Tender Buttons Process - No. 001

After reading Gertrude Stein's Tender Buttons, I noticed how reading a single poem in its entirety derived an understanding and feeling of the poem. This phenomenon, I believe, is the same effect in observing a Cubist painting. While it is composed of multiple components, viewing it in it's totality rather than focusing on individual instances allows for a greater understanding of the subject matter.

While reading Stein's poems, I noticed a trend in her use of colors with almost human emotions. As I began to notice these colors and emotions, I arranged the poems in a way that told a narrative of the maturing process of ones soul beginning with naiivety. In developing my compositions I wanted to show the maturing process through the balance of type, while emphasizing important words for the story. I began with a balanced lock up to allude to a untainted soul. I then used a tighter lock up to represent the pressures one encounters, then a very loose composition to illustrate confusion of ones identity.

After critique, I now realize that my concept isn't coming through and that I need to figure out a more purposeful system for the typography to express the poem and the concept. I also realized that I might be doing Stein a dishonor to force her poems into a linear narrative, because that's not at all what her poems are about. While I feel my concept is workable it just needs some reworking. I believe it's possible to tell a narrative in a more fragmented, and simultaneous manner. The question I have for myself right now is how can I set up the poems in a way to capture the essence of the evolution of one's soul in a non-linear fashion.