The Year of the Sandwich #1

There are a number of things happening this year I want to share now I have an ethically balanced space in which to do so. A bunch of women in a phone-box is one (which I cannot properly talk about until I have all the consent forms in hand) and a two week period running around and making poems about artists and their work is another. This here is the cover for a project that is effectively acting as a test bed for that upcoming period of creative experience.

This art has been created by Stacey, a local children's book illustrator and collage artist, from a print that was wood blocked back in the 1800's in Japan. It removes Mount Fuji and replaces it with a sandwich, because this is what my (as yet to be fully-completed) pamphlet will be about. As a neurodivergent who often has no mental ability to feed themselves on difficult days, sandwiches are a godsend.

I am creating poetry about food, how it relates to my happiness, and my complex relationship with the social spaces it is created in.

This project came about as a portion of my proposal for the Art Trail: I needed to do a small run of a pamphlet as a test bed for what would be created later. It needed me to find a proofreader, and a printer, who I trusted would create a decent finished product. I also desperately require to make some money for myself before diving into a period where I'd be running at a loss.

So, this project was born partly from necessity but mostly from a desire to set myself a strict set of parameters from which to work to. My Working Title is, as of now, Refreshment Stops of the Eastern Capital: I'd hoped to fit 36 poems into a booklet but financially that is now beyond the remit of the budget. I will write and acknowledge every cafe, bar and restaurant I work in over the two week period starting April 6th. You'll be able to follow it all live via social media.

That's the other part of the process that requires a thorough adjustment.

I am painfully aware of the consequences of being socially awkward, and having a limited tolerance for social situations. Putting myself 'out there' for a fortnight will be appreciably harder than doing the work itself, but I feel it is important as a process to willingly enter into spaces that make me uncomfortable. The benefit this has created in my physical health journey is without criticism. Hard stuff works.

So, the next step of the process is to effectively condition me for the period of April to September as a live creative practitioner. There will be plenty of mental health downtime too, and what I hope will happen as a result is an alteration in my mindset as to what constitutes happiness. This is all under my own control, and totally in my own auspice, which is NEVER the case for my poetry work under normal circumstances. This is absolutely something to celebrate.

This is an opportunity to prove to myself I can create compelling work.