Larry M Burns

Do your chores, love dad Larry M Burns

If you are a father, or know one, this book is for you. I believe parents share many of the same hopes and fears for their kids. This is my attempt to capture those emotions. ABOUT THIS BOOK & THE 52 PROJECT This is a companion piece to an art exhibit of the same title. It appeared as part of a two month summer series of mini-exhibitions at the Riverside Art Museum, consisting of nearly three dozen "newish" artists. This is my first book of poetry and my first creation to appear in a museum. This project captures one father's low-tech effort to communicate with his sons. The plywood and copy paper collage, as well as the poetry chapbook's design, are influenced by the primary raw materials used in this exhibit: spiral bound notebooks. Seven notebooks of messages and doodles were copied, cut, and reordered to illustrate how people make-up family bonds and roles using complex communication systems. Fear was the catalyst. Fear I was losing my connection to my children. Fear they would be harmed by my divorce. Fear that an identity and worldview honed over two decades of marriage was gone and I had no idea how to fill that hole. So I started writing notes to them. These were mostly reminders about chores, dinner plans, and where I could be found. We added doodles, then more detailed drawings and puns, as a way to entertain each other. The project is proof that the power to destroy and create anything worthwhile is in our hands.