Shloka Shankar

NationalPoetryMonth.ca April 17, 2023

marginalia by Shloka Shankar is published on NationalPoetryMonth.ca on April 17, 2023

Artist's Statement

In late 2022, I tried my hand at creating a series of digital Artist Trading Cards (ATCs). Using a template, I masked off a large digital canvas into six rectangles. Each of these rectangles was then painted using the same colours, textures, and elements with the help of InfinitePainter and Canva. Following the unmasking, I cropped the individual sections to reveal unique abstract backgrounds. 

As a lover of found poetry and Japanese short-forms, some of them morphed into visual poems and a few into haiga.

marginalia came to me, first, as a one-line haiku:

from the marginalia of thought a non-poem

But when I started pairing words to images/ATCs, it made more sense to present this ars poetica in concrete form to mimic the title. Not every thought from the deepest recesses of our minds arrives as full-fledged poems. I am grateful this “non-poem” did. It is the often overlooked, the quotidian, and a handful of scraps that feed my work. 

About Shloka Shankar

Shloka Shankar is a poet, editor, publisher, and self-taught visual artist from Bangalore, India. She enjoys experimenting with Japanese short-forms and myriad found poetry techniques alike. A Best of the Net nominee and award-winning haiku poet, her poems and artwork have appeared in over 200 online and print venues of repute. In addition, she has edited and co-edited six international poetry anthologies since 2016. Shloka is the Founding Editor of the literary & arts journal Sonic Boom and its imprint Yavanika Press. When she isn't poring over manuscripts, you can find her making abstract art, digital collages, or conducting poetry workshops. Shloka is the author of the microchap Points of Arrival (Origami Poems Project, 2021) and her debut full-length haiku collection, The Field of Why (Yavanika Press, 2022). Website: www.shlokashankar.com | Instagram: @shloks23 

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