This is another great collage by Dale Voelker that I really dig. He is a fantastic collage artist, that I got the opportunity to speak to in Episode 160.

It’s called Schedule Interest, which I don’t get, but that is actually part of the reason I love it so much… because I don’t understand it. That is part of why art is so great!

So I’m going to do something a little different today and pretend it’s a poem I’m going do a sort of “close reading” of it, the way we used to read poems in my ModPo class at University of Pennsylvania. But basically I’m just going to let my mind wander about what it could possibly mean.

Schedule Interest could take on many meanings. I was attracted to it simply because I have been revamping my schedule to make time for my own interests so I can explore them further. I find I really need to actively schedule time for it, or I won’t do it. It’s just too easy to forget if I’m tired or hungry or something.

But if I have predetermined a specific time to do something. It’s easier to accomplish than if I just say, someday I’m going to write another book or start start such and such business.

That’s just a glimpse into my head, as of late. That’s where it started…

But then I got to thinking, “Interest” has other meanings. It could be a monetary connotation. Like the interest you get on your savings. You could get a similar benefit from a schedule, I suppose.

Lastly, I thought about tax forms, which may be it. Some tax forms are labeled “Schedule” [as in “schedule 1, 2, etc.] I see what looks like it might be some sort of form at the very bottom.

I looked up why some forms were labeled “schedules.’ It’s a British thing. It comes from the British tax system, which the US adopted, carrying with it language that has carried over for centuries.

So, I guess I learned a lot from this piece. I’m still not sure what it means, but I really dig it…and it was cool to go through the possibilities.

[He told me in our interview that he usually titles his pieces with some phrase found in the newspaper text].

Dale is in the Saatchi Gallery. He lives and works in LA. If you dig this as much as I do, here is my