Perennial Earth

Book Pairs Art and Poetry to Explore Humanity in Nature

Alexis Serio recently released a beautifully illustrated coffee table book titled Perennial Earth: Poetry by Wallace Stevens and Paintings by Alexis Serio.

The book began as a pandemic reprieve project by the artist and her father, John N. Serio, and progressed to an 85-page book featuring 34 oil paintings paired with poetry by Wallace Stevens (18791955). Stevens is known as one of the greatest poets of the 20th century.

Alexis holds a Master of Fine Arts and is a professor of Studio Art at the University of Texas at Tyler.

Her abstract landscapes represent a variety of climates, settings and palettes and pair well with Stevens’ work.

In the book’s introduction, English professor and author Glen MacLeod describes the nuances of the relationship between Stevens’ poetry and Alexis’ art.

“[The artist’s] landscapes are abstract because her aim is not to reproduce in accurate detail a particular scene but to convey her feelings about it,” MacLeod says.

“The aim of these visual-verbal juxtapositions is to enhance the reader’s appreciation of these two artists who, though working in different mediums, base their art on the inexhaustible correspondences between the outer world of nature and the inner world of human experience.”

Both Alexis and her father contribute to The Wallace Stevens Journal published by Johns Hopkins University Press. She serves as the journal’s art editor and John as its former editor.

In May of 2020 the pair produced a daily email that coupled one of Alexis’ paintings with a poem by Stevens. They called the series A Month of Poetry and Painting and sent the emails to family, friends, and colleagues as a reprieve from the pandemic.

One of the email recipients was Bill Vitek, editor for New Perennials Publishing (NPP) of Vermont, who invited the duo to produce the book. NPP is a nonprofit whose aim is to foster critical thinking about issues in ecology and the environment.

The book is a tribute to the ways in which artists contribute to communities during challenging times as muses and expressive healers and the Earth’s natural beauty that serves as a setting for profound human reflection and feeling. A member of teh UT Tyler faculty since 2004, Alexis’ artwork belongs to various public and private collections including the University of Iowa Health Care Systems and the Fox School of Business at Temple University. She teaches all levels and mediums of painting as well as mural and landscape painting, drawing, and professional practices.

The book is available in both print and digital form. Grant funding allows NPP to provide books in free downloadable format at www.newperennialspublishing. org.

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