Some time around November or December of 2010, when I was working on my entry to The Sketchbook ProjectI really began to notice the scraps of paper with text that I had discarded on the floor while I was deciding what to collage into my sketchbook. I was real attracted to the pieces of commercially printed text that I had intervened with. I was interacting with E.H. Gombrich’s, The Story of Art, by putting ink and acrylic paint on pages in a very fast and random manner after which I would tear page segments out of the book and decide if I wanted to place them into my little sketchbook. As I worked I thought of how I often see remnants of pre-printed text that interest me such as labels. tickets, receipts, torn book and magazine pages, etc. Frequently the items have dirt, wrinkles or marks that indicate intervention beyond intention. I kept thinking about everyday text scraps and how they deserved a place of their own; a safe haven if you will.

Yes, I do engage in intentional interventions with these pieces, but that sort of becomes the point. I’m acknowledging and interacting with some of the quotextion ephemera of my daily existence. This doesn’t even scratch the surface of my relationship with the rich and wonderful quotextion ephemera I encounter. I hope it doesn’t become an obsession.

David T Miller