Chyron

This thread
A wordless chyron
Of your trauma

6" x 6"

140# hot-press watercolor paper

acrylic paint, Posca paint marker, electrical wire

chyron: [ kahy-ron ] noun
a text-based graphic overlay displayed at the bottom of a television screen or film frame, as closed captioning or the crawl of a newscast.

Chyron needed to be poetry. I originally wrote a standard 4 line stanza arrangement. Then I condensed it into the haiku above.

The “thread” part is important, because I did this piece in reverse; wrote the poem, then decided to paint it. This thread is referring to the neurological pathways formed when actions/emotions are repeated. It’s almost like you can wear grooves in your brain, and you naturally begin to repeat patterns learned when you were young. As you learn more about yourself and your relationships, you can begin to see how past trauma and coping mechanisms influence your behavior now.

A chyron is the running bar across the bottom of the news, so think a running commentary in your brain: “3 pm at Local Restaurant: Jane Doe chooses to push away love interest because she bases self-worth on past rejection instead of intrinsic value.”

Your brain uses electrical signals, hence the addition of the wire. Perhaps a spark of recognition… a chance to forge a new pathway when you see the old no longer serves you?

Throughout this project I had in mind a quote from Carl Jung:

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

Chyron mixed media word haiku painting by Sarah M. Schumacher