Ekphrasis X 2022 Online Exhibition
SET 1. Writer Initiators and Visual Artist Responders
A. SHARON BOWERS, The Opening. Response by KAREN EMBREE REYNOLDS: Party with the Paintings! Mixed media.
B.LYNN KIESEWETTER, My Friend Nina. Response by artist SHANTI BENOIT: What Lurks Below, collage.
2C. NONA SMITH, The Blue Sedan. Response by artist MARY-ELLEN CAMPBELL: Starbucks Saga, mixed media sculpture.
Intro Set 2 Set 3 Set 4 Set 5 Set 6 Afterword
The Opening by SHARON BOWERS
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Let us make the scene at the show In the artists’ space; With heels high and necklines low, At a stoners pace, In veils of shimmering lace. I shall go in leather And you in cool, Black as a raven’s feather, More sensational Than a diary of Warhol. |
We shall slip through the noisy crowd At a breathless pace; We will whisper over music loud, Upon white wine by the case, Under small talk clouds. We shall slink in tight circles Where the art crowd goes. Paintings will hang like angelic smoke On the stark white walls. We shall crash the scene at the opening show. |
Response by artist KAREN EMBREE REYNOLDS: Party with the Paintings! Graphite.
My Friend Nina Said by initiator Lynn Kiesewetter
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Once upon a time, when I was sinking in despair,
obsessively brooding an imagined outcome still in the future, my friend Nina said: “… better to live in denial at times like this.” So, I heard her advice and took it to heart ~ phonetically. I looked in old National Geographics to find photos of Da Nile to hang on the walls surrounding me, to remind me that I didn’t have to sink. And better yet, I don’t even really have to think about how dangerous or deep the waters might be, no matter what swims below me in the murky depths. Sharks, anacondas, sting rays... I cannot see them: So I’ll just pay them no nevermind. But if it’s mermaids? I will hear them sing. |
Response by artist Shanti Benoit: What Lurks Below, collage, 8" x 10".
The Blue Sedan by initiating author NONA SMITH
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MaryBeth had been sitting in her car for three full minutes, the motor purring, her hands tight around the steering wheel. She wasn’t going any place. She couldn’t. Once again, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw the blue sedan idling inches from her back bumper. The driver wanted her space. Parking was at a premium in this Starbuck’s lot: she’d circled it twice herself before she’d found a spot. “This is stupid,” she said. “One minute more and I’m going out there.”
She began to count. When she reached thirty, she checked the mirror again. Four cars––now five––idled behind the sedan. One of them honked a long, impatient blast, but the sedan stayed stubbornly put. Was the driver unbalanced? Crazy as a loon? Or just plain pigheaded? By the time MaryBeth counted to sixty, she’d worked out a plan. Two plans, in fact. Briefly, she worried about executing Plan A. There were lots of stories lately about road rage and shootings. Still, what was the likelihood of being shot over a parking spot at Starbucks? She turned off the ignition, unfastened her seatbelt, and slipped out of the car. |
As she approached the blue sedan, the driver’s window slid down, and MaryBeth saw a young-ish woman with hair gathered into a messy ponytail. She felt a modicum of relief no guns were in sight.
“You’re waiting for this parking spot?” she said to the messy-haired woman, who pinched her lips together and nodded curtly. “I’m afraid you’re not going to get it,” MaryBeth said in a voice usually used to calm a young child having a tantrum. “I can’t leave because you’re blocking my car, and there are four cars behind you who won’t all back up so you can claim this space.” “Well, I’m not moving,” the woman said, and eased her window up. For a moment, MaryBeth stood in stunned silence. The situation was insane. Then she remembered: she had a Plan B. She walked back to her car in measured steps, grabbed her purse, and locked the car door. She nodded as she walked past the blue sedan, gave a hands-out shrug to the drivers in line behind it, and headed back to Starbucks. This situation would sort itself out while she was drinking her low fat, decaf, shade-grown latte. |
Response by artist MARY-ELLEN CAMPBELL: Starbucks Saga
