JOHN PATRICK MCKENZIE with MELISSA NOLLEDO
I previously wrote on John Patrick McKenzie ' s art in my essay, "Drawing Words to Transcend Definitions and Make Words More Meaningful," for Our Own Voice , April 2005. While an old article, it still captures why I am so drawn to McKenzie's art (it inspired my first and only "Googled poem"), and why his works have their own "project room" viz North Fork's bathroom. McKenzie has achieved something difficult for any artist: his own recognizable and unique aesthetic by how he chooses to color or block in the spaces within letters (e.g. the spaces created within the letters "e" and "b"). The result is his own font with which elevates his writings so that they're not just poetry but visual art. You can see my essay HERE , but I want to share this excerpt about this autistic artist: "McKenzie's process hearkens how certain autistics have difficulty integrating various sensory inputs they receive; for McKenzie, d...