WRITER/ARTIST COLLABORATION

My most recent publication with The Light Ekphrastic became available last night and I'm very excited about this project/collaboration.

I do art.  I do writing.  But as a writer, I've never done a collaboration with an artist on some ekphrastic poetry.

According to poetryfoundation.org, here is the definition of ekphrastic poetry:

An ekphrastic poem is a vivid description of a scene or, more commonly, a work of art. Through the imaginative act of narrating and reflecting on the “action” of a painting or sculpture, the poet may amplify and expand its meaning.

So that's the aim of The Light Ekphrastic - to pair and artist and a writer and have them create a collaboration based on each other's work.  

I think this collaboration turned out wonderfully.

First off, I was paired with artist Brett Busang (you can view some of his work at brettbusang.com).  From the poems I submitted to the magazine, Brett chose to create a new painting based on my poem "Cat People."  His new painting is called A House in the Distance and is quite stunning.  It's all of the emotion I imagined coming from my poem.  From the paintings I had to choose from, I chose to create a new poem on Brett's painting, Rockpile.  The poem is called "Deed's Creek."

It's interesting that Brett chose to use the poem he did.  "Cat People" means a lot to me because I wrote it about my best friend, Cohen, and our experiences growing up together.  His interpretation of the poem through his painting really captured the emotion and the sadness I felt when writing the poem.  I love his painting and the title - A House in the Distance.  I chose the painting Rockpile because it immediately reminded me of a memory with my younger brother from our childhood.  When we moved into the house my parents live in now, it was one of very few houses in the subdivision and we were surrounded by empty lots.  It was great for my brother and I; we used to ride our bikes and build things together.  The poem "Deed's Creek" recalls many of our adventures together.

So I can't wait for you all to see this writer/artist collaboration and all the effort that went into it.  

Here's the link for The Light Ekphrastic website and to Issue 21 of the magazine:

thelightekphrastic.com

And here's the direct link to my collaboration with Brett (poems and paintings) - I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed working on it:

thelightekphrastic.com/issues/february-2015-issue-21/lafollette-busang-feb-15/

Here's a link to my writer bio along with Brett's:

thelightekphrastic.com/issues/february-2015-issue-21/artist-bios-feb-15/

As always, thanks for reading, my friends.