Ekphrasis XIII 2024 Online Exhibition
SET 3. Writer Initiators and Their Responding Artists
I. KARIN UPHOFF, Firefly. Response by artist JOSEPH DUVIVIER: Night Fires
TWO ARTISTS respond to ONE WRITING:
J. PATTY JOSLYN, Small Box of Confession #1 Response by artist ROBERT YELLAND: Wind and Wild Irise
K. PATTY JOSLYN, Small Box of Confession #2 Response by artist KAREN REYNOLDS: Greener Pasts Lookout
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SET 3. Writer Initiators and Their Responding Artists
I. KARIN UPHOFF, Firefly. Response by artist JOSEPH DUVIVIER: Night Fires
TWO ARTISTS respond to ONE WRITING:
J. PATTY JOSLYN, Small Box of Confession #1 Response by artist ROBERT YELLAND: Wind and Wild Irise
K. PATTY JOSLYN, Small Box of Confession #2 Response by artist KAREN REYNOLDS: Greener Pasts Lookout
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Initiating Poet KARIN UPHOFF
inspires with Firefly In dusk’s descent, the show begins through shadowed leaves, a fairy flash. I step outside to greet the awe of fireflies – their mating dash. Floating gently through the air with rumps that glow attractively. Calling females everywhere: Here I am! Come to me! While men shoot guns in distant fields to boast their shaken strength and worth, the beetle lights its lamps of love -- a gentle grace upon the earth. |
Responding Artist JOSEPH DUVIVIER's Night Fires features electronic elements to mimic dynamic fireflies, in this first high tech application in the history of our Ekphrasis event!
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sTWO on ONE:
Last year two artists were accidentally assigned the same writing. Their responses were dramatically different, and precipitated intriguing discussions among viewers. This year we made a like assignment on purpose and challenged two different artists to respond to Patty Joslyn's writing "Small Box of Confession." Compare "Wind and Wild Irises" by Robert Yelland to Karen Reynolds' "Greener Pasts Lookout" to see the results. I. and J. Initiator PATTY JOSLYN
Small Box of Confession Why I can’t stay has everything to do with the wind, the fog, the black ice, the way you look away. It’s the words you can’t take back, don't want to, but think you should. Forgiveness is rough. Forgetfulness, too; it’s a daily occurrence, a name, an appointment, an ingredient for the cake that wasn’t made, because why? No wheat, no sugar, never enough blueberries. I can’t stay pressed against another hollow door or face the window sill that collects dripping water, stained like cold tea, the color your teeth have married. I can't stay without my family, the friends who know who I am—the people who love me no matter. I remember the day my father walked away with my leather coat over his shoulder, a pack of clove cigarettes in the pocket. When he looked back at me, the tear began; it was the day I learned to pray, not on my knees on a velvet pew inside that small box of confession, but in my heart, for my heart, for my life, and though wewalked a different direction I knew one day I’d want to go home. Since that day, I’ve searched for understanding, truth, and the place that would take me back and love me just the way I was, the way I am. Maybe it’s not so much about the wind, the cold, the ice. It’s about the blowing, the melting, the softening, the path in front of me. A thin trail covered in small shiny stones, wild irises, and cabbages blooming against a vast open sky: Colors painted against my bones, no blurring of lines, no more looking back.
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I. Wind and Wild Irises, the response by Robert Yelland
J. Response #2 by artist KAREN REYNOLDS: Greener Pasts Lookout 
Artist's comment:
From the lookout, the figure gazes over green and greener landscapes as those in days gone by, and then realizes that he is standing, here and now, in the greenest area, and that seeking the past is not needed. KR |
