Scribbles & Coddles: The Illustrated Poetry of Bob Komives

Through much of 2017 I played at folding independent scribbles together: graphics folded into poetry and poetry folded into graphics. In early 2018 this work-in-process became "I Say", a sketchbook in the Brooklyn Art Library's Sketchbook Project. That small work grew and evolved into Scribbles & Coddles. I drafted the oldest poem in 1965 and wrote the youngest two in January of 2021. Most poems and sketches began in pen or pencil on paper. From sketchbook-notebooks I bring words and images into my computer. There I rewrite, format and coddle my words; I tone and color the images. Some of the graphics started as my digital photographs that I have simplified, complicated, abstracted, using Corel photo software. I confess that, while colors in the graphics please me, I am gifted with a form of color blindness. I accept that you see your colors, not mine. I have enjoyed the entire process. Here, word and graphic come back to paper where I feel they belong-where I hope you too enjoy them. Bob Komives, 2018