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poetsartists
Fall 2011, Issue #27
Cover Artist: Angela Hardy
Angela Hardy: Portrait Study #4 2BZ4UQT acrylic on panel 6’X6" “At Arms Length Series”
POETSARTISTS
EDITORIAL STAFF
For submission guidelines and blog stop by poetsandartists.com.
Melissa McEwen
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This publication contains copyright material. You may not use any images, any copy, design and other information published in PoetsArtists without consent from the publisher and/or contributor.
Didi Menendez David Krump
Lindsay Oncken
Teresa Elliott Page 53
Photo of Teresa Elliott’s studio and dog...
poets and artists
Amy Sherald Matt Duckett Diego Quiros Tom Martin Doug Poole Daniel Fishel Luke Simonich Jack Richard Smith Gary Godbee Milan Nenezic Mundo Rivera Tun Ping Wang
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portrait studies Greg Santos Angela Hardy Grace Cavalieri Agnes Preszler Janelle McKain Broc Hankins Matt Calcavecchia April Carter-Grant Angelique Moselle Price Ira Upin Joshua Gray Grady Harp
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reviews Grady Harp Steve Halle
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galleries 33 Contemporary interviews Reb Livingston
Amy Sherald
www.amysherald.com
My por traits are psychological studies of cultural performance where race itself becomes the theater in which self-actualization and the evolution of identity are played out.
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Amy Sherald: Madame Noire oil on canvas 54x43 inches
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Amy Sherald: It Made Sense.. Mostly In Her Mind oil on canvas 54x43 inches
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Amy Sherald: Hi-Yella Masterpiece oil on canvas 69x59 inches
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Ferhoncus de plub
Trenz Pruca Aliquam de Mantis
Urna Semper Chauncey de Billuptus
Cras Maecenas Curabitur Leo
Fringilla Viverr Seargente de Fermentum
Uam Scelerisque Maecenas Interdum
Odio Pede Eget Purus
Recent paintings begin with my chance encounters of individuals whose characteristics remind me of Leo Praesen Orci Aliquam Tortor Rasellus Omare foremne cultural stereotypes that I would like to depict. I find the actors on the streets of Baltimore where I live Mauris Vitaequam Vivamus Nunc Quisque Porta and work, creating costumes and searching out props for each one to produce the photo portraits that Lemacord Promwn are the basis for my paintings. The backdrop each posed figure Diam Nobis of vibrant color Nobisthat Eget I paint around Urna Sodales Senmaris Calla Ipsum Sed accumsan Libero Aliquam Mattis Felis dispels any easy real life reference. Situating my subjects in a liminal realm creates a space in which I can suggest to the viewer a racial role reversal. That in-between place allows me to consider other Eget Toque Fermen Pede Veli Ligula symbolic relationships—between the Aliquam characters of art Bibendum and film history, especially—that de Mantiand iconsVestibulum Morbi congue Magna resonate with the amorphous and aspirational roles that race assumes.
COLLECTIONS FTI Technologies Mr. Chuks Okoro Mrs. Patricia Massey Mr. and Mrs. Pat and Jeanine Turner Mr. and Mrs. Marty Wynn Mr. and Mrs. Eddie and Shannon Franks Dr. Thomas Stewart Dr. Broderick Franklin Dr. Folasade Oladele Dr. Fawn Manning Mrs. Anne Ston 8
Matt Duckett www.mattduckett.com
My work is enthusiastically representational. It is fueled by an intense curiosity for the invisible, indifferent mechanisms with which the world operates. I use the innate vocabulary of anatomy and physiology to provide an intimate glimpse into tiny unique worlds that we can never truly know but that we are charmingly, almost frustratingly, invited by the subject to join.
Current/Recent Exhibitions: Salmagundi Club, New York, NY (Annual Non-Members Juried Exhibition) www.poetsandartists.com
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Matt Duckett: Lock 24" x 16", oil on wood www.poetsandartists.com
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Matt Duckett: The Turn 18" x 12", oil on wood www.poetsandartists.com
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Diego Quiros David The first time I undressed you spoke in syllables. You said I looked like David standing at the Accademia wearing nothing but marble like the moon. You watched my body harden then moved towards the window and pulled the shade down. I saw the first chaos -the one that made the universeflash from your eyes as you walked by. I never want you to see me again. No. I want to remain the image of the barefoot boy by the window eternally burned in your pupils.
Diego Quiros is an electrical engineer, a photographer, and a published poet. He lived in Spain for several years and traveled to the United States by himself at age 10. He credits all his creative work to a woman with dark green hair and light green skin who dwells in his South Florida home and drops subtle whispers here and there. Diego enjoys taking photographs that feature the culture, landscapes, and events of the Magic City. His photographs have been exhibited at Deering Estate, Books and Books, and other locations in the South Florida area. A collection of his poetry, titled “Alchetry”, was published in 2008.
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Tom Martin www.tommartinhyperrealism.co.uk
The focus of my work remains on the world around me and features fractions of my personal everyday life. I continue to explore themes such as my dietary needs combined with packaging, text and glass, in an attempt to hopefully create an interesting composition with which the viewer can begin to interact. Color is increasingly becoming a very important part of my work.
www.poetsandartists.com
Tom Martin’s art is available from Plus One Gallery, London, UK www.plusonegallery.com 14
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Tom Martin: No Artificial Colour 3.94’x 4.1’, acrylic on aluminum
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Tom Martin: My First Time in New York 5.91’x 3.94’, acrylic on wood
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Tom Martin: Natural Delicacies 4.92’x 3.28’, acrylic on aluminum www.poetsandartists.com
Tom Martin: close-up of Dreams of California 2.95’x 4.1’, acrylic on aluminum
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Doug Poole John the Artist To John Reynolds I Man in a hat, a man in rimmed glasses, hmmm ‘Hey- that's John Reynolds isn't it?’ ‘No Doug, that is not John Reynolds’ ‘It bloody is… John! John Reynolds!’ ‘Wait, we'll come to you!’ Penny runs across the traffic, regardless of the cars, ‘You were my art school tutor, remember me?’ John tries to back away slowly, the horror, colliding with an old art student. John says his brother is a foot down head on hedonist in traffic too. She recalls the life drawing boredom; sock snapshots & pumpkin hands. John liked it, commented on the naked boredom. II Creative New Zealand conference rooms hold captive young applicants, confused by guidelines. Funding is dangerous, say you will do it anyway & enjoy the John Reynolds on the wall. Narcissus ponders the art class transgressors, the life drawn boredom, the amber lit hedonists – sock drawn. Pumpkin hands bound by the tenuous yes/ no possibilities tied up within funding applications. John the Artist shall bathe you. Lest Hero'dias calls for your head. III There is always more going on behind the signs - nuts and bolts, theosophically speaking. Recognizing the artist within or at least from across the street. Always more going on behind the scenery. Those closest to it cannot always speak for it. Brush strokes cleanse the conformity. Signs are firmly rooted, however retain a certain invisibility; reflective materialism. There is always more going on…Listen, someone is crying out in the wilderness. Doug Poole is of Samoan (Ulberg Aiga of Tula’ele, Apia, Upolo) and European descent. He resides in Waitakere City, Auckland. He is the current e-publisher and editor of poetry e-zine Blackmail Press. www.blackmailpress.com. He produced the performance poetry show POLYNATION, performing at Queensland Poetry Festival 2008 and Going West Writers and readers Festival 2008. In 2009 Doug collaborated and co-produced Atarangi Whenua - Shadow Land with New Zealand Painter Penny Howard, a touring exhibition. Doug has been e-published in Trout, nzepc - OBAN 06, nzepc – Fugacity, nzepc – All Together Now: A Digital Bridge for Auckland and Sydney, Stalking Tongue Vol 2: Slamming the Sonnet, Soft Blow, Nexus Collection and many other e-publications. Contact Doug Poole: editor@blackmailpress.com
NOTE: This poem has been reprinted from the previous issue due to a typographical error.
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Daniel Fishel www.o-fishel.com The work I create is a conceptual narrative built upon quiet moments and memory of my adolescent years. I use the figure, color and mood to communicate a story through each piece that could be universally relatable for every viewer.
Blog:ofishel.tumblr.com Twitter:@o_fishel Recent Galleries showings: “Super I am 8 Bit" (group show) - I am 8 Bit gallery (Los Angeles) "Shut the door" (duo show with John Malta) - Paradigm Gallery (Philadelphia) “3B" (group show) - Gallery 1988 (Santa Monica) 19
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Daniel Fishel: Age 5"x7" acrylic and ink on paper mounted to wood www.poetsandartists.com
Daniel Fishel: Instinct 10"x10" acrylic and ink on paper mounted to wood
Paradigm Gallery Installation 21 www.poetsandartists.com
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Daniel Fishel: All or nothing 16�x20� acrylic and ink on paper mounted to wood www.poetsandartists.com
Daniel Fishel: Secret 20" x 20" acrylic, conte and ink on paper mounted to wood
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Daniel Fishel: Her/Him - 10" x 10" (each) acrylic, conte and ink on paper mounted to wood www.poetsandartists.com
Luke Simonich the old stone house
the walls are cold. exposed & vacant to the north - it's been freezing rain all morning, & now, into afternoon, the fog has lowered thick enough to drink. it's her ruined history i'm interested in; how she got to be alone in a field, far from roads. what war-tore saw her through from bearing the roof for hard working pioneers to this chalky crumbling wind-break for imported cattle. seems she's held together now, loosely, by the sturdy vines of feral yet hearty strains of concord grapes & poison ivy. how she, white-knuckled, breaking down, & bearing the brunt of the century - each fall drops unheard & untoward hints to the winds & earth, of her battles there, of her legacy; these little raisins and ivy berries.
 Luke Simonich, born 1973, lives in Littleton Colorado.
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Jackwww.jackrichardsmith.com Richard Smith For four decades I've painted people from every cross-section of culture, socio-economic strata and ethnicity. What has occurred to me repeatedly is that there is little difference, as odd as it may sound, between the rich and famous and the disenfranchised; whether artist, homeless individual or tycoon, we all suffer in the same ways, longing to be recognized and validated. This idea of validation is the job I've chosen, to pay homage in some authentic way to the mysterious gift of being born a human being.
Photo by Dennis Hopper 2009
Recent Publications www.narrativemagazine.com PRIVATE COLLECTIONS: David Crosby Richard Brautigan estate Dennis Hopper estate Jim Harrison Dean Stockwell Dan Gerber Wendy Gerber Tim Allen 25
Hendrik Meijer Barry and Jo Berkus Alexander and Gabriela Schischlik Holly Merrill Antonia von Salm Arturo Peralta Ramos Richard Siegel PUBLIC COLLECTIONS: Grand Valley State University The Harwood Museum of Art De Pauw University Cornell Fine Arts Museum
Muskegon Museum of Art COMMISSIONS: Nobel Laureate, Derek Walcott U.S. Poet Laureate, W.S. Merwin U.S. Poet Laureate, Donald Hall U.S. Poet Laureate, Billy Collins David Crosby Dennis Hopper Antonia von Salm Arturo Peralta Ramos Richard Siegel
Jack Richard Smith: Portrait of Dennis and Henry Lee Hopper oil on canvas 84 X 60 inches 26
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Jack Richard Smith: Portrait of Ken O'Neil oil on copper plate 6 X 6 inches
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Jack Richard Smith: Conversation, Tara oil on copper plate 7 X 5 inches www.poetsandartists.com
Jack Richard Smith: Conversation, Ara oil on copper plate 7 X 5 inches www.poetsandartists.com
Gary Godbee
www.garygodbee.com
As my landscape paintings have continued to develop, I’ve found myself searching for even greater clarity in each composition I undertake. Over the last few years I’ve spent more time simply looking at everything around me, and when an idea forms I begin to look for something very specific that I can then capture and transform into the vision I already have in my mind. I’ve been looking for ways to get to the essence of each landscape, a search for a singularity, so to speak, that communicates my vision in the most unfiltered way possible.
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Corporate/Public Collections:
Representation:
Energy Capital Partners LMA, Toronto Chase Mellon Collection NJ Department of Labor Phillip Desind Collection Saint Barnabas Hospital, NJ, Dept. of Pediatrics Mary Whelan Collection, Washington DC Dept. of Military and Veterans Affairs/ Vet Memorial home Ethyl Corporation / Newmarket Corporation Boston University ER.Carpenter Company Pfizer, Inc.
Gallery Henoch www.galleryhenoch.com Studio 7 Art Gallery www.studio7artgallery.com
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Gary Godbee: Flemish Stripes oil on canvas 40”x30” 32 www.poetsandartists.com
Gary Godbee: Cape May Bay oil on wood panel 12" x 24"
Gary Godbee:Winter View of the Delaware River oil on canvas 36" x 48" 33 www.poetsandartists.com
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Gary Godbee: Lambertville Station Inn oil on canvas 40" x 30" www.poetsandartists.com
Interview: Reb Livingston Grace Cavalieri interviews Reb Livingston. Reb is the author of God Damsel (No Tell Books, 2010), Your Ten Favorite Words (Coconut Books, 2007), Pterodactyls Soar Again (Whole Coconut Chapbook Series, 2006), among other titles. Her work appears in literary magazines and her poem ”That’s Not Butter“ was published in MiPOesias 2005 (edited by Gabriel Gudding) and later selected for The Best American Poetry 2006 (Scribner). She has Creative Writing degrees from Bennington (MFA) and Carnegie Mellon (BA). Reb and Molly Arden edited No Tell Motel, an online poetry journal devoted to meaningful and discreet poetic encounters, and the The Bedside Guide to No Tell Motel anthology series.
GC: How has your own poetry benefited because you are a producer, presenter, publisher of others? RL: Being aware of the work my peers are producing is certainly educational and helpful. I sometimes come across poets who believe they’re doing something really unique or special, not realizing that others are working on similar projects. I know now never to assume my brilliant idea is mine alone. Also understanding the time, effort, energy and financial cost of publishing poetry makes me better appreciate those who do it—and hopefully behave better towards them.
GC. Why are you pulling the plug on your online magazine NO TELL MOTEL? How long were you in operation? RL: Over the past 7 years, No Tell Motel published over 2000 poems by almost 300 poets. The week of October 17 will be NTM's final week. Jill Alexander Essbaum, one of NTM's earliest contributors and the author of the magazine's most popular poem, has graciously agreed to be our final guest.
I’m closing down because it’s time. I’ve done what I set out to do: publish poetry that I believe is really wonderful and give the work and the authors the attention they deserve. Certainly I could continue doing this until the end of time; there will always be worthy poems and poets to publish. But lately I’m running low on energy and enthusiasm. I want to do new things. I want more time to devote to my own writing and other interests, which I’ve neglected. I want to break out of my old patterns and that’s difficult to do when I’m bogged down by so many old commitments.
GC: What kind of poetry did you hope NO TELL MOTEL would draw? What was your intention? RL: I hoped people would send poems I could be excited about – and they did.
GC: What is the weirdest submission you ever received? RL: I probably published quite a few of those weird submissions. I’m down with weird, not to be confused with inappropriate or aggressive or obnoxious. There were plenty of those, but there isn’t one single submission that stands out or was especially over-the-top. There was a hodge-podge of misogynistic poems, gratuitous penis poems and two page name-dropping cover letters. It all blurs together at this point. There were so many submissions.
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GC: Any anecdote you can share about your unique title: NO TELL MOTEL? RL: It was really challenging coming up with a name for the magazine. At first I was thinking up stuff like Skull Flicker. Luckily I had Molly Arden to talk me down from that ledge. When I was in 6th grade, I used my Christmas money to buy my younger sister and cousin t-shirts at a store called Heaven. The t-shirts said “No Tell Motel” with an illustration of a woman shhing with her finger to her mouth. At the time, I had no idea what it implied, but I liked the sound “No Tell Motel.” I still do.
GC: What do the labels “Language” poetry and “Narrative” poetry mean to you? RL: Not much. I’m not completely against labels, they can sometimes serve a useful purpose, but often they limit and constrain how I consider poems. Poetry (at least in the U.S.) is often described as this or that, two ends of a line but I don’t believe it’s as clear cut as that. There’s all kinds of strange and intriguing poems that don’t easily fit into any ready-made description or that fit into many seemingly conflicting descriptions. I would have a very difficult time categorizing most of the poems published in No Tell Motel. Maybe someone else could do it for me.
GC: What do you think brings a reader pleasure from a poem? RL: I think it depends on the reader. We bring expectations to a poem and then we make a judgment based on how those expectations were or weren’t met. Sometimes surprise brings pleasure. Or at least to those who like surprises.
GC: As a curator of contemporary poetry, where is the current surge of energy? RL: It’s everywhere. A few months back, Stephen Burt wrote at Harriet that he gives up, he can’t keep up with all the poetry being published and all the conversations surrounding poetry. Fifteen years ago it didn’t feel that way. I think what’s changed is not necessarily the amount being written, but our growing awareness of how broad and vast the world of poetry is. There is no single magazine that poets and poetry readers go to keep up with “poetry” – I know some folks might look to Poetry magazine like they’re some kind of center, but no, there’s too many poets and poems that aren’t being published or talked about there. I don’t know if it’s even possible for a single publication to encompass all the worthy and interesting things going on with poetry, so perhaps no publication should claim to do so.
Grace’s latest book is Millie’s Sunshine Tiki Villas (GOSS183/MIPOESIAS, 2011.) Her latest play is “Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory”(premiered NYC 2011.)
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Review by Grady Harp HANJO SCHMIDT
Painting Larger than Life yet About It
Lateral, 40" X 48", 2006 Time does not change us. It just unfolds us. Max Frisch
Hanjo Schmidt is an artist living in Stuttgart, Germany who came to his craft almost as a parturition. Schooled in both sculpture and architecture, he began his career as an architect, advanced to graphic design and then embraced his passion for painting. In his words, ‘Earlier in my life I worked as an architect. So for many years my drawings only required small movements of my hands. All the lines not much longer than some centimeters, then adding some small numbers or words for explanation. This work had been very exacting and sometimes stressful but this never showed in the body. Looking at me from behind, one could not see if I was drawing at all. I have always suffered from this contradiction: inner turmoil but outer calmness. Later I came to painting by chance and what attracted me most was that here, in the big format, the inner turmoil was accompanied by quick and mighty movements. The whole body was engaged in the process. Sometimes I even approached physical exhaustion. So this gave me an enormous satisfaction. Painting then was not only a thing invented in my brain and translated into one hand’s minute movements, but a thing about me and containing me as a whole.’
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Review by Grady Harp HANJO SCHMIDT
Since 1999 Schmidt has devoted himself to painting, observing and painting the bodies and faces of those from ages 25 to 35. But in 2009 he began to concentrate on the aging body, recognizing that this was likely a taboo topic. And while he painted some portraits on commission and selected certain older friends who had experienced life to be his nidus, he soon realized that he was carrying his own best model with him at all times – himself. Using the camera to photograph his own gravity-challenged corpus he came upon some interesting observations: the youthful body is about movement, speed and strength – all concentrated in the strong taut extremities, strong and beautiful and full of energy. And following these visual and kinetic-informed notes and in reference to his own body habitus, Schmidt, in his thoughtful and philosophical approach to the aging body, shares the following: ‘The old body is concentrated in the torso. Arms and legs become more and more weak and thin, ugly and immovable. The trunk increases in volume and weight and sometimes it’s difficult to balance and carry it through the day. Life seems to concentrate in that trunk, that container. Whereas arms and legs seem to be mere mechanical structures to move, to lift this container, the trunk itself gives the impression of a kind of balloon, an envelope filled with liquids of different kinds with a tendency to become shapeless. An object resembling the look of intestines, soft and full. And obviously being thin-skinned, it is very much in danger of being pierced and all that liquid running out. That liquid contains your life. So you have to shield it with a barrier of arms and legs.’
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Review by Grady Harp HANJO SCHMIDT In using his own body as the visual impetus for the major part of his current output, Hanjo Schmidt readily admits his aim is not to create imitations of what his outward configuration presents to the world, to him. Instead he defines these massive canvases as inner self-portraits, expressing what he experiences or feels or fears. His brush strokes are raw and crude and rapid, a bodily imprint of passion, leaving no time for pondering on delicious patterns or decorative effects. Yet for all the energy that is evident in his technique of applying paint to canvas there is always that volume of truth, of sensitivity to inner turmoil, of finding that endpoint of human drama that, stepping back from the painting, focuses the eye on inordinately acute attention to detail. ‘The way I look at people, faces in particular, is like observing them through a magnifying glass. So the outcome necessarily is magnified.’ And so we see in his large-scale images of heads a vibrant array of amplified palette. In Lateral, 40” X 48 “, 2006 and in Supermarket C, 40”X 48”, 2007 the skin tones are pulsating and creatively experimental, but the emphasis that is apparent is the inner struggle of these people. When Schmidt represents a full body, he paints it in the way our eyes traverse a figure – in blocks of sequestered vision that our brains must reassemble into a whole – most evident in Transport, 120” X 272”, 2009, in Threefold Black, 189” X 225”, 2009 (shown here with the artist in the foreground), and in Reverse, 35” X 63”, 2009. Schmidt’s observational powers and his near obsession with the impact of aging on the body can be as simple yet powerful as in Rosemary and Thyme, 40” X 51”, 2008 or full of underlying drama as in his homage to still life painting, Brueghel's Method, 48" X 51", 2007. And when he combines his observational skills with his pregnant imagination, paintings of erotic fantasy result as in Arms and Legs, 63” X 63”, 2011.
Brueghel's Method, 48" X 51", 2007
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Review by Grady Harp HANJO SCHMIDT Supermarket C, 40" X 48", 2007
What makes the art of Hanjo Schmidt so memorable is his abandon of the rituals and rules that so often escort the artist to the easel. As a man who came to painting later in life, he has incorporated the writings of great thinkers such as the Swiss playwright and novelist Max Frisch (1911 –1991), who in his creative works paid particular attention to issues of human identity, individuality, responsibility, irony, morality and political commitment. He also pays homage to the skills of the great German painter Adolph Menzel (1815–1905) who, like Schmidt, boldly painted his own body parts (Menzel used his elderly foot) as portraits; to the Spanish painter Joaquín Sorolla (1863 –1923) whose imaginative and highly original use of color involving the juxtaposition of colors that one would think might clash but which come together to form a harmonious whole appeals to Schmidt’s palette; and to his contemporary, the artist Johannes Grützke, with whom he shares the concept that ‘the brain doesn’t see what the eye sees – the brain orders the eye to see what it ought to see because the eye is the slave of the brain, not the other way around. The painter wants to paint what he sees and not what he ought to see.’ Studying the passionate paintings of Hanjo Schmidt may suggest a kinship with Lucien Freud, Francis Bacon, Jenny Saville, Eric Fischl, and yes, Johannes Grützke, but there is an important difference: the fragility of the human psyche, the fears and those private stories the brain stores are the source of Schmidt’s inspiration, and how he elects to place these before us is securely his own vocabulary. Encountering a painting by Hanjo Schmidt in an Exhibition at first startles the viewer, halting the ‘Mussorgsky promenade,’ fills the eyes with rich raw spectra of color that magnetically attracts attention to the disturbing private world within his people – a world probably not dissimilar to the internal fears and vulnerabilities in us all.
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Milan Nenezic nenezicmilan.blogspot.com
In my work, I explore the concept of a frozen moment representative of infinity and how different states of consciousness alter perception of space and time—what we call reality. Currently I’m interested in the merging of dreams and wakefulness as different states of mind into a new image that the observer can perceive as a new kind of reality. My goal is to let the observer project himself or his thoughts on a still image, to have him experience it through emotions until catharsis. www.saatchionline.com/MilanNenezic
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www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Oil-I-m-so-Beautiful/175492/122643
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www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Oil-I-m-so-Beautiful/175492/99416 43 www.poetsandartists.com
www.saatchionline.com/art/Painting-Oil-The-Moment-After/175492/99455 44 www.poetsandartists.com
Mundo Rivera
Self-Loathing I want to die in my rich cousin’s house in Baychester. Don’t want to be immortalized on the day of six o’clock curfew lashing. To the doting Judith Light, I want to die in your make-up artistry. Want to outlive La Botánica so I can conjure my own myths. If you are going to freeze me in time, give me a brand new spell, chisel it on tombstone. And don’t bury me in St. Raymond’s. And don’t assign a gravedigger that insists on speaking English because I’m too young, not prickly & deserving. I want to die digging for gold, feeling El Barrio & Sabrosura romanticism sink under my spleen. Don’t make me a Freestyle mixtape. And if a stereotype can be on TV, give me the blonde wig & axe to drop. And don’t consign me a Puerto Rican accent. I want to die in your last breath, articulate.
MUNDO RIVERA was born and raised in El Barrio. His poems have been published in The Acentos Review and Palabra, a Chicano and Latino literary journal based in Los Angeles. He is a four-time regional workshop participant at Cave Canem and has attended artistin-residence programs at Fundación Valparaiso in Mojacar, España and La Napoule Art Foundation near Cannes. He is currently working on a book of poems titled “Breaking El Cuco” and a novel loosely based on the New York City blackout of 1977. He is currently an Instructional coach at ACCIÓN Academy, a middle school in the Bronx.
I want to die without cultural regulations or house arrest. I want to hurdle, robed in flames, NYPD blue fence barriers on Puerto Rican Day plank march. Want to outlive the hand cam I hoist on my dick & the girls who G-string, Daisy Duke it out of the homeboy circles of Central Park, soaked in the self. If you’re going to lock me in ice, take off Jesus pendant, sagging Boss jeans. And I don’t need Air Jordans. I want to die naked, self-less, weightless as the wind. To MTV heavy metal, Webster’s Dictionary, I want to be immortalized in your sheet of otherness. Slickcombed & black-suited, gutted with jewels in mahogany casket with an English name. I want to outlive the dirty needle in my arm. Take me out. Take me to Disney Land. Don’t want to be immortalized the day Rikers became our monument. To the Young Lords perched on the Liberty, I want to freefall. I want to outlive the flag sold as hitched skirt, lighter, incendiary, street fighter, Welfare check. Want to outlive La Casita to see it become wildflowers to dust. I want to die, killing Ma for belching in public, using her bra as a purse. Speechless in my brother’s shadows, I want to be immortalized. Before I strike knife to flesh, I want to donate what they all poured into my blood. This blood.
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aaaaaaaaaaalice by Jennifer Karmin Reviewed by Steve Halle Flim Forum Press, 2010, 112 pages, ISBN: 978-0979088834
To review Jennifer Karminʼs aaaaaaaaaaalice as if it were merely a book of poems would be akin to reviewing sheet music for a jazz suite as though the totality of the musicʼs experience might be garnered from its notation alone: impossible. The book and its conceptual possibilities as a guideline for a three-voice, polyvocal performance piece are two parts of the same whole (which includes more parts than just these two). When I think about aaaaaaaaaaalice, I am reminded of Jeremy P. Bushnellʼs review of Juliana Spahrʼs This Connection of Everyone with Lungs, in which he describes Spahrʼs book as an “everything device” or “a structure, framework, or system which positions disparate information into a meaningful relationship.” That description is also apt for Karminʼs aaaaaaaaaaalice. The text of aaaaaaaaaaalice is divided into eleven cantos (eleven “aʼs” in the title, in case you did not count yet). Each canto is six pages long, divided into three spreads that span the verso and recto to create a discrete spread or unit of each canto. These spreads are further divided into three voices or parts, and these voices are denoted by using typography. On each verso of a given spread is a short, aphoristic section that is in bold typeface and a more typical-looking left-aligned poem in regular type that is typically encased by the boldface part. On each recto, italics are used for a projective part of the spread that uses repetition in the manner of Gertrude Steinʼs writing or Bruce Naumanʼs “Poem Pieces.” The typographic divisions hint at genres that are called upon to act within the concept of the textual whole: aphorism, observational lyric poem, collage (source texts include Lewis Carrollʼs Aliceʼs Adventures in Wonderland, hence the title), meditation, travelogue, etc. What aaaaaaaaaaalice does more than anything else is ask readers to decide how texts are representations of reality, but it only suggests possibilities. Extrapolating tenets of Heisenbergʼs Uncertainty Principle, aaaaaaaaaaalice and Karmin cannot offer anything definitive. More on that in a bit. Because of its construction and conceptuality, then, Karminʼs aaaaaaaaaaalice confronts readers rather than immediately engaging them, as her carefully chosen epigraph from Mei-mei Berssenbrugge suggests: “You can be trying to connect the experience of being lost with something external or physical, but we are really connecting what is experienced with what is experienced.” In experiencing aaaaaaaaaaalice, I register lostness in two ways. First, when I read the text straight through, I experience the observational travelogue occurring in the text, but the narrative of this experience is felt-sense and opaque, not told directly like an OʼHara poem “I did this, I did that.” In this way, I never am at home within the telling of the bookʼs narrative, but on the other hand, I experience the lostness that comes with being in a culture that is not my own—Karmin, in the endnotes, describes the book as a product of living in Japan and a solo journey through Taiwan, China, Tibet, Mongolia, Siberia, and Russia. Second, aaaaaaaaaaalice makes me feel lostness when I try to connect the experience of reading a book of
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poems or a single poem to the equivalent experience of engaging with aaaaaaaaaaalice. Textually, aaaaaaaaaaalice suggests alternate readings by typographic correspondences: I can read all the bold type together, I can read all the regular type together, I can read all the italics, I can read across a spread, etc. Other than the received ideology of engaging with a book, nothing is really directing me on how to engage with this book, which creates a sense of lostness as I construct readings based on my choices. In this way, the linear ideology of a bookʼs construction and typical use can be embraced or undermined, depending on what I do when reading it. Too, aaaaaaaaaaalice represents reality, or “the world” (in the Wittgensteinian sense), as a microcosm that implies a theory about the macrocosm (or vice versa). By typographically and conceptually casting lots for my attention and focus, aaaaaaaaaaalice is asking me to define how art operates as a representation of the real world. The book does this by making me choose to laminate its contents in a certain way and to focus on certain readings in a given moment, at the expense of an array of possible other readings. In other words, I can determine what is the most fundamental or essential way to experience the book, like reading across the spreads, but any lamination I choose is one of infinite possible laminations or ways of experiencing the text. Karmin is really challenging readers to think relationally and question: what is the relationship of a single word (microcosm) to the totality of aaaaaaaaaaalice (macrocosm) and how will a given reader experience that relationship? Aside from its conceptual and cosmological undertones, I find aaaaaaaaaaalice a calming, meditative book to read, once I became comfortable enough with it to stop feeling lostness and begin to embrace the play of the text. Of course, as I reach one possible ending, aaaaaaaaaaalice literally and playfully compels me to again refocus and re-laminate the experience. It literally hones in on itself. It is not a book of poems I read for lyric pyrotechnics or hyperbolic melopoeia; its tools are minimalism and understatement:
sandwiches taste better when they are cut diagonally feed the mayonnaise to the tuna
In that the book is a polyvocal score for three voices, it put me in mind of Anne Waldmanʼs performance piece “Skin Meat Bones,” inviting a different register for each word, just as Karmin does for each voice in aaaaaaaaaaalice. Making the connection between Waldmanʼs poem and Karminʼs aaaaaaaaaaalice is significant because both works serve as a reminder that poetry is meant to be performed and heard. While a great deal can be experienced by reading aaaaaaaaaaalice to oneʼs self or aloud, the best way to experience it is to grab two friends and stage an improvisatory performance. Having had the privilege to engage aaaaaaaaaaalice live, I can attest that it is in performance that Karminʼs macrocosmic score flies from the page to become an expansive, even Whitmanesque, improvisatory event: an embodiment of uncertainty. www.poetsandartists.com
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Sergio Gomez Gallery Owner/Director www.33contemporary.com
33 Contemporary Gallery is a Chicago-based fine arts gallery with over seven years of continuous exhibitions. Our purpose is to represent, promote and facilitate collaborations through the gallery, online presence, mobile media and to provide our clientele (experienced and novice) with a fine selection of art works. We represent local, national and international emerging and established artists working in various media. We provide diverse opportunities for self-exploration, enrichment and professional growth via collaborations with local and international artists, as well as other galleries and art institutions.
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Interview
What is the gallery’s approach to portraiture? For the last seven years, we have been organizing the National Self Portrait Exhibition as a way to document the long tradition of artists’ self-portraits. We accept submissions in any media and in all ranges of styles. A jury process is done to select each year's exhibition. What percentage of works featured in the gallery are portraits? Besides the Annual National Self Portrait show, regular exhibitions vary from month to month and its hard to come up with a percentage figure. We try to really promote the self portrait show before, during and after the gallery exhibition to maximize its exposure. We show a good mix of figurative and abstract work year round. Tell us about the self-portrait yearly feature in your gallery and any interesting aspects of the show. In celebration of the 7th anniversary of the National Self-Portrait Exhibition and 33 Contemporary Gallery (formerly known as 33 Collective Gallery), this year's exhibition was the largest one to date. 33 Contemporary Gallery in collaboration with the Zhou B. Art Center organized the show in the 12,000+ sq. ft. first floor of the Zhou B Art Center. The entire first floor of the Zhou B. Art Center became a national laboratory for the exploration and visual representation of the "self." This exhibition was entirely devoted to different aspects of self-awareness, individual perception and identity. It included works ranging from representational and non-representational to conceptual ideas of the self. It also featured works in a variety of media. Every year, the exhibition goes online as well and it’s kept online indefinitely. To date, we have collected 746 contemporary self-portraits online by artists nationwide. Our goal is to achieve 1,000 portraits online. This year's exhibition comprised of 146 works and it featured audio tours with commentaries on 90% of the works in the exhibition. Another aspect to note is that we are working to include this year's exhibition in our iPhone App that is in the development process right now and we hope to launch it later this fall.
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a
What is the best approach for a portrait artist to be included in your gallery? Artists can sign up on our website to receive our monthly email campaigns. We use that method to publicize our annual call for self portraits. What other works is your gallery interested in? 33 Contemporary Gallery is interested in a wide range of styles and mediums from abstraction to representation. I look for emerging and established artists that fit who we are as a gallery. Character of the artist is as important for me as the work itself. 33 Contemporary Gallery is located on the first floor of the Zhou B. Art Center. The newly remodeled 80,000 sq. ft. building in Chicago’s Bridgeport neighborhood houses a vibrant mix of galleries, artist studios, and other art related businesses.
33 CONTEMPORARY GALLERY: Marisa Andropolis If Looks Could Kill - oil on canvas 48”x36”
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33 CONTEMPORARY GALLERY Mary Ellen Crotea CLOSE Assemblage/plastic bottle caps 8 ft x 7 ft x 4 in.
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33 CONTEMPORARY GALLERY: Jessica Freudenberg - .. and I want it NOW! oil on panel 48”x36”x2” 52 www.poetsandartists.com
Teresa Elliott www.teresa-elliott.com
Collectors: Nolan Ryan Julie Powell  (Julie & Julia) EOG Resources, Inc.
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My work deals with the notion of what is concealed and revealed through the human form. Like a string hanging out of drawer, we are left to untangle the seemingly endless mass inside. The paintings I create give a glimpse of what lies beneath which is far more interesting than what is expressed externally. 54 www.poetsandartists.com
Teresa Elliott: Deliverance oil on canvas 36�x36�
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Teresa Elliott: Looking West oil on canvas 40”x30”
Teresa Elliott: Pink oil on canvas 36”x30” 57 www.poetsandartists.com
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Teresa Elliott: Ailidh oil on canvas 30”x 20” www.poetsandartists.com
Teresa Elliott: Youth oil on canvas 24”x 24”
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Teresa Elliott: thumbnail image of Andromeda oil on canvas 24�x36�
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Tun Ping Wang
www.tunpingwang.com I enjoy depicting the beauty of human faces in my art through a realistic approach. I work on larger dimensions to reinforce the focus on the faces as well as to provide relatively stronger visual impacts to the viewers.Â
Collectors: Howard Tullman, Chicago, IL
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Tun Ping Wang: Undefined pastel on paper 60" x 40" www.poetsandartists.com
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Tun Ping Wang: Obscure pastel on paper 60" x 40" www.poetsandartists.com
Tun Ping Wang: Undefined 2 pastel on paper 60" x 40"
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Greg Santos We Laughed Like Drains We puffed up our chests and strutted. We talked about our hazy futures and mottled pasts. We read between the lines and giggled like schoolgirls. Our sides were aching so much tears cursed our faces. We kept laughing even when it stopped being funny. We couldn’t shake off the eternal fatigue in our bones. Can’t we stay like this forever?
Portrait Study #2
Greg Santos is the author of The Emperor’s Sofa (DC Books, 2010). He is the poetry editor of pax americana and is on the editorial board of the Paris-based journal, Upstairs at Duroc.
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Angela Hardy
www.angelahardyart.com
Study #1 "Big Blue"
Study #5 "Pretty Bird"
Study #2 "Poetic Merge"
Study #6 "Second-To-Last Shot"
Study #3 "Hot Date With Ingres"
Study #7 "Ripple Effect"
Study #4 "2BZ4UQT"
Study #8 "NTSC-Never Twice The...”
All images are 6X6" acrylic on panel, "At Arms Length Series”
Canadian artist Angela Hardy's paintings evolve constantly. She has a passion for faces - always looking for models with unique style, attitude and a hint of humor. Whether she photographs models in her studio or searches through friend's online albums to find that person of interest, she's always hunting for that face to inspire her art. Hardy received a BFA from NSCAD, Halifax, NS and a Visual Arts Diploma from CNA, Stephenville, NL. She is also in private collections in both Europe and North America, including the collections of Howard Tullman and Bob Buckingham. Her work has been seen in a number of publications and can be viewed and purchased online.
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How do you approach portraiture in your work? My approach to portraiture can vary greatly depending on the project, but the premise behind it is always the same. First I need to find a face to inspire me - someone who has that unidentifiable quality which exactly fits my current theme. I try to express something fun and whimsical about the person through my use of vivid color, unconventional composition and visually distinct brushwork. Do you prefer a live model versus photography? Elaborate. I have a personal preference for using photography. It allows me to play much more with dramatic lighting, poses, costumes and bold expressions. How do you choose your subjects for the "At Arms Length" series? My "At Arms Length" series of 6x6'' panels are a welcome diversion to the larger bodies of works that I do. The series is based on the idea of the 'one-armed profile photo' that we often see on social networks, taken with their phone cameras. We have opened a whole new world of how we document and display ourselves. Sometimes I photograph the subjects myself, while other times I find and collect images via these social network sites. With permission, people are willing to open their online albums to me, allowing me to choose them for my subject. Often when trolling for these images and seeing people’s visual stories, I get wonderful ideas for other paintings. Do you manipulate the photos before you get to work on the portrait? I crop and modify images with applications like Photoshop and even sometimes just with phone apps. My iPhone is often my most used tool when taking, looking for, and manipulating images to suit my painting style or explore color choices. Who is your ideal subject? Basically my ideal subject is someone who portrays honesty, confidence and humor - freely expressing themselves without fear. A strong, positive person is like a magnet to me, they have no problem showing the world who they are or what they want to be. I love painting these types of people because I think we should express who we are, instead of hiding our diverse and fun nature. www.poetsandartists.com
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Angela Hardy: Study #1 Big Blue 6”X6" acrylic on panel, "At Arms Length Series”
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Angela Hardy: Study #5 Pretty Bird 6”X6" acrylic on panel, "At Arms Length Series”
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Angela Hardy: Study #8 NTSC-Never Twice The Same Color 6”X6" acrylic on panel, "At Arms Length Series”
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Grace Cavalieri By Any Light I can find myself complete, here or anywhere because there’s something I wish for. I’m running, rowing, swimming, moving toward it. You think I’m just sitting still, don’t you? You think I’m vacant, just sitting here. Oh no. I have something to say. And just look how many people in the universe there are to tell. I can wake up the beauty in language before it stops. I can free it from sadness. I can paint the world in colors. I am not trapped inside this body. There are very few problems I don’t know about although, I’m sure not one will be what I expect. Maybe you think I’m too young to have a “back story.” Maybe nothing was “long ago,” but I am the same as you, because something lifted me out of sleep today. Something needed me; I woke up with new things to feel. So don’t take me for granted. I’m an artist just like you. That means that I am doomed to create and I’m 100% alive. Portrait Study #4
Grace Cavalieri is the author of several books of poetry and staged plays. She’s collaborated on two produced operas. She founded “The Poet and the Poem” on public radio, and now produces the series from the Library of Congress, in its 34th year on-air. Anna Nicole:Poems (GOSS183) received a Paterson literary Award for Excellence. 2009. A play based on the book opens in NYC August 2011 “Anna Nicole: Blonde Glory.” Her 2004 book What I Would Do For Love: Poems in the Voice of Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) was finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize. Her play based on this, “Hyena in Petticoats,” received its premiere reading at NYC Public Library, 2007. The play “Quilting the Sun” was presented at the Smithsonian in 2005, and she received a key to the city at Greensville. Water on the Sun won the Bordighera Poetry Award and was on the Pen Center Best Books List, 2006. She has just co-written and edited two (German and Italian) The Poet’s Cookbook. GOSS183 published Grace’s chapbook Navy Wife in 2010. 71 www.poetsandartists.com
Agnes Preszler was born in 1961 in Budapest, where in 1988 she obtained the ITA (Information Technology Architect) degree at the Financial and Computistic Academy of Budapest. In Hungary she worked in computer centers and at the Hungarian Television of State. In 1990 she married an Italian citizen and since then she has lived in Veroli (Lazio), 80 km from Rome. She is an art-lover and has written a great number of articles about exhibitions and other cultural events. Her artistic activity began in 2003 with digital painting; later she learned the traditional techniques like pencil, charcoal, pastel drawing, oil and acrylic painting. She is a self-taught painter, interested, above all, in realist portraiture. Her works are published in a large number of online galleries.
Agnes Preszler www.pagnes.tk
How do you approach portraiture in your work?
Do you prefer a live model versus photography?
I am really happy and excited when I can paint a
Yes I prefer live models, but unfortunately it is difficult
portrait. I am absolutely fascinated by the faces and I
to find people to do the sitting so often I end up taking
want to say the truth. I am not interested in making
a photo and working from reference. I used to do free
glamour pictures. Some of my models have asked me:
10 minutes pencil portraits in order to challenge myself
make me pretty, do not paint the wrinkles, and so on. I
and to improve my skills. I really enjoy when people sit
always say: I want to paint you as you are, don't be
for a portrait, I also talk to them, it is an interesting
afraid. If I change things that characterize your face, it
experience. It's a simple, first hand, authentic relation
won't be you any more. I think that there is beauty in
with the public, that you can't have with an
every person, inner and outer, some less some more,
photograph.
it's my task to put it on the canvas. I also want to paint or draw every kind of people, of various age, skin color, character, manifesting a wide range of emotions, including the negative ones. "Homo sum, humani nihil a me alienum puto" said a Latin playwright (I am human, I consider nothing human alien to me). 72 www.poetsandartists.com
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Agnes Preszler: Portrait Study #2 pastels on cardboard, 30x45cm www.poetsandartists.com
Janelle McKain
www.surrealvisions.com
Born and raised in North Platte, Nebraska, USA, McKain has a Bachelor’s degree in K-12 Art Education with an endorsement in Gifted Education from Kearney State College, plus 36 post graduate hours. She has been teaching art for the past 30 years in public education. Currently, she is Department Chair and teaches Drawing, Advanced Drawing and Painting at Millard South High School in Omaha, NE.
How do you approach portraiture in your work? I often find inspiration from the human face, the eyes especially. I am intrigued with any face (usually female) that elicits a sense of mystery and more often, beautiful faces full of expression. My interpretation of what is beautiful, however, may differ from others. I work from a photograph best. I find it helpful to see the light and values in a photograph (and it doesn’t move around and ask questions). I prefer more than one viewpoint of the face. I generally take my own photos but, of course, if this is not possible, I always ask for permission to use a photo or I work from stock images. I never grid a reference photo, I feel it loses the fluidity of personal interpretation and artistic expression; it is used only as a reference. The reference photo is one part of an entire composition, and therefore does not need to be an exact duplicate. I don’t want that kind of restriction on my imagery. www.poetsandartists.com
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Janelle McKain: Portrait Study #3 graphite on paper 10 x12 inches 75 www.poetsandartists.com
Broc Hankins
www.brochankins.com
How do you approach portraiture in your work? I randomly come up with ideas for paintings whether at a concert, driving in the car or watching my son discover the world around him. Sometimes I'll take inspiration from some of the artists that inspired me to become a painter. I try to capture that vision with a camera or at least very close to that. Then I sort through all of the photos and pick the ones that represent that vision. I like to stretch my own canvas if I have the time as I feel this is the beginning of the painting process and gets me in the frame of mind that I need to be in to start a painting. I'll do a thin wash to start the painting to erase the stark whiteness of the canvas, then once that's dry I'll start applying paint.
Do you prefer a live model versus photography? I have a full time job and a 2-year old son so this limits me to work from photographs just a few hours a night. I like to paint from a model when I get the chance but I’m not a very efficient painter so when I get the chance to paint from a model, I usually have to do a lot of the final rendering from photos.
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Broc Hankins: Study #3 oil on canvas 24” x 18” 77 www.poetsandartists.com
Matt Calcavecchia www.mattcalcavecchia.com
How do you approach portraiture in your work?
photographs, but working from photography offers different opportunities than the live model. I am
I recognize that I am a portrait artist but I don’t think much about portraiture when I begin work. I am
caught up in how we use our memories to recreate past experiences and moments. Photography is the
much more interested contemplating human nature and our experience of time and remembering, rather
best source material for this work as it offers opportunities that a live model cannot; facial
than representing a “true identity” of the subject. The
expressions and physicality that a live model would
focus is really on raising awareness in the viewer about their own experience.
not be able to sustain. For most people, photographs are directly connected to our memories. When we
Do you prefer a live model versus photography?
view an old photograph, we have a general sense of the day’s activities, the people who were there,
Elaborate.
where we were and what was said, we even
It isn’t that one is preferable to the other. I enjoy
remember taking and posing for the photograph but in truth are unable to recall a linear, detailed memory
working with live models and find potential for more visual depth in the resulting work than what I get from
of the entire day. There is a lot of material in that for me to draw upon in making paintings.
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Matt Calcavecchia: Portrait Study #7 Shocka-Booya (watercolor on paper; cut and adhered to painted wood panel www.poetsandartists.com
April Carter Grant Raised in rural Illinois and now based in Los Angeles, April Carter Grant is a web entrepreneur and consultant who helps small businesses launch.
www.sugarsock.com
How do you approach portraiture? Whether painting traditionally or digitally, I always start with large color blocks and points of contrast, then work toward filling in the details. Sometimes, if I am having trouble with certain shapes, I will use a grid, but I don't trace or transfer anything. I generally work very loosely and keep finished pieces active and loose in hopes of capturing a feeling with the portrait rather than exact realism.
Do you prefer live model versus photography? Generally, I prefer the working with a live model, because there is a certain pressure that comes with it. A photo can stare at you forever and not expect anything, but a living, breathing subject can give the impression of having expectations for your time. I like to work under pressure.
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April Carter-Grant: Portrait Study #7 digital art
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Angelique Moselle Price eliq.redbubble.com Angelique Moselle Price is an artist based out of Nashville, Tennessee. Creating art about people and their inspirational traits, she captures the essence of what makes humanity interesting and unique. She also creates characters out of her imagination that play out ideals and dreams she has for herself and others. Furthermore, she works in abstract concepts challenging the viewer to access their own connection to her work through feeling. Angelique exhibits her originals, prints and clothing all over the world. She has been published in various art magazines including PoetsArtists, Tattoos for Women, International Tattoo, and American Art Collector. She has been featured various times on Juxtapoz, Red Bubble, Barebrush and Deviant Art websites and she won the artist website competition for Mosaicglobe.com.
How do you approach portraiture in your work? I only create a portrait if I am inspired to do so. There must be something about the individual that intrigues me. Once that spark has occurred, I begin my internal process of what I want the image to communicate about that person. Sometimes I have a full grasp on the individual's personality and other times, they are a mystery that reveals itself as I draw. Do you prefer a live model versus photography? I prefer to work from photographs. I like to be alone when I work and I enjoy the finality of a photograph. It doesn't talk or move and I feel I can get a more accurate work of art from it. I study photos for hours at a time, sometimes looking at the same photo for months before I feel the push to draw it. That freedom does not exist with a live model, although working with live models definitely has its own special charms. I end up with a totally different style when I am working with a live model. 82 www.poetsandartists.com
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Angelique Moselle Price: Portrait Study #8"Howard Tullman" mixed media on birch 9�x12� www.poetsandartists.com
Ira Upin
www.iraupin.com
How do you approach portraiture in your work?
Do you prefer a live model versus photography?
Because of the rendered style of my work, the images of people in my work are usually identifiable and
I do use models because 90% of the photos I use I take myself. But since I like to talk a lot when I'm with
recognizable, assuming the viewer knows that person. However, I am first and foremost a narrative painter, a
someone, a model in the studio when I'm painting would be a distraction. The way I paint requires total
story teller. In some cases the subjects in my works
concentration and physical discipline so working from
inspire and motivate the stories but at other times they serve only as actors in a play of my design. I am
photographs allows me the solitude I need to be able to focus.
interested in human dynamics, whether they are political, social, or emotional. Identifying and expressing those dynamics in a way that captures the viewers’ attention is my main goal as an artist.
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Ira Upin: Portrait Study #8 Chapter 9 - "How‌Tu‌" (Strong Man Series)oil on panel 36 x 36 inches
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Joshua Gray The Tactile Tease Hardly an angel looks Like her. The way she turns Her eyes to the surprise of fingertips Gently stroking her Neck, wanting Those tactile tips to be assertive, Embrace her Desires the way a tame bear tries To shake loose those fires that loom inside Her bosom: She makes sure she looks The part, her lush lips painted to go With that red wrap she bought at last, To support her long black hair. She points us To her find by raising her brows, in case we are blind To the beauty of the black bathing suit She threw on to impress the woman whose feminine fingers now possess her.
Portrait Study #3
Joshua Gray lives in Takoma Park, MD with his wife and two boys. He is the DC Poetry Examiner at Examiner.com and an occasional guest blogger at 32poems.com. www.joshuagraynow.com
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Grady Harp Look at me looking away From all that passing years have painted on this face these eyes this crown of thinnest gray, once was a glory, now falls on my hands as I touch my head. I see my creped eyes searching in a mirror wondering from where the brown islands painted my cheeks my nose, no anchor, to lips that have been lusted are now but creased lines or rhytides as the man on TV called them. I descend and melt and disappear. Glasses and special shoes and medicines and artifice glue me together.
She didn’t see me her privacy and public considerations, judgments. Her concerns, and not mine. I see only the diva preparing for the stage, an old theater of lapsed time, not hearing the applause from the hearts of her children. Curtain Call! Portrait Study #5
Grady Harp expresses his involvement in the arts as an art and poetry reviewer for PoetsArtists and for various Internet sites and in other media. He is the art historian for The Art of Man Quarterly Journal and has contributed Forewords and Introductions for museums catalogues and books such as the recent Powerfully Beautiful and 100 Artists of the Male Figure. His poetry has been published in the collection War Songs, in Vietnam: Reflexes and Reflections, 50/50: Words and Images for Didi MenĂŠndez, Poetry: The First 10 Years of the New Millennium, and in the Self Portrait with Judith Peck collaboration issue of PoetsArtists (2011). He lives near Los Angeles 87 www.poetsandartists.com
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