Ekphrasis IX 2020 Virtual Exhibition
SET 4. Visual Artist Initiators and their Writer Responders
J. MARY ANDERSON: Spring Flower. hand-pulled solar etching.
Response by author windflower: resetting the bones.
K. KAREN BOWERS: Mystical Thinking. collage
Response by author SUSAN FISHER :Finding Meaning Among the Elements of a Collage..
L. LAURA CORBEN: All That Remains. mixed media.
Response by author KAREN LEWIS: Teasure Hunting.
SET 4. Visual Artist Initiators and their Writer Responders
J. MARY ANDERSON: Spring Flower. hand-pulled solar etching.
Response by author windflower: resetting the bones.
K. KAREN BOWERS: Mystical Thinking. collage
Response by author SUSAN FISHER :Finding Meaning Among the Elements of a Collage..
L. LAURA CORBEN: All That Remains. mixed media.
Response by author KAREN LEWIS: Teasure Hunting.
Initiating artist, MARY ANDERSON: Spring Flowers, hand-pulled solar etching.
Response by author, windflower: Resetting bones.
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milk spilling spilling an elliptical galaxy across the night sky spinning we crash on the night waves of dreams waking no cracks in the femur of the world no tendons no ligaments on high alert squandering the day among peach blushed flowers’ folds sleeping in silence turned to snow |
Initiating artist KAREN BOWERS: Magical Thinking.
Response by author SUSAN FISHER: Finding Meaning Among the Elements of a Collage.
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I looked long and hard at the collage. I looked close up, and from far away. When I stood back, I saw yellow paint strokes that recalled daffodils. When I peered with my nose six or seven inches from the surface, I could read bits of fine newspaper print scattered across its surface, the meaning of the words obscured because the sentences were cut off at their beginning and end.
My eyes settled on two newsprint slivers. One clearly said Robert Rauschenberg, a name I recognized. Rauschenberg was a famous modern artist. In the early 1950s. he produced a controversial body of work called the White Paintings. As the name implies, they were entirely white, with very subtle variations on the color. You can still see them in museums around the world, and they continue to cause irritation to some viewers. In the first decade of the 2000s, Yasmina Reza won prizes in France, England and the US for her play, Art, about a trio of friends disagreeing about a white painting purchased by one of them. White paintings represent much of the modern world that we do not understand, and suspect may be a joke at our expense. In the 1960s, Rauschenberg moved on to mixed-medium collages and he became grouped within the Pop Art Movement. Innovator that he was, he kept evolving, pursuing new art forms throughout his life. |
The date in the second tiny bit of print was June 18, 2008. At first, because it was placed so near the other, I thought it must be the date of Rauschenberg’s death, but not so. He died that year, but in June. So what was its significance?
I Googled the date and found nothing important. But, aha! --it was the date of death for a famous illustrator and writer named Tasha Tudor. I had no idea who she was until I saw photos of her covers for The Secret Garden and A Child’s Garden of Verses. I recognized these images from my childhood. I researched her and learned she was more famous for her farm in Vermont than her decades of literary work. Tasha Tudor was a proponent of living off the grid long before that term became a thing. She wove the cloth for her clothes. She grew or raised all her own food. She eschewed modern conveniences. She drove most of her children and her husband away by her obsession, but people travel from all over the world to see the farm, which has been preserved after her death. Apparently, she is particularly venerated in Korea and Japan and there are Tasha Tudor societies. I have no idea if the contrast between the hip Robert Rauschenberg and the traditional Tasha Tudor was intended by the artist who created this collage, but I made this connection and I’m sharing it. An art piece as a puzzle is a great deal of fun. |
Initiating artist LAURA CORBEN: All That Remains.
Response by author KAREN LEWIS: Treasure Hunting.
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At the lighthouse benefit rummage sale, both people reach for the antique chair at the same moment. It’s elaborate, wrought iron, traced with rust, missing a seat. The chair feels rough to her touch, and she attempts to untangle honeysuckle vines from the chair’s enameled legs.
He grasps the seat back, grins, says, “I saw it first.” She notices his effervescent brown eyes. “It’s all yours,” she offers. She dusts her hands on her jeans. “But it matches a bistro table I restored last year.” Stellar jays chatter from cypress trees, waves crash onshore, the planet spins, unseen stars glimmer. |
“It reminds me of my grandmother’s garden,” he says. “We used to play pirates, and organized the chairs into a ship.”
“Sounds fun.” “I had forgotten how fun it was.” He steps back. “Look, how about I help load this into your car?” “Might not fit. I drive a mini-Cooper. Maybe it’s a sign that the chair belongs at your place.” “Or— I could deliver it? Pirates sometimes drive trucks.” “Well— if you’ll stop for a cup of coffee?” The wind lifts her straw hat and spins it onto the chair. They laugh. “You’ll see the matching table.” |
