THE BOOK OF JOSHUA WARE

My final immersive/intensive experience focused on Zachary Schomburg's The Book of Joshua, which I renamed The Book of Joshua Ware.

As with my reading of Browning's book, I employed, primarily, illustration when engaging the book, occasionally delving into collage work and concrete poetry. I had three distinct motives for doing this.

First, I wanted to explore the methods I used in Backup Singers: The Illuminated Version, as drawing images and shading them with pastels was a relatively new and exciting practice for me. Second, the manuscript of The Book of Joshua, if I remember correctly, was supposed to have been illustrated by the Nebraskan artist Ian Huebert. I am unsure sure of why this never came to fruition, but I thought that providing my own illustrations would be an acknowledgment of (and dedication to) Schomburg and Huebert's initial vision for the book. Finally, Zach regularly posted illustrated portraits that he had drawn of poets and friends in his Instagram feed. Since he had been experimenting with illustration as well, I thought he might appreciate the gesture.

One notable exception to my illustrations was the inclusion of the "Orb Series," which comprises about half of The Book of Joshua Ware's final section, "Blood." The "Orb Series" is a set of collages that center on orange orbs, which I cut from a Manila envelop my friend, the poet Jeff Alessandrelli, used when sending me correspondence. Most of the orbs--with a few exceptions--are backed by black-and-blue pastel swirls; likewise, each orb interacts with collaged text or figuration. I took the idea for this series from the Instagram feed of the artist Chad Gordon and his gorgeous Red Ball series.

To conclude the section "Blood," I added a "Making Of" video, similar to those I created in iSun. You can view it below:




Conclusion