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QUESTIONS OF COLLABORATION

What is the experience of collaboration like? How do the artist and writer feel about the resulting Broadsided publication? To try and find answers, we have begun asking some simple questions to publish along with each Broadsided.

"Dishes"
Story by Anna Mueller & Art by Anya Ermak-Bower

Broadsided April 1, 2007
This Broadsided is a Switcheroo

Note: "Dishes" is the first Broadsided Switcheroo feature. What is The Switcheroo? We'd love to tell you.

Writer: Anna Mueller In what sense did the art first present itself as a collaboration with a written piece? Did it come to you first as image? As an idea? Music? Narrative? The art presented itself as an emotion—a combination of effort, frustration, and loneliness. I wanted to create a similar emotion through scene. If the broadside collaboration were a land formation, what would it be? A mountain. Let's say that your broadside collaboration was a first date. How did it go? First base? Second? Nightcap? Would you make plans for a second date? The best first date of my life, but maybe that's because I'm horrible at first dates. I would nervously make plans for a second date, hoping it would be just as satisfying as the first. Read any good books lately? I'm slowly making my way through Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book, and have been re-reading a lot of Robert Frost. I'm also kind of obsessed with the comic book series Y: The Last Man by Brian Vaughan.

Artist: Anya Ermak-Bower Did the story refract any element of the art that made you see the your piece differently? Yes, absolutely. Anna's response startled me: I couldn't believe the way her writing precisely conveys my overall spiritual and emotional state at the time I started the piece. When I first read it, I thought, "Wait—what does this have to do with the the illustration? Do the two pieces have a conversation or are there two running monologues here?" A few moments later it clicked. It all made perfect sense. If the broadside collaboration were a land formation, what would it be? Hm, pingos in the Arctic tundra? It's a type of land formation unique to the Arctic. Pingos are hills formed by ponds of water that were trapped underground by permafrost. The ponds thaw and then freeze and thaw and freeze again and again and create a hill above the ground that grows taller and taller each year. I read about these recently and it struck me that a broadside's multilayered dialogue between visual and verbal art—and the discussions that the form engenders—can resemble those hills on the tundra... What did you think a writer would pick up on from your art? A couple different situations crossed my mind as the picture took shape: It could symbolize the work of a relationship, achieving a goal, or even address politics on some level...So I kept my mind ( and ears) open to see what would happen with it. And the response was great! What surprised you about this experience? How deep words can travel. Let's say that your broadside collaboration was a first date. How did it go? First base? Second? Nightcap? Would you make plans for a second date? It seemed to turn out very nice. Those two strike me as a couple that can finish each other sentences. It's a great idea not only to have outstanding poems illustarted, but to see an illustration gaining a voice has been an extraordinary experience. Every artist should have a chance to see their work speaking—whether it's whispering or screaming. Read any good books lately? Murakami's Kafka On the Beach was addictive. He definitely has a voice all his own. Seen any good art exchibits lately? Funny you should ask. The last good exhibit I saw was a collaboration of Fairbanks artist Margo Klass and writer Frank Soos' Mixed Media and Miniature Prose.

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