Experiment #6: Touching the Paper

Experiment #6: Even the simple activity of touching the paper can be a dramatic event… Close your eyes again and reach out to touch the paper with your hands. Does anything change inside you because of this contact? The paper can become a new, even mysterious territory, having a surface, four edges, and a particular presence all its own. With your eyes closed, your hands can receive this presence, exploring a world that is limited by its four edges. Explore… As you move your hands on the paper, your entire being is in contact with the earth. Could you touch the earth as if it is a loved one?

This was interesting. I’ve felt my work surfaces before, but never so intimately. First, I explored the different sensations of the paper — the smoothness, the roughness of the binding, and the threat of paper cuts on the edges. Then, I connected the paper to the earth — it’s of the earth, it’s part of it, and so I touched it with a loving caress.