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Collect Raindrops
by Nikki McClure
(click on image for details)
Nikki McClure combines her simple yet highly evocative pictures with well-chosen words to express to her reader the joy that is to be found in everyday life.
In her introduction to the book, McClure describes how each picture is made by cutting away at a single piece of black paper until what she has is "a paper-cut, just black and white" to which she adds text and colour later. She describes how she tries to keep each design as organic as possible and it is through the organic, hands-on nature of her work that it speaks so eloquently to the reader.
Both her pictures and the words that accompany them are kept simple and sparse, allowing them to speak for themselves in a unique way to each reader. Her message is uncomplicated and she delivers it in an appropriately uncomplicated manner.
McClure's book is constructed around the cycle of the seasons. Beginning with winter, each season is introduced by a one-page passage of writing. These passages are built up of short sentences that evoke the memories and emotions we associate with each season of the year. The passages serve as a preparation for the pages of images that follow - the memories and emotions to which we are introduced in writing are reinforced in each carefully crafted picture. We are ultimately given a sensory experience that encompasses the progress of the years.
There is a definite focus in Collect Raindrops upon keeping things simple and organic and, has already been mentioned, this focus is emphasized by the medium McClure uses. Simple and carefully chosen words and images reinforce the idea that it is the simple things in life that are worth celebrating and appreciating.
Part of this focus upon simplicity is the strong presence of relationships, communication and interconnectedness in McClure's work. The pictures themselves are crafted from one piece of paper and are literally a series of intricate connections of this paper. Likewise, the events that McClure depicts all have a sense of interconnectedness - she focuses on the relationships within families, within communities, and the integral importance of these relationships to human life. A picture of a mother picking blackberries with her child labelled with the words "transmit" is a celebration of the relationship between these two people, the learning that each can achieve from the other, and also an acknowledgement that this relationship is a universal one, an experience that transcends culture and time and place and is simply one of the elemental characteristics of human life.
Nikki McClure's book is a celebration of life at an elemental level. It recognises each season the year for what it is and how each is just as important as another. It is a celebration of humanity and a provocation to step back and appreciate the simple things in life that are so easy to overlook but are so important to each and every one of us. It is finally a book that changes each time you read it, speaking to you in a different way as you yourself grow and change.
 review written by Kimberley Davis BA Eng. (Hons.)
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