Pop Art Passion: A Love Letter to 26 Letters

I confess I cannot resist a creative challenge and the opportunity to make my passion pop was just too good to pass up.

My Passion

I have been a lifelong reader. When I was eight my mother made a house rule that I was allowed to stay up past my bedtime on the condition that I was reading a book. Sometimes, as I cosy down under the covers as a fully grown adult I still get the feeling that I'm getting one up on her as the clock ticks into the wee hours. Of course she is the ultimate winner as she hoodwinked me into morphing into a dedicated bookworm forevermore. Something I am grateful for every day.

I am constantly amazed by the fact that every book I've ever read (and there are quite a few of them) is the just same 26 letters in a different combination. 26 letters that have made me laugh, made me cry, made me see myself in different lights, taken me on adventures, taken me into far away communities and allowed me to see the world as others see it.

During lockdown I started something I call 'reading NOMPS' (no male, pale and stale). After an English literature degree featuring lots of dead guys, lots of 'should' reads from 'the literary canon' and plenty of terrible recommendations I decided that it was long overdue for me to be intentional about what I was reading and making an effort to ensure that those stories were from far and wide and from people whose voices were not of the masses.

I am also the child of a punk. The punk zine style lettering in my image is a nod to my father who didn't like books, but did like kicking back against the status quo. I like to insist that reading NOMPS is pretty punk.

All of these quotes come from books I have read this year. Specifically they are from:

• 'A Spell of Good Things' by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ 🇳🇬 
• 'The Trees' by Percival Everett 🇺🇸 
• 'The Lightning Circle' by Vikki VanSickle 🇨🇦
• 'The Final Revival of Opal & Nev' by Dawnie Walton 🇺🇸 
• 'The Old Woman With the Knife' by Gu Byeong-mo 🇰🇷
• 'Losing the Plot' by Derek Owusu 🇬🇧 🇬🇭
• 'DallerGut Dream Department Store' by Miye Lee 🇰🇷

My Top Tips

While I completed the main base image for this through Markup in Photos. I cannot recommend the Sliders option in Colours enough if you're a HEX code nerd like I am. And that eyedropper is legendary to folks who are picky about colour (no pun intended).

I did eventually take the base image into Keynote to use Markup there. Not only because I am a Keynote fan but because of the LAYERS baby! I ended up with a lot of different moving parts and I loved being able to arrange, overlap and rearrange them as my image unfolded.

If you've read this far you probably don't mind reading, hit me up for recommendations and please do feel free to point me in the direction of your favourite stories from far and wide! Happy poppin' people!