Beyond Ekphrastic: When Poets and Artists Collaborate

You know, we artistic types like to talk about supporting each other – musicians, visual artists, writers, theater folks – but often we get so embedded in our own little worlds that there’s very little true interaction. A lot of poets aren’t well-versed in contemporary art, and there are few artists who’ve read a lot of contemporary poetry, even though the artistic movements in both art and literature run vaguely parallel.
So I’ve considered myself lucky to get to know several local artists, including Amy Johnson, who does beautiful installation art (check out especially the images of thorns, black and resin-colored rose sculptures, etc.) They help educate me about interesting galleries and exhibits, the different medias and methods they use.
Amy and I sat down tonight and talked about truly collaborating on her next project, an installation inspired partially by Hans Christian Andersen tale The Snow Queen (about which I’ve already written a couple of poems.) We both were really excited by the possibilities of the story, the duality of the powerful villainess and one of the only “hero’s journey” tales in fairy-tale-dom where the female hero rescues her boyfriend-in-distress, the beautiful images of snow like bees, snow that takes on the shape of birds, and the dangers and beauties of accessories (the robber queen’s daughter’s knife, Gerda’s multiple fur muffs and magic boots.) So I’m writing a few poems that could be read out loud during the installation, perhaps mixed with a track of humming bee hives, for her project. I’m really excited to be trying something like this. And the best part? You’ll be able to go see the work in action in January in downtown Seattle. I’ll keep you posted!