The One Line Collective Project

Kathryn Born

Years ago I had the idea of being a “ghost writer” for visual artists, and that concept evolved into the theme of the show. I wanted to explore the idea of written images in visual art. What happens to a line of poetry when it is hung on a wall? How does a written image become visual ? What happens when the mission statements become the work itself?

I also wanted to explore the “release of meaning”. I know what each poem means to me and where it comes from, but I didn’t want my story about the poem to influence the artist. Each artist would pick poems that spoke to them, and they could apply their own history and interpretation to the poem and come up with something new. There were also no “dibs” on poems, more than one artist could do the same poem. The overlap has added an interesting extra element to the show.

I hung up my first flier and decided that this was the worst idea I had ever come up with. “Who would want to do this?” I thought. I figured maybe a few of my artist friends would help me out, and we would create a show with about six pieces of work.

What happened from there is the amazing part. Artists liked the little book. I would deal with my nerves, and go up to artist whose work I liked, give them a printout of the book and see if they were interested. The call for artists was printed in a local art publication and posted on the Internet, which spread onto other message boards and became a much more widespread call with a large response. Due to the success of the call for artists, we will be doing the show next year with some expansions on the theme.

I will not get mushy, but all I have to say is that I am absolutely honored. The reality of such talented artists taking part in this show is still an amazement to me. It has grown to over 20 artists who have created 60 new works related to the (love open hand) book of poems. So to all the artists, I extend my deepest thanks and gratitude.