During my first visit to Europe, I visited the Fundació Joan Miró in Barcelona. When I was able to dodge the other tourists taking selfies in front of the work, I lingered with a few of the pieces to learn more about them. Sometimes, it was because I liked them. Sometimes, it was because I did not. In the latter case, I want to understand what the artist intended to do before casting judgment on the final product.

One label featured a quote that resonated with me:

“Silence is a denial of noise – but the smallest noise in the midst of silence becomes enormous.”

I jotted this down, knowing that I would have to use it in a future piece. When I got home, though, I was feeling disenchanted with the lack of originality in my work. It felt dirty to solely exist as an artist who appropriates other individuals’ words for my own profit. With that frame of mind, this transformed into a challenge to pay homage to the original quote through wordplay.

I began by cutting my paper down to 4 x 4 inches. I measured to find the center, then used a stencil to complete the circle in the center. The first few attempts at writing “a small noise” did not work out, so I repeated the process until I got it right. Once the placement and shape were manageable, I colored in the space around the words with a red Sakura Micron Pigma 005 ink pen.

Next, I lightly penciled in a small white border around the edges. The floating capital letters were placed next, included as a reference to Miró’s “Poem” series and his 1968 work “Silence”. Since the red was so bold, I opted to very the rest of the lettering in this piece. I rotated between a variety of “fonts” in my repertoire until the space was completely full.

From there, I erased the remaining pencil lines, scanned the piece, and edited it for prints. If I could go back and remake this piece, I would change a lot of things! But I have grown to love it over time.

The piece was displayed and sold at Flying Lion Brewing in Seattle.

Is this piece available?

“A Small Noise In The Midst of Silence” is available as a limited edition print in my online shop.

The original piece is no longer available.