Oh, those macabre surrealists! They just loved to play around with the more than slightly creepy, and yet be maddeningly onto something useful and deep. “Cadavre exquis” is the collective technique in which a text or image is shared in a chain: the first artist presents a piece, the second responds, then shows it to the next, who bounces off that, and so on. When asked to participate in a modern version of this, you know that I jumped at the chance!

The catalyst was Short, Fast, and Deadly (Echo Chamber | Fall 2014, Deadly Chaps Press) edited by Joseph A. W. Quintela and Parker Tettleton, with “views” by Katie Peyton. The excellent screen version (click on FULL PREVIEW) is available at www.deadlychaps.com/2014/10/sfd-fall-2014-echo-chamber.html. And, of course, I love the print edition, which you can hold in your own hands (but doesn’t seem to be available where it once was).

The jump-off point for me was “Swallowed in Limits of Hesitation,” a beautiful piece by author Meg Tuite. On receiving her text, I could not have been happier. It begins thus – “Unacquainted with right turns, the past is a present map that includes happenstance bruises and head-butts with objects that appear inanimate” – with the next twenty-two lines just leaving me entranced.

So, my illustration began with a false start, oddly (in retrospect) entirely abstract:

Then I remembered the “cakewalk” series of photos snapped before dismantling a conceptual sculpture in preparation for a birthday party (because I wanted to use the awesome dish for an actual cake):

From there it was the proverbial breeze. I picked my favorite photo from the lineup, added two images, one an abstract derivative, one fresh from the out of doors, and mixed, stirring lightly within the specs for publication:

Once I was satisfied with the structure, the layers were flattened, the color adjusted, and voila! My contribution was complete.

 Catherine Rutgers © 2015