black beneath the colour sucks all the brightness in, leaving a dark, greyish, gloomy surface. I admit I did not use another underlayer of a lighter colour but painted sap green right on the black, which was absorbed immediately. You could only see it in good light.

Last night, in very dim light, I dry brushed some magenta and white onto the painting. I also drew the outlines of the leaves in a permanent acrylic ink, bringing the plant back to recognizable. Not sure why I do that either, but it is part of my process, negotiating with the patterns of the concrete, actual world of recognizable forms.

Magically, and there was a lot of oil paint on it, it is dry enough to turn the page of my Moleskine sketchbook and continue on. I may again start with a black background, because I am challenged.

From my Moleskine project: the house plant on my dining room table, yesterday's painting, and today's. Two very different renditions.

Yesterday's painting of the house plant on my dining room table. Colour is still not quite right.

Today's painting of the house plant on my dining room table. Acrylic bone black base.

2nd Draft. Oil paints, then scratched over. I wiped it off.

3rd Draft today. Where I left it. I took the photo in daylight shade; it's darker than this in the Moleskine.

The first and last are in my Moleskine sketchbook - the three middle ones were on the way to the last one, to the left, which is likely finished.

The painting is dark and depressing, it disappears in the shadows, but in the light isn't too bad. A matte fixative will decrease the shine in it, too.