Art is often editing, and Austin Kleon (writer, cartoonist, and designer living in Austin, Texas per his bio) has got a vast archive of what he calls newspaper blackout poems. Simply put, he takes a newspaper page and blacks out everything that isn’t his poem with a Sharpie.

Part “writing with constrictions,” part happy accident, part found art, part design challenge, the images/poems strike you as a tangible form of indie rock. The materials are easy to find, but making it more than a novelty or parlor trick takes a particularly trained eye and a lot of deep-seated ideas that will find expression through any outlet you make available. The expression subsumes the form.

(Isn’t that indie rock, though. We hope that the leeway we give our heroes in terms of “materials” — musicianship, vocal range, listenability, etc. — gets paid back in depth of thought or feeling. Not always, of course, but it’s worth it to keep going back to the well.)

Austin keeps it coming from an honest place, and you can imagine that for every piece that makes it to the site, there are a dozen that couldn’t provide the right word or went in a bad direction. The collection in no order other than chronological gives a well rounded and consistent view into a guy most of use would want to buy a beer (or wouldn’t mind getting this round as long as he’s buying the next).

Need a music angle? Austin runs Gnarles Barkley behind a video showing how he makes a print, designed a CD cover for Hawkline and quotes country songwriter Darrell Brown on being worth remembering. Take ten minutes and see if there isn’t something that makes you laugh, think or just shake your head.

Last 5 posts by Greg Wind

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