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4 - My Relationship with Artistic Creation Began with Words

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2023

Jane Elizabeth Lavery
Affiliation:
University of Southampton
Sarah Bowskill
Affiliation:
Queen's University Belfast
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Summary

My relationship with artistic creation began with words. A little girl's words in an innocent diary in which she wrote about the changes taking place. My adolescent diary began to turn into a notebook of poems. The poems started to become illustrated and I would hang them on my bedroom walls to decorate it. My way of escaping from home was through reading. My mother took it upon herself to bring me the books that I asked her for. Steppenwolf was a good present. Ernesto Sábato, Alejandra Pizarnik, Giaconda Belli, Ana María Rodas, Julio Cortázar, Jaime Sabines, Elisio Subiela, Albert Camus, etc. I used to work for a newspaper, and I got to know some poets, Juan Carlos Lemus and Sergio Quemé, with whom I published for the first time, in 1997. Then I did a poetry workshop with Bolo Flores (Marco Antonio Flores) and there I lost my fear. Several months went by, then a couple of years, and I began working in an advertising agency and I got to know my friends who would introduce me to the world of art. Jessica Lagunas and María Adela Díaz, both designers and artists. I am not an artist; I write poetry and some short stories. They invited me to participate in an artistic event, gave me books, and I got to know artists. Ana Mendieta, Gina Pane, Burden, etc. etc. etc. I suppose I found myself a crossroads. I had desire. I had things to say. I had ideas and I had the body with which to express these. I did my first performance in 1999, which was a type of poem in graphic form. El dolor en un pañuelo (Pain in a Handkerchief). That was followed by El cielo llora tanto que debería ser mujer (The Sky Weeps so Much that it Should be a Woman), and then came the performance Lo voy a gritar al viento (I’m Going to Shout it to the Wind), where, in fact, I read poems that the public cannot hear. Gradually, the paths separated: I carried on working as an artist. I left advertising and the job of sitting down and thinking up my own projects became part of my daily routine. Poetry is still with me. Generally, when I plot out my works I do so via poetic texts. Poetry continues to permeate my life and my (artistic?) production.

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