A couple of states away, Sletten was doing the same thing with his art. The intriguing notion of marrying Kooser’s literary imagery to his own artistic images motivated Sletten to that point so many artists reach when they let their creative optimism take the wheel: They hurl a Hail-Mary pass to the universe to see if anyone out there will catch it. So, Sletten decided to scour the Internet to find Ted Kooser and connect with him. One problem: Kooser wasn’t just some guy blogging his amateur poetry out to forums on the Web. In 2005, Ted Kooser had received the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry for Delights and Shadows. He was named Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by the Library of Congress to serve a term from 2004, through 2005. Also in 2005, he was appointed to serve a second term as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry. And even if Sletten could connect with him, what were the chances Kooser would be willing to let Sletten appropriate some of his poems? Sletten thought he gleaned a sensibility about Kooser through his poetry and assumed Kooser was down-to-earth enough to warrant the Pollyannaish golly-gee-just-maybe effort of at least trying to contact him. After all, no art ventured, no art gained (right?), and that’s
where this story cues up the Disney song, It’s a Small World After All. (Feel free to sing along.) Sletten found a Kooser email address on a website and fired off a letter of introduction about half a dozen times, with no replies. Then Sletten did some IT sleuthing and discovered an errant link in the website code. In July, he shot off an email to the corrected address and received a tepid response from Kooser, who explained that his past experience with collaborations had led him to swear off ever writing on assignment again. Then there was this: By way of email conversation, Kooser and Sletten discovered they had both grown up in Ames Iowa, and both had graduated from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln, so there was an thread of commonality that precipitated an element of trust between them, and Kooser agreed to offer Sletten the use of some of his unpublished poems he had already written. When Sletten received Kooser’s poems, he was gobsmacked that many of his alreadycompleted art pieces paired so well with them, given that, at the time he created the artwork, he’d never even heard of Kooser. And to this day, he hasn’t actually spoken with Kooser — all correspondence has been by email. Kooser
was also pleased with the initial pairings. Subsequently, Sletten has created 12 unique pairings, all of which celebrate, as Sletten describes, “Archetypical objects, universal patterns or motifs with which we all have some degree of common experience,” often referencing Swiss psychologist Carl Jung’s assertion that the root of an archetype is in the “collective unconscious” of mankind. Everyone loves a success story, and Sletten and Kooser’s collaborative project continues to grow with the potential for ongoing synergistic creative work, and it was all triggered by a yoga instructor’s decision to read a poem to her class. (Thank you, Kitty.) So next time you notice the planets in your personal universe aligning in favor of creative potential, recognize it as opportunity knocking, then get up and answer the door.
Ted Kooser's poem The Yellow Rope is reprinted (with the permission of Ted Kooser) from Kindest Regards; New and Selected Poems, published by Copper Canyon Press.
INTERSECTIONALITY OF ARTS AND PRIVILEGE: MOVING TOWARD EQUITABLE CREATIVE ACTION If an individual engaging in creative selfexpression is marginalized, they are often labeled within fixed categories. Attaching an additional label to artist such as “disabled,” “African American” or “female” perpetuates exclusion. When additional labels are added onto artist, it can diminish their worth. Ethnicity, culture, language, religion, gender, ability, sexual orientation, age, economic/social status and geographic location can all influence what one creates, however, it should not influence one’s access to the arts or determine the validity of their artwork. Artists First, is a nonprofit organization that helps build positive social change through art. Artists First’s mission is to provide a safe, welcoming, accepting, professional space where people of all ages, abilities and life experiences can explore and create art, individually or collaboratively. Artists First’s
diverse, inclusive art studio is open to everyone but intentionally targets disenfranchised populations such as individuals with disabilities. Applying an intersectionality viewpoint, Artists First is proactive in making art more accessible for individuals with different sensory, physical, mental, and or developmental abilities.
creates, it is often viewed as a “therapeutic activity” rather than creativity. This limiting viewpoint is based on general assumptions and can maintain an exclusionist system. Disability is not a barrier to expression or access to art; rather it is an ingrained systematic approach to those with disabilities that is the actual barrier.
Creative self-expression has served as a catalyst for positive social change throughout history. At the Artists First studio art is not only utilized as a way to effectively communicate and build understanding and acceptance among individuals with different belief systems, experiences and backgrounds, it is used to raise critical consciousness.
The exposure, experience and expression of art in all forms do not belong to a privileged few. It is not meant to be possessed or dictated by any individual, group or institution. Exclusion, derived from power and privilege, can play out in the accessibility of expression and art. Through active cognition and application of an intersectionality perspective, we can move toward building a truly inclusive movement.
Therapeutic benefits to the creative process – freedom to express, make sense of the world around us, to share, explore and learn. But, when an artist who has different capabilities COMMENTARY
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COMMENTARY
By Sheila Suderwalla
