And so, we begin
Content warning: This image contains references to or metaphors of self-harm / violence
Artist’s Statement: This piece asks us to consider, no matter how strange or disorientating, what a commitment to learning to love requires of us and, also, what might we need to leave behind?
![A poem that is written around a digital image – a literal frame made out of text. The text runs on, around and around, signifying endless beginnings as a way of life. Intended to be read in a clockwise manner, starting from the top, moving around: we begin. equipped with the best tools that we have been permitted. not [top] knowing their full potential, their limits, or where they might direct us, [right] we believe in them. what might it mean to live with curiosity in a world [bottom] that demands certainty? it takes love to arm ourselves with courage so [left] Descriptive text for the image: a monochrome image of a person sitting in a chair in the corner of a room directly facing the camera. The wall is open wood. There is a standing floor lamp next to them. They have a paper bag on their head. In their right arm they are holding the handle of an over-sized wooden fork. In their left hand, they hold a handsaw resting on the arms of the chair, slightly above their lap.](https://wordgathering.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/beck_ivan_68a.jpg)
A poem that is written around a digital image – a literal frame made out of text. The text runs on, around and around, signifying endless beginnings as a way of life. Intended to be read in a clockwise manner, starting from the top, moving around:
we begin. equipped with the best tools that we have been permitted. not [top]
knowing their full potential, their limits, or where they might direct us, [right]
we believe in them. what might it mean to live with curiosity in a world [bottom]
that demands certainty? it takes love to arm ourselves with courage so [left]
Descriptive text for the image: A monochrome image of a person sitting in a chair in the corner of a room directly facing the camera. The wall is open wood. There is a standing floor lamp next to them. They have a paper bag on their head. In their right arm they are holding the handle of an over-sized wooden fork. In their left hand, they hold a handsaw resting on the arms of the chair, slightly above their lap.
Read a Manfesto by ivan beck in this issue of Wordgathering.
Back to Top of Page | Back to Art | Back to Volume 18, Issue 2 – Winter 2024-2025
About the Artist
ivan beck (no pronouns) is a trans, agender, mentally ill, chronically pained, atypical, killjoy (queer) feminist. At the time of submission, they are a PhD candidate in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University engaging in a research-creation exploring often complex relations between embodied knowing, love, trauma, health, and dominating logics of violence and settler-colonialism. ivan lives on Turtle Island, in unceded Mi’kmawki with their trusband, 5 cats, and 2 dogs.