EKPHRASIS WITH JOSIAH MCELHENY

I was blessed to participate in a Brooklyn Rail-sponsored Conversation with Josiah McElheny and present two poems inspired by some of his artworks. I invite you now to peruse the YouTube Video. I thought his chat with Charlotte Kent is wonderful and interesting. And at about 1:34:10 of video, I present my poems. Here's info:

Brooklyn Rail's 288th New Social Environment

Josiah McElheny in conversation with Charlotte Kent

Closed by a poetry reading by Eileen Tabios

YOUTUBE Video is available HERE.

Monday, May 3, 2021, 10 a.m. Pacific Time

 

DAY 7/7 FOR MINIATURE BOOK SOCIETY

I’m a new member of the Miniature Book Society and I was nominated to post 7 books for MBS’ Facebook page. "Miniature" books are sized at 3-4 inches or less. I’ll be replicating the posts on this blog for the next 7 days.

DAY 7/7  My favorite miniature book covers

MBS

My favorite miniature book covers
MBS

I’ve been sharing books by some of today’s contemporary poets. My 7th presentation involves one of my poems but focuses on contemporary sculptor/storyteller Raelinda Woad. She creates gorgeous metal-based books which lend themselves to jewelry and the second-to-last image shows some from my collection of her works. Raelinda’s works interest me because she also used her small sculptures to bind her short stories. Her materials include steel, brass, etched glass, opals, and sea glass. The particular book I present is where she used one of her sculptures to bind one of my prose poems, “Returning The Borrowed Tongue.” Her pages all unfold in the accordion format and her books are sized at 1.25” X 1” X .25”. An exception, as shown on last image, is her 1” x 1” dragonfly series of books all containing the word “Peace” in 14 languages.

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Today I nominate any new member of MBS. I love seeing all the books already shared, AND I’m also interested in the *gateway* books—those that made you discover mini books or the first books you’re collecting. Some of the books I’m posting, for example, were created before I knew that miniature books were a thing. So I nominate MBS New Member #7.

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This is a challenge for contributing to the spread of reading culture. The method of participation is to post a favorite book, one book per day, for 7 days. You upload some images with a short explanation about the book and invite one FB friend to participate in this challenge.

SERGE GAVRONSKY ON "IN-TER-WO-VEN," AN EXHIBIT BY MIRIAM BLOOM AND RON MOROSAN

I was delighted to write the essay for Miriam Bloom's and Ron Morosan's "IN-TER-WO-VEN" joint retrospective exhibition. If you would like a copy of that catalogue, you can contact Westwood Gallery where the exhibit is ongoing through to Nov. 16, 2019. You also can see exhibit images by clicking on the link, though I'm delighted to present the following art (click on all images to enlarge):

Drawing by Ron Morosan 

"Clouds and Sand" by Miriam Bloom, 50 inches high 

 "Hall of Art" by Ron Morosan, oil and acrylic on canvas, 80 x 70 inches

"The Open," a joint and site-specific installation by Miriam Bloom and Ron Morosan

I'm also delighted to present a poem written by Guggenheim awardee Serge Gavronsky. Serge Gavronsky wrote his poem in response to Miriam's and Ron's exhibition; a bio is presented beneath his poem:

Click on all images to enlarge

 
 
 
 

OCTOBER EKPHRASIS!

You are invited to North Fork Arts Projects which is pleased to celebrate October as Filipino American History Month by presenting an exhibition of four new paintings by Jean Vengua. Jean’s exhibit is entitled “Poetry Ekphrasis” as each of her paintings is rooted in poems by four poets: Nick Carbo, Eric Gamalinda, Barbara Jane Reyes, and Eileen R. Tabios. Ekphrasis is art inspired by another art form, in this case paintings inspired by poems. Both paintings and poems are presented, as well as a Q&A regarding Jean’s painting process—an illuminating way to enjoy the beauty of Filipino-Pilipinz artistic creativity!

The paintings are

“Calle de Recuerdos” by Jean Vengua, inspired by Nick Carbo’s poem “Directions To My Imaginary Childhood”
“Lunar Night” by Jean Vengua, inspired by Eric Gamalinda’s poem “Zero Gravity”
“Heartlines” by Jean Vengua, inspired by Barbara Jane Reyes’ poem “Having Been Cast, Eve Implores”
“Hourglass and Ellipsis” by Jean Vengua, inspired by Eileen R. Tabios’ poem “Kapwa’s Song”

You can see the exhibition HERE.

NOT FORGETTING MATT MANALO!

I love writing poems "after" visual art and also love it when visual artists create art after one of my poems.  Here's Matt Manalo's "I FORGET FORGETTING MY SKIN IS A RUIN" (2019, 60 x 54 inches):

The  medium is interesting, too: acrylic paint, spray paint, duct tape, and rice bags!

The work was exhibited along with another sculpture, "Displacement (reimagined) #3" (2016-2019), and I think the two pieces work well together--the text resonating against the interrupted and rupturing squares on the other work!

(Click on images to enlarge.)

Matt's works were part of "There Is Enough For Everyone," an art exhibition in Houston, Texas (June 14-July 8, 2019) that "pointed a spotlight at the reality of scarcity within black and brown communities, prodding the limitations, distribution, and access of wealth in the city of Houston and the country at large" (from exhibit description). The exhibition was curated by Michael Stevenson and J. Bilhan.

Thanks to Matt, one of my favorite contemporary artists.

KINTSUKUROI

Alice Brody is a New York City-based artist and she just created an artist's book based on my poem "Kintsukuroi." I'm always so grateful to see a visual manifestation of one of my poems, especially as it's a "miniature book" sized at 2.5" x 3.5".

Here's poem from WITNESS IN THE CONVEX MIRROR (TinFish, 2019), and the book it inspired from Alice below.

What's not known about this poem--well, until you read about it here--is that it's a poem that surfaced when I was proofreading an earlier poetry book, MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION (MDR). In fact, I'm so grateful to its publisher Dos Madres Press for allowing me to insert it in the back of the book at the very last minute. I wanted it in MDR because the poem wouldn't exist without MDR. Afterwards, it slipped itself into WITNESS IN THE CONVEX MIRROR by donning the beret of a couple of lines from John Ashbery's "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror." So it's got a past, this poem. But don't all poems?



from KINTSUKUROI by Eileen R. Tabios
Designed and Created by Alice Brody

What also is interesting is that when Alice gave me the book, it came with a card featuring a Tiffany vase in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (NY)'s collection -- look at the colors!

And here's the book shelved! On a bench within my Tiny Book Library:

A PAINTING RESURRECTED FROM "MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION"

I love when my projects have a long finish. Texas-based artist Matt Manalo has created a fabulous painting after one of the lines in my "MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION" project:

"I FORGET FORGETTING MY SKIN IS A RUIN"
2019
Acrylic paint, spray paint, duct tape, rice bags
60 x 54 inches

There's also a book coming out by Leny Strobel emanating from other lines.  If you'd care to look at the project's inventory of 1,167 lines, they're available in its official monograph, MURDER DEATH RESURRECTION: A Poetry Generator (Dos Madres Press, 2018).