Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Dragonfly Saloon Girls

Dragonfly Saloon Girls
Dragonfly Saloon Girls (2001)
We had gunslingers in
deluxe tuxes and knit jackets
with shoulder straps.
We had military
girls and sailor girls but
sexy Red Riding Hood
was a no show. Smothered
in daisies she came out
of the planet of green
love in the late
90’s. Her cowgirl costume
tanked in Jamaica but
in Miss Kitty’s parlor
her fringe dress seemed
sassy as her faith dance
bombed like a laughable
Day of the Dead. Her wings
were pulled off artfully
by redneck plebes. Was that
indiscrete? Rockette like
she kicked off her slippers
as the trail boss dove
off the technological bronk
into waterbeds of whiskey.
~/~
A found poem re-assembled out of phrase strings from a Google search of "dragonfly saloon girls." The image was originally rendered in Fractal Zplot and post-processed in multiple graphics programs.
Terry
~/~

  posted by cruelanimal at 8:34 PM

3 Comments:

Blogger pinozito said...

Nice text and nice image. I like the creative titles you use for fractal images. Without that title the image would look different and perhaps not so interesting. I am also attracted because of the effect "silver powder".Sometime I got myself something similar : look at this Floating
pollen grains. I have no idea on how to reproduce it!.

1/25/2007 4:37 AM

 
Blogger cruelanimal said...

Giuseppe,

I know some artists don't like to assign names to images. They worry that names are prescriptive and might overly influence a viewer's interpretation of a given piece. I can see their point.

But I think names also give viewers a kind of handle -- a starting place to grasp an image to at least be able to hold on to it. This can be helpful sometimes -- especially with abstract art. Of course, viewers are still (and always) free to ignore names and forage away on their own for meaning -- which they will individualize anyway.

For me, names are also a way of personalizing a given image and tying it more precisely to my life (vision, experience, memory, history, whatever). My cat's name is "Sassy" -- because the name suits her personality. The name also separates her from other cats I've had. I could have just called her "Kitty" and let visitors to my home refer to her however they wished. But the personal connection to me -- and her separateness from other pets -- as well as the meaningful significance of her chosen name -- would all be lost. Plus, she'd probably be very confused and even more neurotic than she already is.

So, naming images is a way to suggest their "personalities" while keeping them distinct from one another. And, as you note, names can sometimes nudge viewers into interesting, alternative ways of approaching images.

Cool pollen, too, by the way.

1/25/2007 6:32 PM

 
Blogger Tim said...

I've changed my opinion about naming images. I used to think it was silly and self-indulgent and the only thing a name should do is be a good catalogue tag. But now I'd say I'm of the same opinion as Terry: the name is the verbal "reflection" of the image; it's essence or personality.

I think what turned me off naming what that it's not usually done very well. You have to really "look" at the image and get a strong sense of it. Of course, if the image doesn't have much of a personality, then it's hard to name it. But that's a sign, I believe, that the image isn't worth keeping, or isn't finished.

1/25/2007 6:53 PM

 

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