Ode to Scissors

This is the second in my Ode to Tools series, but one of many from my poetry experiments with ChatGPT. I had ChatGPT write a draft of this post, but it was faster to write my own than to wade through edits of the loquacious paragraphs it spit out.

Let’s start with the final ode and portraits then get into the process behind them.

Ode to Scissors

By Lornaphone and ChatGPT

Oh, humble scissors, in artist’s hand,
You craft both practical and grand.
With blades sharp to shape and divide,
Just beyond my fingers, you glide.

With crop precision, you trim with vision,
Scraps and margin our artistic decision.
Negative spaces to sweep or store
You make taking away look like more

But sometimes, in the dance of a shear,
A missed snip looms, a new challenge clear.
Potential mistakes, a cut too much, askew,
Even those moments, our art is new.

So, in this ode to scissors, I declare,
You’re more than a tool, you’re art’s affair.

DRAWING SCISSORS

I gathered all the easily accessible scissors in my studio and arranged them for a photo. Then, I traced them in procreate.

DRAWING ODE WREATH

In the spirit of AI (kind of), I used Adobe Express to generate clip art of scissors that I then isolated and arranged into a wreath. In Illustrator, I played around with the recolor feature but ended up going with the line drawing trace.

DRAWING SCISSOR SELF PORTRAIT

I used a recent self-portrait as the base and layered the scissors over the shapes. I don’t think this is a fully realized portrait, especially in the hand area. Instead of using the shapes of the scissors, I just cut out a negative space from a patch of them. The eyes and glasses look pretty cool, though. There, I embrace the scissor shape.

THE WRITING PROCESS WITH CHATGPT

I started a chat with ChatGPT requesting an ode in a similar style to my Ode to Hot Glue. I added some notes to start: “scissors cut and shape. they divide. they fit between the thumb and pointer finger. i have a favorite pair. the classic pair with the orange handle. there’s nostalgia for scissors: learning to cut in grade school. they’re precise and they’re also a way to get things started”.

This is the first ode ChatGPT generated:

Oh, humble scissors, in artist’s hand,
You sculpt and craft, in ways so grand.
With blades so sharp, you shape and divide,
Between thumb and finger, with grace, you glide.

My favorite pair, the classic orange handle,
Nostalgia flows, as memories kindle.
From learning to cut in grade school’s embrace,
You were the first step in a creative race.

Precise and keen, you trim with precision,
A catalyst for dreams, with artful vision.
In your embrace, the journey begins,
You’re the key to unlocking art’s wins.

So, in this ode to scissors, I declare,
You’re more than a tool, you’re art’s affair.
With each snip and slice, you’re our guide,
In the hands of artisans, creativity thrives.

In a back-and-forth line and content tweaking process, I requested the following revisions:

Redundancy Removal:
- Description: Elimination of the redundant phrase “precise and precision” in the stanza “Precise and keen, you trim with precision.”
Imagery Addition:
- Description: Addition of imagery related to the pieces falling to the floor when cutting, saving scraps, and making fringe in the stanza “With crop precision, you trim with vision.”
Phrase Refinement:
- Description: Refinement of the line “Negative spaces to sweep or store” in the stanza “With crop precision, you trim with vision” to “You make taking away look like more.”
Volta Integration:
- Description: Incorporation of a volta, involving a missed snip with cropping or potential mistakes with cutting too much or missing a straight line, in the stanza “But sometimes, in the dance of a shear…”