The Paper Aeroplane
Christy Sheffield Sanford
Christy Sheffield Sanford
"The Paper Aeroplane" by Christy Sheffield Sanford; materials includes Pages, Photoshop Elements, image sourced from "Paper aeroplane diagram" by Ushakaron on Commons.wikimedia; 8 x 10 inches; 2021
About the Author
Christy Sheffield Sanford is an artist-writer living in St. Augustine, FL. She has won an NEA in Poetry and is the author of numerous mixed genre and multi-disciplinary works. Her animation "Squid Tentacles on a Plate" was recently published by Hole in the Head Review. The Ekphrastic Review published a collaborative art-music-poetry video "Birds of a Feather." Sanford was a "Platforms and Narratives" panelist participant for the ELO (Electronic Literature Organization) Conference in May 2021.
About the Work
The paper aeroplane page focused on the artist model and included my mother, who posed — not in a kimono but often in costume –– for my father. I had read about a poet in France who sent his poetry flying out his window in hopes people in the street would read it. That charming act played a role in the idea of writing on a paper aeroplane. Using an origami object seemed an ideal way to create this particular page and honor the Japanese art of paper folding.
About the Author's Process
I began this work after I read the story of a 2015 scandal at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As owner of Monet’s “La Japonaise” a portrait of Claude’s wife Camille, the museum hosted Kimono Wednesdays. Art lovers donned a replica and posed before the painting. Irate protestors appeared carrying signs: Exoticism, Racism, Appropriation, Imperialism, and Murder. To meditate on Monet and cultural appropriation, I manipulated 1600s kimonos from Boston Museum’s book collection. I wrote about Claude, Camille, and Japonisme and responded to images of my own, creating a reflexive ekphrastic form. I want the two disciplines art and writing in some manner to spar, dance, entwine, interact.
Christy Sheffield Sanford is an artist-writer living in St. Augustine, FL. She has won an NEA in Poetry and is the author of numerous mixed genre and multi-disciplinary works. Her animation "Squid Tentacles on a Plate" was recently published by Hole in the Head Review. The Ekphrastic Review published a collaborative art-music-poetry video "Birds of a Feather." Sanford was a "Platforms and Narratives" panelist participant for the ELO (Electronic Literature Organization) Conference in May 2021.
About the Work
The paper aeroplane page focused on the artist model and included my mother, who posed — not in a kimono but often in costume –– for my father. I had read about a poet in France who sent his poetry flying out his window in hopes people in the street would read it. That charming act played a role in the idea of writing on a paper aeroplane. Using an origami object seemed an ideal way to create this particular page and honor the Japanese art of paper folding.
About the Author's Process
I began this work after I read the story of a 2015 scandal at Boston Museum of Fine Arts. As owner of Monet’s “La Japonaise” a portrait of Claude’s wife Camille, the museum hosted Kimono Wednesdays. Art lovers donned a replica and posed before the painting. Irate protestors appeared carrying signs: Exoticism, Racism, Appropriation, Imperialism, and Murder. To meditate on Monet and cultural appropriation, I manipulated 1600s kimonos from Boston Museum’s book collection. I wrote about Claude, Camille, and Japonisme and responded to images of my own, creating a reflexive ekphrastic form. I want the two disciplines art and writing in some manner to spar, dance, entwine, interact.
