You vs. Yourself: Self-Portraits for Poets

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Ada Hoffman, Alicia Savage, art projects, art teachers, Arts& Academe, Baltimore Review, Cave Canem, Dos Gatos Press, dVerse Poet's pub, Easel and Me blog, Fishouse, Frances Borzello, Liminality, Lisa Russ Spaar, Mirror Mirror: Self Portraits by Women Artists, National Portrait Gallery, poetry lab, poetry prompt, Project Fairytale, Reginald Harris, Seeing Ourselves: Women's Self Portraits, self portrait art projects, Self Portrait Poetry anthology, Self Portrait Project in Haiti, selfie, Silver Birch Press, The Chronicle of Higher Education, the Incredible Art blog, The Poetry Foundation, Tracy K Smith, vinyl window portraits, Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry, women artists, Women Artists at the Easel

Self Portrait, Undated by Vivian Maier

THE ART-SIDE

There has been a long tradition of self-portraiture in art, especially amongst women artists, who use it as a way of coming to a better understanding of oneself (as a temporary break into “other”), often adding symbolic imagery or stylized elements to their renderings.

For a thorough education in the subject, refer to Frances Borzello’s gorgeous book Seeing Ourselves: Women’s Self Portraits, which covers eight centuries of “lady” painters and photographers and also includes an interesting discussion on 20th century adaptations for performance and new media.

For more of a crash-course style intro, see the annotated galleries at Women Artists at the Easel& Mirror Mirror: Self Portraits by Women Artists.

There is also an eclectic mix of historic and contemporary offerings at the Easel and Me blog.

 

If you’d like to try your hand at an artsy but less traditional self-portrait, plow through some of the lessons at the Incredible Art blog. Created for art teachers, but fun for adult dabblers as well, choose from vinyl window portraits, bobblehead selfies, collage silhouettes, scratchboard etching, Matisse inspired cut paper portraits and more.

A few more stray links that I like: The Self Portrait Project in Haiti and Alicia Savage’s Project Fairytale Self-Portraits.

POETIC MUSINGS

Now on to the word-ly bit!  For the the low-down on poetic self portraiture,  check out Lisa Russ Spaar’s Arts& Academe post at the Chronicle of Higher Education–a quick intro to the genre with examples from a handful of emerging poets.

If you want the expanded version (yes! please), pick up a copy of Wingbeats: Exercises & Practice in Poetry (the original) and turn to her lesson on pgs. 277-283.

Here you will find three multi-step exercises on tackling self-portrayal in poems, including the persona poem and the Self- Portrait as OBJECT format.

There are, of course, more example poems packed into the lesson and a handy list of contemporary poems for further reference. Dverse has a few of the suggestions listed here up on their site along with a more open prompt.

The Poetry Foundation also has a nice offering of old& new poems.

 

For those craving more, Silver Birch Press has a meaty anthology with poems from 67 scribes from all over the globe.

Other poems I’ve gleaned from the net (for your use as models):

Self Portrait as Bilbo Baggins from Liminality

Self Portrait as the Letter Y at Fishouse

Self Portrait as My Father’s Son at Baltimore Review

 

Have a favorite self-portrait poem, painting or photo?  Shoot us a link in the comments. We love hearing from you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Poetry Prompt: Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando

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Aerialist, Black Venus, circus performers, Degas, ekphrastic poems, high flying, impressionist, La Femme Canon, Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando, mixed-race women, National Gallery, poetry prompt, poetry prompts, Sitting with Art, strong women, Syliva Plath, Victoria Hallerman, writing prompts

Miss La La at the Cirque Fernando (1879)–Degas, oil on canvas

 

Degas’ only painting of the circus, repeatedly called “one of his most surprising canvases” by biographers, it is now housed at the National Gallery in London. Find out more about the unique artwork and the mysterious mixed-race aerialist here.

Two poems for additional inspiration:

Aerialist by Syliva Plath

Aerialist by Victoria Hallerman

Share your own high-flying poems in the comments!

 

 

 

Sitting with Art #2

Tags

art-inspired writing paths, contemporary art, Elaine Clayton, fiction experiments, Little Women series, picture study, poetry lab, sculptor, Sitting with Art, slow writing, Valerie Hadida, women artists, writing exercises

Valérie Hadida is a contemporary French sculptor & painter, working mainly in Bronze & clay.  This set of sculptures is from Les “petites bonnes femmes”/ The Little Women series, which has been described by critics as a “poetic encounter….[meant] to make us travel the path of women from adolescence to maturity and through the various emotions and moods that drive these generations of women.”

Trained at l’Ecole d’arts plastiques et publicité de la ville de Paris (EMSAT) and employed in the studio of Marielle POLSKA for 6 years, a character designer for several animated features and winner of the Paul Ricard Foundation Prize in 1991, she has been EXHIBITED in galleries since 1990.

Showing currently at @GalryVerneuil this January.

 

 

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May her art inspire your writing path for the week!

New! Sitting with Art

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Brandywine School, By the Evening Fire, Charlotte Mason, Collier's, ekphrastic poems, Elizabeth Shippen Green, fiction experiments, flash fiction, From the Women's Canon, Girls at the Beach, Harper's Bazaar, Howard Pyle, Katherine Pyle, labwork, Looking at Art, Love at First Sight, Mermaid Mother & Child, picture study, poetry lab, prose hybrids, Red Rose Girls, Sarah S. Stilwell-Weber, Saturday Evening Post, Scribner's, Sitting with Art, SSS, The Golden Age of SciFi, women artists

 

 

 

 

 

Starting this week, we will take a more meditative approach in our lab work for awhile, trying on something called “Sitting with Art,” aka “picture study,” in which we will take a very small sample of a given artist’s work and contemplate its fruits.  Or as the late educational reformer Charlotte Mason describes it, we will

 open [our] eyes and minds to appreciate the masterpieces of pictorial art, to lead…from mere fondness for a pretty picture which pleases the senses up to honest love and discriminating admiration for what is truly beautiful – a love and admiration which are the response of heart and intellect to the appeal addressed to them through the senses by all great works of art.

 

Go cut ‘n paste style into a journal, an index card flipbook, or onto real picture paper. Tape to a wall above the computer or sink or just use a screensaver or a virtual album on your phone.  The point is to find some way to live with the chosen artwork for the week, with each piece getting as much “face-time” as possible.

For as Mason reminds us, (in speaking of children, but it is as equally applicable to adults), with such a close study

we cannot measure the influence that one or another artist has upon the child’s sense of beauty, upon his power of seeing, as in a picture, the common sights of life; he is enriched more than we know in having really looked at even a single picture.

 

Now then! Long intro, short, this week’s artist is a lesser-known “Golden Age” artist/illustrator self-styled as “SSS” with a portfolio as interesting as her bio:

 

Sarah S. Stilwell-Weber (1878-1939) was a “Golden Age” Illustrator as much loved for her sumptuous Collier‘s magazine covers as her intimate portraits of women & children.

A less-recognized student of the “Brandywine School” of Howard Pyle, she also worked with his sister Katherine Pyle, in bringing to life Katherine’s writings and poetry in the pages of Harper’s Bazaar, Scribners and the Saturday Evening Post in the early 1900s.

Some dubbed her work “mere kiddie covers” for her extensive use of small children engaged in imaginative play for most of the magazines’ covers.

But they did not know her larger body of work, or that she was also heavily influenced by the style choices of fellow female “Brandywine” illustrators like Elizabeth Shippden Green–one of the Red Rose girls–who like the rest of that trio was a part of the “New Woman” movement that bleed into art as a risingly educated class of women entered the workforce.

Paintings such as Stilwell’s “Woman with Leopards” & “Love at First Sight” were as highly skilled as any of the male pre-Raphaelite’ romantic masterpieces, and certainly worthy of praise beyond just their strength in selling magazines.  Alas, that is another story…..onward to the art!!!

 

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Some helpful handouts for this exercise & going forward:

Perspectives in Writing Ekphrastic Poems

Looking at Art

 

The goal with this batch of labwork is to enrich both our language and senses, as well as to transfer the discipline gained in focused visual analysis to building new structures in our writing.

 

Just a few more interesting thoughts on ekphrastic poetry from Anne Marie Esposito of Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute:

 

1.Poetry and art can often influence or challenge our perceptions and prejudices, forcing us to re–examine and re–evaluate our opinions, values, and attitudes.

2.Poetry and art can help us to better understand the significance of place and time when evaluating or interpreting a literary work.

3.Poetry, like art, must be read, and reread, for both meaning and appreciation. The length of a line and the choice of a word can alter meaning just as easily as the stroke of a brush and the use of color.

 

Essential Questions

 

1.Is a work of art a representation of the subject or the artist’s interpretation of what is already an individual viewpoint? (Representation of a representation)

2.How can a poetic response to work of art be a fuller representation of a subject than the work of art is?

3.How can “reading” a work of art and/or poem challenge our perceptions and prejudices about people, objects, and personal/societal beliefs or values?

4.How does the length of a line, the choice of a word, and the clustering of details or images contribute to a poem’s meaning and effectiveness?

 

Just, please, do not feel pressured by these last thoughts to writing only poetry.  Move your narratives out into prose, into hybrids, anywhere the muse might lead.  Have fun and send along some things you are adding to your notebooks.

 

POETRY LAB: Dark Subjects Made Bright

Tags

Amelia's Magazine, Barbie, Colossal, Cristian Grossi, dark things made bright, Denise Duhamel, Diane Lockward, dVerse Poet's pub, Elsa Mora, fusion of opposites poem, Hello Kitty, Hollie Cook, Kittenchops, list poems, Look Listen Write, Michael Jackson, My Work, papercut art, Paw Powers Activate, poetry lab, poetry writing workshop, pop culture, Postman, Samuel Peralta, Sandra Faulkner, Slave to the Rhythm, The Crafty Poet, Things Every Woman Should Have In Her Closet, women's magazines, women's poetry, works in progress, Yulia Brodskaya

As my creative forces are converging on poetry once again,  I’m actually trying out a technique used in middle school workshops called “Look, Listen, Write“, but with a twist from Diane Lockward’s The Crafty Poet and a side of Samuel Peralta’s dverse Poet’s Pub blog.

In TCP, Diane presents an exercise called “The Fusion of Opposites Poem” (p. 163) that asks one to construct a scene based on lines built on opposites, such as quiet/noisy, hot/cold, bright/dark. She encourages working towards a prose poem, but I wanted to play with list poems as in Peralta’s forms exercise (linked above).

 

 

Also, I wanted to take something poppish (pop culture-based) and pair it with deeper issues facing women more like Duhamel’s Barbie poems or Sandra Faulkner’s Hello Kitty series.

Applying the middle school workshop model:

LOOKING

I pulled artwork from Colossal, Amelia’s Magazine and KittenChops that had women and this dark vs. bright theme…..

Cristian Grossi

Cristian Grossi

Cristian Grossi

Yulia Brodskaya

Yulia Brodskaya

Elsa Mora

Elsa Mora

Seattle Children’s Surgery mural by KittenChops

Paw Powers Activate–Kittenchops

Kittenchops

**Additional portfolio images here: Elsa, Yulia, Cristianand Zaara aka Kittenchops

and paired it with….

LISTENING

to various combinations of these (2) tracks,  which both layer pop music over deeper cultural issues facing women  [*funny how they give such different ‘feels’ to the art]

 

 

then after this immersion, which should take some quality percolating time…

WRITING

I borrowed headlines from some popular women’s magazines–doozies of higher-thinking like: “Perpetual Boyfriend Disappointments Diary” and “Things Every Woman Should Have in Her Closet”  and ran with it.

Here’s one of the Works-In-Progress from the second tag…..

 

THINGS EVERY WOMAN SHOULD HAVE IN HER CLOSET

 

an ill-fitting skeleton

shit-kicking boots stained with bad blood

a roadmap for sacrifices to whatever curtained god you are

currently worshipping

pinking shears for prettying-up broken hearts

nestled beside nuts& bolts & odd bits of timekeeping devices that

shook free of time

failures with exes napping with cats in neatly boxed rows (you know

for rehabilitation)

90’s haircuts sandwiched between diet books so you won’t go there

again (don’t   go   there  again)

dispatches to future selves that sting like papercuts  waiting

waiting with their metallic arms

pinned

—–C.A. LaRue

 

 

Feel like it’s at least a line short in there somewhere, but that’s why its called  W-I-P.   Please feel free to share what you come up with in the comments section or by emailing bonesparkblog@yahoo.com if you’d like to do your own guest post.

Peace out, poetry peeps!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poetry in the Cubist Zone: Labwork for Picassoheads

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Apollinaire, Captain Lavender, cubism, cubist, ee cummings, ekphrastic poem, Gertrude Stein, Grace Nichols, Gwendolyn Brooks, Jimmie's Squidoo Picasso, Majorie Evasco, Mary Ann Caws, Mary Jo Bang, Maya Picasso, Medbh McGuckian, Musee Picasso Paris, National Poetry Month 2014, Pablo Picasso, Picasso at the Bus Stop, Picasso Coloring Pages, Picasso inspired poems, Picasso news, Picassoheads, poetry lab, Shuzo Takiguchi, Stephen Gibson, The Blue Room, The Old Guitarist, Wallace Stevens, Woman Sitting in Armchair

Woman Sitting in Armchair (1939)

There has been much in the news recently about the great master painter Pablo Picasso.  Musée Picasso Paris today announced that its October 25th reopening will celebrate new work donated by his eldest daughter Maya Widmaier Picasso (78) along with the 133th anniversary of the artist’s death.

According to The Guardian article, the donation consists of a drawing of a woman’s face from his Cubist period and a notebook containing nude studies done in 1960.

Interesting to note, that the drawing’s reverse features the bottom half of a partial sketch of the Picasso-smitten, French poet Guillaume Apollinaire. The top half of which is already in the museum’s collection.  With some 5,000 of Picasso’s works on hand, including over 300 paintings, only a small fraction can be displayed at any one time.  How lovely to have even a taste, and what fun it would be to sneak into those storage alcoves!

This past month, we also learned that the painter’s “The Blue Room” hides a mystery man (in a bow-tie no less) behind the surface painting. Look out Doctor Who #11. You may have a rival.

This was, of course, on the heels of last year’s scandal when Picasso’s stepdaughter accused her handyman of stealing over 400 of the artist’s sketches and watercolors.  While a few months prior to this astonishing news, an Ohio man stumbled upon the find of a lifetime, snatching up a rare print (worth a tidy sum) for less than $20 at a thrift store.

So it seems, that the celebrated artist’s face has been popping up everywhere. Even here on this blog!!  Back in the spring, I wrote a piece on Literary Rub-offs that introduced you to the Picasso/Gertrude Stein connection.  That particular association fascinates me to no end, and other poets seem a bit stuck on the Cubist painter as well.

Here are just a handful of poems inspired by his groundbreaking artwork:

If I Were Told, A Completed Potrait of Picasso by Gertrude Stein (with audio)

Picasso XXIII by e.e. cummings

The Old Guitarist

The Chicago Picasso by Gwendolyn Brooks

excerpts from The Man With the Blue Guitar by Wallace Stevens

Solsequiem (after Pablo Picasso’s Maternidad, 1905) by Marjorie Evasco

Pablo Picasso from Seven Poems by Shuzo Takiguchi (translated by Yuki Tanaka &Mary Jo Bang)

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Stephen Gibson

Picasso at the Bus Stop by Kayla Cagan (for National Poetry Month ’14)

 

And if your looking for a whole collection that sprung from Picasso-watered earth,: Captain Lavender by Medbh McGuckian is for you.

You might also like to explore some of Picasso’s (Own) Poetry with Mary Ann Caws or try your hand at some of the FUN art activities at Jimmie’s Squidoo.

===>Once you have thoroughly immersed yourself in the Cubist zone, your assignment is to write your own Picasso-inspired poem on the back of one of these nifty coloring pages.  A small gallery below for color reference and inspiration:

 

 

 

 

 

Pielicious POETRY LAB & ‘Milking Your Food’ Mini-Contest

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2sDay Poems, A Piece of the Pie, Becky Tuch, contest, Diane Lockward, Food memoir, food poetry, foodie, foodist, Jambalaya Poets Workshop, Kim Sunee, MFK Fisher, Milking Your Food contest, Mouthful of stars, poetry lab, poetry workshop, Slidell Library, The Crafty Poet, The Literary Foodie, Trail of Crumbs, virtual poetry workshop, women and food

“A Piece of the Pie” Collage by C.A. LaRue

 

The image above is a pared-down version of a collage that I created for a “Women and Food” issue for a UK magazine.  Women, especially it seems, have a complicated relationship with food. Much of our self-image is inextricably tied to it, and beyond that, our concepts of family and home.

Recently, I was moved by New Orleans “native,” Kim Sunee‘s writing on the subject.  Both her diary/cookbook Mouthful of Stars and Trail of Crumbs: Hunger, Love, and the Search for Home  bring up much deeper issues of identity and love. In Mouthful (channeling that other great food writer M.F.K. Fisher), she says

So, in many ways, food is never just about food, is it? Lunch is never just lunch. And supper is more than the sum of its parts.  And so, as we travel and cook and share the gifts of the table, we are also wondering, imagining, answering and asking questions of ourselves and of one another.

Regardless of gender, this week I would like you to take a closer look at your own attitudes towards and issues with food and to respond in the form of a poem. This poem can be tied to the collage above or go off in its own foodist direction. Go with your instincts here.

Either way, those who submit poems (no more than two) will have a chance at a space in the virtual arm of the JAMBALAYA POETS WORKSHOP starting September 17 and running through April 22.

Participants in the group will meet two Wednesdays per month (with the exception of December), and along with its virtual arm, will discuss contemporary poetry and work through much of the exercises in Diane Lockward’s fantabulous The Crafty Poet: A Portable Workshop.  In addition to these exercises, there will be some light journaling and podcasting opportunities.

Diane has graciously agreed to make herself available at some point during the workshop with details to be provided at a later date. We are also awaiting word from a local sponsor for help with the purchase of materials for those participating from the local community.

Details of the virtual “hookup” will be provided by the local community college prior to the September meeting.  Both local and virtual participants will have access to forums and email exchange, and there is a big surprise on for the wrap-up in April (National Poetry Month).

As for the “Milking Your Food” Mini-Contest, those looking for inspiration beyond the photo prompt above should consult the poetry sections of the journals listed in Becky Tuch’s article Yummy! Lit Mags Seeking Food& Drink Writing and/or the Food Memoir list at The Literary Foodie website.

And as always, poets with collections or chapbooks who would like some free exposure should submit details to bonesparkblog@yahoo.com for possible inclusion in the next 2sDay Poems feature.

Ok, people, don’t just sit there staring at my pie, get on with the writing already!!! You are going to want a spot in this group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Galoshes Optional: Rain-Soaked POETRY LAB

Tags

art prompts, Betsy Johnson-Miller, Games that Ogres Play, It's Raining in Honolulu, Jim Sallis, Joy Harjo, Kenji Miyazawa, Lawrence Raab, Millane's Creativity Club, Museum of Modern Art, My Work, Ocean Power, Ofelia Zepeda, Painting Rain, Paula Meehan, poetry drafts, poetry exercises, poetry lab, poetry prompts, Pulling Down the Clouds, Rain Room, rain sounds, rain themed art, rain themed poetry, Rain When I Want Rain, Rain's Eagerness, Strong in the Rain, Visible Signs, Why It Often Rains in the Movies, writing prompts

The Rain Room at the Museum of Modern Art. New York, NY. Friday, June 14, 2013.

Anyone lucky enough to have visited the Museum of Modern Art last summer, could have enjoyed its fun Rain Room installation without ever getting wet.  While most of us here in South Louisiana did not have that luxury, we are all very much acquainted with Nature’s slippery friend.  After a few mind-numbing days of downpours, one simply must retreat to the clean, dry page.

Alas, even there rain-themed verse is to be had aplenty. But with the sheer beauty of such lines as “Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more/than a season” from Harjo’s “It’s Raining in Honolulu” (full-text below), who would not want to have a good soak.  Enjoy this poem and the four other selections before we move on to penning our own.

 

It’s Raining in Honolulu
by Joy Harjo

There is a small mist at the brow of the mountain,
each leaf of flower, of taro, tree and bush shivers with ecstasy.

And the rain songs of all the flowering ones who have called for the rain

can be found there, flourishing
beneath the currents of singing.

Rain opens us, like flowers, or earth that has been thirsty for more
than a season.
We stop all of our talking, quit writing or blowing sax to drink the
mystery invoked
by the night rain.

We listen to the breathing beneath our breathing.

This is how we became rain.

Translated, this means a white flower behind your ear is saturated with
faith after the second overthrow.

We will plant taro where there were curses.

 

 

That’s such a gorgeous one. Hard to beat a women in tune with the earth! Next have a listen to Rodney Jones reading “Rain on Tin” (text accompanies). Then peruse:

Lawrence Raab‘s “Why It Often Rains in the Movies” from Visible Signs.

Ofelia Zepeda’s “Pulling Down the Clouds”  from Ocean Power

Kenji Miyazawa’s “Strong in the Rain” from same-titled collection

 

And if that doesn’t get you in the mood to write something slick, trying mixing your own rain tract up over at NatureSoundsForMe. Or for those artists out there, try digging into the Singing and Dancing in Rain art prompt over at Milliane’s Creativity Club. You might like to use some of the images below for something similar to that one, or pull from the Rain art board on Pinterest.

 

But wait, I’m not done yet.  How about a few rain-soaked poetry titles like…

 

Painting Rain from Paula Meehan

Rain When You Want Rain from Betsy Johnson-Miller  OR

Rain’s Eagerness from Jim Sallis

 

 

I even have a draft that I’ve been playing with called “Games that Ogres Play”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Feel free to share your drafts as well. Comments are open, skippy-dee-do-dahs!!

Poetry Projects: Pimping the Lawn Frog

Tags

blossoms, lawn frog, mary oliver poem, poetria, poetry projects

When the neighbor threw out a moldy, broken lawn ornament, I couldn’t resist making it my weekend project. And since it is National Poetry Month, I decided to give this baby a poetic spin.

The BEFORE (post cleaning/patching)

Bleach + Spackle= a clean slate.

She’s about the size of a basketball.

 

 

 

 

Not sure why I didn’t take more pictures DURING the process.

Getting coated with sealant

This is after acrylic paint and hand-lettering.

The text is from the opening of Mary Oliver’s “Blossoms”:

In April
the ponds open
like black blossoms,
the moon
swims in every one;
there’s fire
everywhere: frogs shouting
their desire,

Read full poem here

Also affixed a silk flower with Gorilla Glue and then sealed the whole thing with clear coat.

 

Poetria, the lawn frog

Here she is hanging out on the back lawn.

I’m hoping she is a good muse.

NaPoMo Check-In

Tags

art/poetry fusion, Cave Dwellers, My Work, NaPoMo 2014, Poem-A-Day Challenge

Since my art and writing life are merging lately, I’m carrying that over with my own take on the Poem-A-Day challenge.   First, I start with a “dump file” of images (some online, some scanned) that I pick through to find some interesting combination.  Then, I use whatever art I create from that exercise as a writing prompt.  Here’s today’s product:

CAVE DWELLERS

One day
my heart grew
wings like a pterodactyl’s
& burst from the
cage inside my
chest. It roamed far—
feeding on the
dust of stars &
the sheen of planets
like some solar
butterfly. When I had
the sense to
call it back, it could
not believe
the enormity of the
cavity it had
left. Tacked it down
with superglue
this time. Hope it doesn’t
wander off.

—–C.A. LaRue