Two Pieces of Paper

 I normally don't make New Year's resolutions, but I was feeling the need for something focused.  So, this January I am making a daily practice sketchbook with strict rules:  at least one page each day, collage or paper-cutting, using no more than two pieces of paper for each image.  A little spray paint for ambience is acceptable.  The sketchbook is a letter-sized, stab-bound brown paper journal I found laying around my studio.  The work is fun, quick and dirty (off-centered pieces, glue marks, some rips and tears...) and I'm enjoying it.  10 out of 10, would definitely recommend.

Here's some pages from the first half of the sketchbook:

Copper No. 2

 Still experimenting with some metallic effects.  Here is a book-like (blook?) accordion structure created by painting and hand-cutting a Sundance Catalog folding mailer.  The six panels were hand-cut in various decorative shapes, and then spray-painted and rubbed with copper pigmented wax to give a metallic copper effect.  Closure is a simple thread tie.  This is headed out to Kalamazoo, MI, to join the 2025 Illustrated Accordion exhibit at Kalamazoo Book Arts Center.  It's fun, check it out!

"Copper No. 2" (2025) 6x9"

Lynn Skordal

Welcome, 2025. Hope we all survive.

 

A POEM FOR SOME GUY

 

You didn’t speak the language and you didn’t know the score.

You made the team, you got the ball, but the rules had changed.

You met a guy who knew a guy who might have seen it happen.

You walked the walk, you talked the talk, but you got there a minute too late.

You said you thought it was okay, but you didn’t, not really.

You laughed in all the right places but the smile never reached your eyes.

You said you were concerned, you were thinking about it, you would study

the issues, but you really just meant “no.”

You were going to get to the bottom of it, shine a light on it, illuminate the truth,

but you just ended up ordering take-out instead.

You looked at the world with a piercing gaze, but only saw what you wanted to see.

You thought if you just kept walking you’d find yourself in a better place,

with more options and greater insight, but you were really just a few more miles

down the same road.

You thought if you got more it would be enough, but it was not enough,

it was not better, it was just more.

 

So now you still don’t know who you really are, or what you really need,

or where you are really going, but you are still hell-bent on getting there.

 

Carry on.

 

--Lynn Skordal (1/10/25)

Modern Gods

"Modern Gods," 2025 Lynn Skordal

Mixed media collage (hand-cut lettering, vintage photos) on found framed print.

16"h x 22"w