collage/mixed media

Math Study

Claudia McGill 7 Comments

From Enough for a Book, published in 2016.

Math Study

The students open their notebooks
point their pencils at the pages
covered with figures. One girl
understands the skipping hopping math and her pencil
runs all over the page chasing it down
the other girl
twists a silver ring around and around on her finger
and her math is motionless
possibly feeling poorly
and her pencil will put on weight
if it doesn’t get some exercise soon
but it just stands there.
Negative two is the answer just captured
and written down by the one girl
and the other girl watches and
her pencil is lying down stretched out full length on the paper.

I Ran a Few Numbers small

Artist trading card, collage.

 

 

 

Wrong Idea

Claudia McGill 12 Comments

From the collection Look Winter in the Face, published 2015. With this poem I have finished posting the entire book. So, you’ve now read it! Thank you for following along.

Wrong Idea

When I talk or what I say or did do
None of that makes
did make
ever will make its way through the turbulence
that I used to think I was if not the cause
then the one sending out the wrong kind of magnetic particles or
smashing the atoms backwards
but I stepped out of the static a while back and found a route
through those choppy waves and then I
picked up transportation out of there
and after that I learned
it wasn’t me.

Postcard Moon over the red planet 3-18 small

Mail art postcard, 2018.

Released on Furlough

Claudia McGill 6 Comments

From Look Winter in the Face, 2015.

Released on Furlough

Can you remember when three o’clock the magic three o’clock
was the time of day when
put on your coat run outside
your knee socks fall down to your ankles
escape the blackboard
the flimsy-thin soft ruled tablet paper
the big dull-pointed pencils
cram it all into your desk and
run down the sidewalk with
big springing steps
all kinds of energy now that
the overheated classroom is nowhere
Three o’clock the time
Can you remember
Sure
you can

There's the Bus small

“There’s the Bus”, collage, 2000 (?)

Shadorma 61, 62

Claudia McGill 8 Comments

Published in Pink Chalk, 2018.

61.
Blinds are closed
the dark stands outside
and full of
thunder and
I sit on the sofa and
lightning hits a tree.
6/21/18

62.
Breathless hot.
In the bathroom sink
the cat lies
circle-curled
in the cool ceramic bowl
asleep. Summer eased.
6/21/18

I was light years away and there was chaos 7 x 5 8-18 small

I was light years away and there was chaos – mixed media, 2018.

 

Tourists

Claudia McGill 9 Comments

From Autumn Opens a Door, 2015.

Tourists

I.
They clump together and hold still
the easier to glue themselves to
a safe spot. Something known. Anything.
Their eyes
flick out quick panicked glances that
hardly have time to light on a surface
before they are jerked back
to where they came from.
Their faces
search the reassurances held in
the few familiar faces. Strangers make them nervous.

II.
When you arrive in the city,
the monolithic unfamiliar
is not interested in you. Your origins
Your good job back home
Your club memberships
The place you eat lunch on weekdays. None of it.
No.

III.
You’ve got to give things more
than a few minutes before you decide that
this foreign place is the black void and
you announce that you plan to jump in your car
the first minute you can and make tracks for
your own spot of sunshine aka home sweet home
gas pedal to the floor and
driving twenty-five miles an hour over the speed limit.

IV.
Stay home. Shut up about how much
you’d like to travel. Because when you did
it scared you witless and
all you wanted to do was
go home.

Tourist Group small

“Tourist Group” – collage, 2005.

Shadorma 44, 50, 57

Claudia McGill 17 Comments

All of these were published in Pink Chalk, 2018.

44.
Shrill whistle.
The groundhog mother
warning her
two babies.
Three statues stand in the grass.
Fox crossing the field.
5/24/18

50.
Marigold
you frill your petals.
Chipped-rim pot
dried-out dirt
bleaching-strong sun. You make do.
I will too. Thank you.
6/6/18

57.
Balcony
sized for two chairs and
iron railings
vine-twined with
flowers in blown-out bee pink
humming in the sun
6/20/18

Misc. - Honolulu balcony small 2002

Honolulu balcony, collage, 2002.

At the Beginning in Sight of the End

Claudia McGill 6 Comments

From Large Artist Sketchbook 2017, a section of the poetry collection Rearrange, published in 2018. Read the explanation that follows the poem for more information about this project.

At the Beginning in Sight of the End

Tree in the field
Tree in the field living out its
weeks and days overlapping every hour filling them with
fruits and nuts and new leaves and kernels of green
flowering and dropping seedpods
every kind of thing this tree can think to do and
doing it all at once because
running out of time and in a hurry
and no time to lose and
the season is uncertain the sky fickle the rain
may come or may not

from the beginning
let roots dig deeper and let branches stretch
shoot out little green twigs grab hold and squeeze
life out of the earth
fling caution
at the sky
and live all at once

Tree in the field

11/22/17
Artist Sketchbook Image 23

About the Large Artist Sketchbook 2017

I created an artist book over a period of about a year and a half, spring 2016- fall 2017, using a garden-variety mixed-media spiral-bound sketchbook. It had no theme or plan – I added an image as I felt like it, in any medium. Paintings, collages, pen and ink drawings, prints, and combinations of media filled the pages. When I filled the book, I decided to write poetry to accompany the images.

The poems were published as part of the book Rearrange. The original sketchbook is now part of my artist book collection.

Photo

Claudia McGill 11 Comments

From Large Artist Sketchbook 2017, a section of the poetry collection Rearrange, published in 2018. Read the explanation that follows the poem for more information about this project.


Photo

I think that lady
is meant to be me
standing on the sidewalk
the year just short of summer
a little rain on the way this one day
clouds banked up in the sky
what’s she doing, do you think
smiling
and about to say something?

11/22/17
Artist Sketchbook Image 22

About the Large Artist Sketchbook 2017

I created an artist book over a period of about a year and a half, spring 2016- fall 2017, using a garden-variety mixed-media spiral-bound sketchbook. It had no theme or plan – I added an image as I felt like it, in any medium. Paintings, collages, pen and ink drawings, prints, and combinations of media filled the pages. When I filled the book, I decided to write poetry to accompany the images.

The poems were published as part of the book Rearrange. The original sketchbook is now part of my artist book collection.

Redecoration Sorely Needed

Claudia McGill 4 Comments

From the collection published in 2015, Autumn Opens a Door.

Redecoration Sorely Needed

Green as grass and yet the
jade avocado olive lime emerald
of unsophistication would be quite appealing
in another context but
not so much in
this one. It might be nice to
work in a bit of
monochromatic neutrals
with touches of black and white
for emphasis. What we need is
a finishing school and to
slap on a coat of gloss
while we’re at it. What do you think?

Very Sophisticated small

“Very Sophisticated” – mixed media, 2008 (?)