When Silence Becomes Singing

Even though it is my own free will to write this study, there is also an element of compulsion because the subject has been on my mind for many years. Being a creative, left-handed, somewhat dyslexic person, I have sought ways to understand the dilemma that made me think differently about the world from many people around me. I thought it was my task in life to become more like them; as a result, much of my life has been a struggle in that direction. I am grateful for this struggle because it has taught me to be logical and even verbal. However, the siren song of my inner being will not let me forget that I am an intuitive person. So it is my logical self that says I do this study of my own free will and my intuitive self that wordlessly pushes me to the task!

When I look at a landscape or a group of people with an eye to taking a photograph or painting a picture, I am looking as much at the shapes between the objects as at the objects themselves. In drawing I sketch in the empty or negative spaces first because they indicate to me the direction that the composition will take. I use this as a metaphor for the way I will ask you to understand what I am going to be saying. The empty spaces between much of what I say and the poems and stories I use will be as important as the words I will be using. It is in these spaces that thought connections can be discovered.