Happy Monday!

For the past year or so, some poet friends and I’ve been working on another ekphrastic poetry exhibit–poems inspired by works of art. The exhibit, Vistas-Visions and Verse, was installed earlier this month at the Lancaster County Council of the Arts, both the poem and the art that inspired it hanging sided-by-side. What started as an experiment in 2012 has grown into a popular exhibit. Unbelievably this is our fourth show, and every one has been unique. This year sixteen poets contributed nineteen paired pieces.

What’s stood out for me this year, besides the beautiful art and powerful poetry, are the stories behind so many of the pairings. For Vistas, poets must choose original pieces of art, not pieces like reprints of the Mona Lisa or Dogs Playing Poker. In making their choices, there’s already a subliminal connection, even before the poetry appears on the page. Sometimes the poet knows why the art was chosen and already has an idea where the poem will go, sometimes not. The connection deepens as the poem blossoms. So here are some stories! I wish I could share photos of all the art, unfortunately I don’t have the artists’ permission.

This textile art, a quilt in the Cathedral Window pattern, was made by the poet’s mother. She passed away in the last year and Debbie’s poem honors her, her craft, and her faith. In the exhibit, the quilt is draped over the mother’s wooden rocker, like she laid it down for a moment while she went to get a glass of sweet tea. In the same corner is a photo of three clasped hands, all of them aged and worn, on top of a bedspread. They’re the hands of the poet/photographer Ev’s mom, her sister, and her sister-in-law as their mother was in her final days. That particular corner of the gallery holds a special emotional impact.

In a Vista’s first, a poet and artist worked in a collaborative effort and produced two pairings! Daniel had already chosen a photograph by a local artist, and told her what he was doing. She thought it was such a cool idea, she took one of his other poems and created a piece of art specifically for it! The four pieces–two photos and two poems–hang as a grouping in the show. I’m not sure who gets to keep which pieces afterward.

This is one of my contributions, Two Bad Girls of Rock-N-Roll by local artist Bill Bradley. Bill is one of my favorite people and a favorite artist. I knew I wanted to respond to one of his paintings, so he and his wife Beverly invited me to their home to look at what he had. I spent the better part of an afternoon walking through the house snapping a dozen photos, going home without a clue which was going to be ‘the one.’ I printed the photos, laid them out on the floor, and over 2-3 days I kept coming back to this one. In an earlier post I mentioned working on a traditional form called a golden shovel poem. It’s borrowing (stealing?) a line from one poem and using the words in that line as the end words for lines in a new poem. In this case I chose the opening lyrics from Joplin’s song, Ball and Chain.

One beautiful watercolor of minimalist flowers and random dots became, in Julie’s poetic voice, symbolic of the artist’s cancer diagnosis and eventual resurrection into fullness after her death. Julie and the artist were close friends. 

One poet was working with an artist who at the last minute ghosted him. In a little bit of a panic, David reached out about finding another piece of art. Fellow poets emailed him color photos of what they had available to lend, he chose one, wrote a brilliant poem … and still hasn’t seen the actual piece of art. He’ll finally see it this week at the poets’ and artists’ reception.

A second textile piece is an Asian embroidery of a bird, decades old, worked on a frame two-stories tall, even though the piece itself is miniscule in comparison, 16”x16”? Eric took a photo of the frame when it was part of an exhibit in Charlotte. It’s hard to imagine working on an instrument that size. Eric’s poem speaks to artists and creativity found in threads … and atoms.

Kokopelli, by Sister Maryann Gossling, was a last-minute addition. Three poets dropped out at the very last minute, creating a hole in the show. I turned to Mary, a poet who hadn’t been here when the original call went out. She said she had a print, not an original. At that point, I didn’t care if it was original or not. After she took it off her wall, she realized it was an original watercolor! It’d been gifted to her and she’d never noticed.

Another poet chose a second Bill Bradley painting. It’s a surreal, quirky, wonderful piece. Richard and I both sent our finished poems to Bill and he was somewhat overwhelmed. He told me he couldn’t believe we saw so much in his work. That we took it in directions he never envisioned.

And isn’t that what art–any form–can and maybe is supposed to do? Take us deeper than the surface of paint on a canvas or words on a page? If you’re in the Lancaster area, I hope you’ll visit the Arts Council and see Vistas-Visions and Verse IV. If you’re not, maybe sit with a piece of art and see where it takes you.

I’ll be back Monday for Book Review Monday! with a book I literally stayed up all night last night finishing. I hope you have a great week.