hi Plutarch,

You got it, I got those words from Anu's AWAD.

Yes, she did ask for a text, but in her mind, it was something that actually described the painting, some sort of introduction to it. I suggested to forget about the idea and that instead, an artistic text rather than a bureaucratic one, should be presented. Art inspiring art, why not?

You could describe her painting in other ways than "spare". It's abstract art, and in that sense, one could say that the work has a hidden code, something that the artist alone understands. That's what abstract art is to me. And it's also why I decided to use less common words - because they are a sort of code, just like the painting.

Yes, there is that danger, and that's why I wanted her to sign the text, and not put my name on it. That way, it would be judged solely on her overal aptitudes. But then again, why not simply see this as an experiment in creation, where two individuals "use" each other's work to create something new. No one has to know which of the two, the text or the painting, was created first. Isn't this the exact same case when a musical score is written for cinema? Still, we don't judge a movie on the basis of its musical score, and vice-versa.

I asked her those 3 words - I needed an inspiration, a hint as to what she meant by her painting - and I interpreted the rest by writing what's there.

One last idea when I did this was to inspire myself on someone else's work - Anu's. This is to add a level to the concept of someone's work inspiring someone else's and so on and so forth...in this case, we have 3 levels: painter-writer-Anu's "encyclopedia". Checkout how Lautréamont, the father of surrealism in literature, created his great book (Les chants de Maldoror) - by copying entire sections of an encyclopedia on animals. I just added one more level here by citing him :))

Thank you for your input, it does open to some new ideas!
cheers
melkiades