The King of Marigold - Mixed Media on Canvas

 

Here is a (mostly) finished mixed media piece featuring my December 2010 poem The King of Marigold. All paper materials were sourced from thrifted 1960s and 1970s science textbooks and indoor decor and plant magazines. I typed the poem with a typewriter, scanned, and reprinted it on several kinds of thrifted paper before settling on this one. I am still toying with the idea of adding some thunderclouds in the background or a frame element to the "window" of the room into which the viewer is peering. This one conjures a vivid memory of lying in the cocoon of my bed in my studio apartment while the world sped past on Speer Boulevard. 

Everything Was Right - Mixed Media on Canvas

I recently completed another mixed media interpretation of a 2009 poem of mine entitled "Everything Was Right". The materials were sourced from used books: the anatomical illustrations were found in a badass textbook circa 1964, and the majority of the greenery came from a 1970s volume simply entitled Ferns. 

I typed the poem on a thrifted typewriter before enlarging and printing onto aged (thrifted!) paper. I upgraded my tools to cut with more precision and learned to work faster to lay everything down. Making art is solitary but fulfilling. I plan to complete 1-2 more of these in time for them to be shown in my studio's gallery group show in November, and have my sights on a newer poem for one. I also find the reincarnation of these old works to be quite full-circle. 

A Deceptive Tonic - Mixed Media on Canvas

I have never been compelled to get up at a poetry reading and present my writing as a live performance.  I have always drawn more parallels to the visual arts, since my feelings and thoughts tend to present themselves in the format of mental images, places, or memories (some not my own). I have been greatly influenced by the surrealist and transcendentalist movements, especially in my earlier writing. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to take part in a group art show at my studio workspace, a community of 80 artists sharing the space of two industrial warehouses in Denver. Collage immediately came to mind as a medium for my poetry to be displayed rather than performed, with the added bonus of conferring some of the imagery that I see in my mind when writing. 

I chose a piece I wrote back in 2009 entitled "A Deceptive Tonic", partly for it's brevity and stichic stanza format, and partly for it's imagery and the double meaning it contains: the word tonic can mean the root chord in tonal music and the resolution of most progressions. A tonic can also be defined as a medicinal substance to restore health. In both instances, the word can apply to the experience about which I was writing (love/loss). In regards to musical meaning, the progression was deceptive and failed to resolve pleasantly in the way the ear expected. And for the medicinal meaning, the tonic turned out to be bitter and poisonous instead of life-giving. 

My intention is to present more of my writing in this format in the future, and improve my visual presentation in the process. 

Ailanthus Altissima

We know our place 

as conjurors of levity 

it's misfits together

striving for insanity and kissing 

every comet in the velvet veil

enduring effigies of rose onyx 

in a Victorian menagerie 

My heart had only been broken 

so I could know you

I have no fear of my mind or my talent

I forge a path through the backyard

invaded and undone by Ailanthus altissima

allowing a lashing from the overgrowth on my skin 

knowing this isn't all that we are
knowing that my parents raised me for love
knowing this city is a twirling jewel 

in her wisdom she blesses us and 

we raise her up

this city of cosmic strength

this hub of joy

a timeless beauty

28 April 2023

For One I Loved Before I Knew Him

In memory of youth and inexperience
I swing a creaking door to a vacant room
In my mind's eye, in this perfect house 
the blazing canopy of sunset spooks me

I am boxed in with the weight of my jealousy
my longing and my inability to consider the now
instead of the then and the will be
not to mention the might and the should

In this maze of evening, I am 

captivated by the image of your face

with which I have met only five times

It is familiar, kind, and lovelier than I

Only with the recognition of that
which now I know now to be love
can I inhale both 

cool and deep

This dawning assuages and startles me
my knees wobbly weak
and my lips on yours

but only in my mind