As an artist/writer I meld image and text. Inspired by William Blake, my first website, Illumination Gallery, is devoted to creating the 21st century digital equivalent of what Blake did with the printing press in the late 18th/early 19th century, which, in turn, was the mechanical equivalent of hand-crafted medieval illuminated manuscripts. Initially I produced looping text-based animations I called animated texts. Alas, too often the process of generating dynamically flowing animations overwhelmed the text, so I turned to still imagery, and developed the graphic poetry form. I am proud of my animations and intend to keep Illumination Gallery online. However, the many graphic poems I created deserve their own home, so I am launching this new website.
For me the Internet has proved both a boon and a bane, a boon in that I can readily post work for the world to see, a bane because I am making my work freely available - in effect, giving it away for free. Thus the animated texts I created for Illumination Gallery had an audience, but no market. They could be fully appreciated online: i.e., for free. To survive I need to sell my work. I always meant my graphic poems to exist as print media. Yet lacking the resources to produce and distribute high quality prints, I depend upon licensing rights. I realize that by posting images online I make myself vulnerable to people just downloading them. That comes with the turf on the Internet. (I should note, however, that while the graphic poems I am posting herein are high-resolution JPEGs, they exist in much higher resolution/more print-friendly versions.) Obviously, I am hoping to bring my work to the attention of people who appreciate it and understand the nuances and ethics of digital distribution. To contact me regarding licensing rights click here.
I am subdividing this website into 3 sections: My Own Words, The Words of Others, and Sacred (more or less). The My Own Words section consists of graphic poems using text I wrote, The Words of Others section consists of graphic poems using the words of other writers, and The Sacred Words (more or less) section consists of graphic poems that incorporate words from sacred texts or that focus on matters spiritual.
Peter Schmideg