Backtrack: Phrases

A couple of years ago when AE was going strong as a message group, I asked other people on occasion to supply ideas for exercises. One person gave the idea of using common phrases, such as "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree" or "quiet as a churchmouse". These often overused phrased however can be used to work towards some great art.

By doing a search of the net for cliches I have found that there are plenty of examples out there to draw from. A few good ones that are ripe for artistic explotation are:

Monkey See, Monkey Do.
Seize the bull by the horns
Put your money where your mouth is
When in Rome, do as the Romans do
And, It's a dog's life

Phrases such as these that we've heard over and over again conjure up images of both the literal and the remembered. We remember when the phrase is used and in fact we are probably inadvertently trained when to use such phrases. Each phrase has a specific meaning that applies to certain situations, so we can't help but think them or say them at some point in time.

The first time we heard such a phrase applied to a situation however is probably when we were young. Some adult blurted out a phrase like "When in Rome," and left it at that while they imitated everyone else despite the seemingly ridiculous activity. As a child you probably didn't think that you were actually in Rome, but you may have got the impression that Romans were silly people. Of all the things that we apply the phrase "When in Rome," to, those Romans must be a wild bunch.

A more childlike interpretation may be garnered from the phrase "seize the bull by the horns". And while a matador may come to mind immediately for most people imagine that grandpa just said this to grandma. Grandma wrestling with a bull may be very funny to a young child.

For this exercise however, I chose "Quiet as a churchmouse", and finally just focused on the churchmouse. It had just so happened that I was working on some calligraphy that week and had plenty of paper before me and ink to spare, so I started making little sketches. In between penning names, I would draw a little churchmouse similar to the one you see below. After about 10 or twelve little variations, I settled on one I thought was the best and took a picture with a digital camera in poor light. Flash doesn't work well because it bleeds the image, so I got a dark grainy image that needed to be inverted to show the penwork effectively.

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