I make my own tracks.
I find that there’s only one way I can ride a bike up a steep hill: I face downward; direct my focus on to the terrain that I’m peddling over; and tell myself, “It’s flat and easy. It’s flat and easy. It’s flat and easy…” After a minute or so, due to my mind’s new inclination in believing I’m moving over flatland, a hill’s incline becomes a breeze to cycle. No it’s not logical, but I am saying that repeating a pattern of inspiring words has eased my struggle many times and has kept me on a track that’s always moved me forward.
Speaking of being on track with ‘repeating a pattern of inspiring words’, this page is a result of some enjoyment I had regarding that. In essence, I decided to take the statement, “I make my own tracks,” and see what kind of new visual art could unfold. I tried various fonts with it, but nothing made a real impression on me. Then I felt drawn to copy the statement and flip it. The mirror image looked like a tire. By continuing, it didn’t take long to see what kind of track I was on…I was making my own!
dirt
grasslands
ashphalt
sand
Pattern for all the above journal covers was created using only the words: MY BIKE TRIP.
As for the background colours, I thought it would be fun to have them represent the various environmental elements, such as what you find on backroads or off-road trails.
Looks like I've created a pattern here.
Boy, once I got on track with this concept, the words, along this line, just flowed out like I was gliding my bike down hill now. The following are more expression that I came up with, but haven’t turned into journals yet. I thought you’d enjoy seeing them, so that you could feel inspired to imagine what your tracks would look like.
September 2012 was when all the fun began for me:
The very first play with words in this manner was using the word ‘illusion’. It seemed obvious. If you want to create an illusion, use the word illusion. However, I decided to further play around by keeping the word as a title, yet change the body of the message to explain what the title meant — or vice versa. This example case in point.
AN ERRONEOUS MENTAL REPRESENTATION Illusion
However, in the end, I decided to not do that because it could be difficult for the viewer to ‘get’ the message. So, from then on, the title is exactly as the words in the body presented. It will act as a clue.
And speaking of clues, I’ll let you in on one, since you were interested enough to read to this point. The pattern is comprised of a series where the 1st sentence gets copied and this 2nd sentence then gets flipped upside down and abutted to the 1st sentence. Then that group gets repeated over and over. I won’t tell you which font I used — let’s leave that as a mystery. Why? Because it’s way more fun for you to discover your own creative side… How? Like the image below says:
Pattern is created from only using the words:
LOOK BEYOND THE OBVIOUS
As for the title of this webpage/journal entry and series, it was an old photo I took while passing a tire shop one day. Seeing the various patterns were so fascinating to me — the myriad of, you guessed it, ‘tracks’ that could make ‘tracks’. And the rest is history.
That's all for now.
