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Ekphrasis IX 2020 Virtual Exhibition
SET 5. Visual Artist Initiators and their Writer Responders

M. CLAIRE FORTIER, ​Flowers for Ukraine.  Response by poet MAUREEN EPPSTEIN: Five Sunflowers.
N. SHARON GARNER: Lone Tree at Sunrise, Cade Cove.  Response by HOLLY TANNEN: The Sheltering Tree. 
O. STEPHEN GARNER: Windowlit, watercolor. Response by poet ELIZABETH VRENIOS: Workin Girl.

​
Intro Page   Set 1   Set 2   Set 3   Set 4   Set 6   Afterword
Initiating artist CLAIRE FORTIER:
​Flowers for Ukraine , oil on canvas.

​
Picture
Response by poet MAUREEN EPPSTEIN: 
​Five Sunflowers
​
​1.  Whistle of incoming missiles
        mother and child stumble 
          to safety 
 
2.  Burnt sunflower seed meal 
        acrid in skeleton 
          of grain terminal 
 
3.  Clinging to each other 
        father and son watch rescuers 
          dig through rubble
 
4.  Volunteers offer bowls of pasta 
        golden as sunflowers
          children smile 
 
5.  Rusting Russian tanks 
         litter gray farmyard 
           a single sunflower rises

​
SHARON GARNER: ​Lone Tree at Sunrise, Cade Cove, ​photograph.

Picture

Responding author, HOLLY TANNEN: Sheltering Tree.
​
My friend and I have had our shots, so we decide it’s safe to invite him in. We sit on either side of the big oak table, watching steam rise from cups of pu-erh and chamomile tea. He reaches across the table and hands me his tea bag. The little tag on the end, like all flat surfaces nowadays, is inscribed with an inspirational quote
                        Friendship is a sheltering tree  -  Samuel Taylor Coleridge
            
I put the tea bag on one of my altars, pick up my dulcimer, and pluck a tune
 
                        Friendship is a sheltering tree
                        Shielding us from wind and rain
                        
The next day I sit beneath our tree, trying to think of a line and a rhyme.  A pair of geese passes overhead, honking
 
                        Flying birds call you and me
                        Till the day we meet again
 
So few hours together, so many hours apart. I swipe a line from a wassail song
 
                  
​ 


                        Friendship is a flowering tree
                        Bud and blossom, branch and fruit
​
​
and extend the metaphor
                        
                        Kind and kindred souls agree
                        Green the stem and deep the root
 
He says, “People tell me our friendship is weird. I say, ‘It ain’t weird, it’s wove’ ”
 
Weird comes from Anglo-Saxon wyrd, destiny. In Norse mythology, Urd is one of the Norn queens who tend Yggdrasil, the world tree. Its roots connect all life; the Norns weave human lives together
 
                        Likely and unlike combine
                        Weird and woven, fierce and free
 
Tomorrow I’ll hike out to the tree and sing to myself as dark clouds bring the rain
                        
                        Twining rhizome, ancient shrine
                        Friendship is a sheltering tree.

​

Initiating artist STEPHEN GARNER: Windowlit, ​watercolor.
​
Picture

​Response by poet ELIZABETH VRENIOS: Woikin' Goil.

 
Lower the shade, will youse Dearie?
I don’t like that sun in my eyes or the neighbors 
Peerin’ in. Put your cash on the chair 
Sweetie, wanna take your shoes off 
Too? Gimme a bourbon then. Ya know, 
I’m  sorry for all those goils who have to woik early every day.  ooooo
Careful!  Not so hard Dearie -  you’re
Killin’ me.

​
This is Set 5. Click to go to Intro Page   Set 1   Set 2   Set 3   Set 4   Set 6   Afterword
Picture
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Artists’ Co-op Of Mendocino Gallery 
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  • Welcome     
  • Artists   
  • Find/Contact     
  • Info,Calendaar,Events   
  • Exhibitions
  • ​Newsletter
  • Welcome !
  • Artists
    • Monthly Sampler
    • Photography >
      • Shanti Balsé
      • Sharon Garner
      • Pat Toth-Smith
    • Painting, Printmaking, Drawing, Multimedia >
      • Mary T. Anderson
      • Shanti Benoit
      • Karen Bowers
      • Laura Corben
      • David L. Cross
      • Joseph DuVivier
      • Stephen Garner
      • Debra Lennox
      • Karen Embree Reynolds
      • Robert Spies
      • Lynne Whiting
      • Robert Yelland (paintings)
      • Lynne Zickerman Olson
    • Jewelry, Sculpture, Ceramics, other 3D Art >
      • Jim Cowles
      • Maralee Greene (ceramics)
      • R Spies
      • Robert Yelland (jewelry)
    • Guest Artists >
      • Lynne Butler (Ceramics)
      • Sev Ickes modern primitive art
  • About Us
    • Find and Contact Us
    • Info, Calendar, Events
  • Exhibitions
    • Ekphrasis XI 2022 Exhibition >
      • Set 1 Ekphrasis XI 2022
      • Set 3 Ekphrasis XI 2022
    • Jessica's "Homecoming"
    • Ekphrasis X 2021 Exhibition >
      • Set 1 Ekphrasis X 2021
    • Collages Online Exhibit
    • Heart and Flowers
    • Marine Mendocino
    • Transitions
    • Ekphrasis IX Virtual Exhibition
  • ArtNotes