Objects by My Hand

With my hands I draw out of mass culture
that stuff it casts off...
including the useless and the strong...
the overlooked and imbued...

My visual expression my own
arranging objects from disparate pasts
to build up a patina of mood...
A surface deep with time...
Assembling the private and public elements
of real material
and my real experience...

Uniting objects in glimpses of each other...
Those materials and their histories
gently interacting...
An arrangement of many partners
with me the choreographer...
I view and know
and feel the moods...

Other humans arrive at the interface moment
from somewhere else in their day
and with some other histories...
What has touched my mind
may not touch theirs...
My sensitivities may not be theirs...

But the objects remain
in the single larger combination...
The elements touch with me
in their fragile dance...

G. J. G. 4/21/90 and 12/99

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