AiPP -  Poetry and Art

The Starkville Area Arts Council is excited to announce our next Workshop Gallery Exhibit of 2023, a group exhibit titled "Poetry and Art." This exhibit  showcases artwork inspired by the mixture of poetry and art, however the artists interpreted the theme, and will be on display beginning September 1, 2023.

This exhibit will be on display in-person and online on the SAAC website (starkvillearts.net/creativeeconomy) from September 1 to October 31, 2023, in the Starkville Area Arts Council's office in downtown Starkville (122 East Main St.)

Please join us for a reception and poetry reading held on Friday, October 27, from 4-5:30 pm in the Starkville Area Arts Council's office in downtown Starkville (122 East Main St).

Works may be for sale. If you are interested in purchasing any of these works, please continue reading below.

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About the Exhibit

This show is inspired by a mixture of poetry and art  (however the artists chose to interpret that). It includes 19 works by 13 artists from the Golden Triangle and the South, as well as artists from New York and California. Works include photography, acrylic, ink, sketch, silk and gouache.

Visualization is the act of seeing with your mind’s eye. Poetry and Art are two worlds that overlap in creativity, but differ in application. The technique of imagery can be felt as if viewing an art piece itself. This exhibition is here to bridge these two arts. Explore works relating to the written form of poetry which might include typography, framed poem art, original poetry paired with art, zines, illustration, works relating to your favorite poems, and more.

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​Works on display in-person until October 31, 2023.

Hover or click on images below to view title, medium, and pricing. Click image to view fullscreen.
Please CALL OR EMAIL SAAC (info at bottom of this page) if interested in purchasing available works.

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Ian Burke

Ian is an artist who is comfortable in a broad range of mediums. They have spent many hours gaining skills in the areas of ceramics and painting, as well as many other disciplines. Most of their pained works are in a realism style and typically take an introspective look into the artist's psyche. However, their ceramic work follows a more whimsical, yet mostly functional, line of creativity. Much of their ceramic inspiration stems from the wonderful nature in the Starkville area. Majoring in wildlife allows them to combine a knowledge of the outdoors with a passion for creation.

​oddities.by.ian​​

If I had Known
Collage 
​18" x 24"
$275 

“This piece seeks to illustrate the intense emotional and memory spiral that often accompanies the experience of losing a relationship. Combining situational context, through the use of imagery, and calculated words, through the use of pointed poetry, creates a harmonic experience. The strategically picked words blending with the organically organized visuals allow for greater understanding of the topic. Creating a relationship of both dichotomy and melody.”

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Erika Land

Erika Renee Land is a performance artist, poet, published author, and an Army Veteran. She deployed to Mosul, Iraq in 2005 and was diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disordered when she return. Being creative and experimenting with different Art forms has helped her overcome her trauma. She is a graduate of the University of Georgia, a 2021 MacDowell Fellow, winner of the 2021 United Solo Best Emerging Artist award, and DEMIL Art fund recipient.

www.ErikaReneeLand.com

Unfinished PTSD 
Drawing 
12" x 14" 
$300

“As a poet that likes to handwrite her poems, I have found myself with stacks of paper that sometimes are heavily different than the typed and published versions. I want to share the raw process and experience of writing poetry before it is cleaned up and redacted and edited for the masses. The picture-framed poems are a walkthrough of what I was feeling at that specific moment.”

History is Shaking 
Drawing 
8.75" x 10.75" 
$400 

Cushion
Drawing 
9.25" x 11.25" 
$200

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Madison Davis (Starkville, MS)

Madison Davis is a Starkville native who has an eye for all things colorful and whacky, this shows in her art which holds no style limitations or boundaries. Art to her is about relaxing and enjoying yourself while allowing creativity to flow. With that being said, she hopes you enjoy any piece that’s created and feel inspired to relax and gather with good company, pet cats, and have a good time!

https://instagram.com/_queenmadi?igshid=MmIzYWVlNDQ5Yg==​

Dirty tooth lover boy 
Mixed Media - Gouache, Colored Pencil, & Ink 

​“This lover boy piece grants fun word play next to a doodle that guides the brain to visualize a story line within the poem. In styles that I enjoy, one can gaze at the two and create a story that fits their perception.”

Mississippi Gardens
Mixed Media - Gouache, Colored Pencil, & Ink 
​7" x 14" 

“This Garden piece grants fun word play next to a doodle that guides the brain to visualize a story line within the poem. In styles that I enjoy, one can gaze at the two and create a story that fits their perception.”

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Patricia Cordero

Life and death are intertwined; you cannot have one without the other. Both represent the continuous transference of energy from one place to another. If there were a color to describe both life and death, it would be red, the color of blood. Red also represents "to stop", which suggests that everything that is alive, eventually will cease to exist. However, accepting endings and death is difficult, but it brings to the surface the meaning of things. The smoke represents this surfacing and also the rise of the soul after death into the heavens. The piece also questions the concept of "forever" and how it relates to the continuous cycle of life and death. Its intention is to encourage people to philosophize about life and death and its symbolism.

https://www.instagram.com/arvensepr/​

Continuity 
Graphic Design 
18" x 12" 
$12

“Reading poetry is a personal and reflective experience that should be more encouraged through the visual arts. Poetry is meant to be shared and visually exposed to others to evoke emotion, introspection, and to generate discussion. This original poetry piece is paired with elements of graphic design to convey a much more profound message, bridging the written and visual arts.”

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Annette Young

Annette Young is enamored by writing and art. She mixes a cocktail that sobers her senses to a full exhilaration devoid of the timely hangover of alcohol. Art is her teacher. Writing is her teacher. She is a teacher--too. They all corral to choral sprinkles of joy for her. A shifting of a color, or a word, or a classroom affirmation all embody endless paper clip links denoting positive, evolving collaborative thought and actions. Painting is such a pure form to her. The aesthetics of the universe speak of their canvas and pant their artistry on every level: Planet Earth, flora, fauna, and we ourselves, are its wondrous handiwork. But that's not all, the elements, fire, air, water...it's truly an endless overflow.She hopes to always have the presence of mind to curtsey for such a divine and graceful invitation to be able to paint and lyric meaning to her ability. It has stroked blessings particularly in times of her prolonged need that has guided her to sincerely examine and calibrate her vision. And in her musings, conclude that currency can be gifted in delightful, morphing hues that surpass and supersede green when green is not always immediately available for expenditures.

Anoint Thine Eyes 
Acrylic 
 8  ½” x 10”
$40 

Anoint Thine Eyes

Anoint Thine Eyes?
Was that a ghost?
Canary-colored otherworldly host?
Staff in hand and sculpture feel
can such an entity be shrouded real?

Anoint Thine Eyes?
Was that a ghost?
The residue in front claimed the most.
Look onward: staff then touched tree
and fruit emerged a scarlet delivery.

Anoint Thine Eyes!
It is no ghost!
The gray clouds cunningly spoke the most.
In times of past in time anew
Canary staff to compass through.

Streaked in Approval 
Photography 
 8  ½” x 11”
$25

"Streaked in Approval"

 Dear Child, 
My frozen scalloped sheets of pyrotechnics
Congregate a heavenly audience.
Streaking luminous radiance.
Shadows of green oasis and majesty buildings
reflect not my hovering homage.
Arch, climb, elevate, Housing Project.
Know not your pedigree is a Master Plan?
Eyelids of salve, glisten your inheritance.
Brick and mortar buffet—upright.
Proclaim your draped seat.
Your modesty has glimpsed heaven.
The King desires to dine: Open thine eyes
Salved eyes of shame: Opened wide majestically!

Middle Finger at Me? 
Acrylic
8  ½” x 11”
$20

"Middle Finger at Me? 

Doth Phthalo Blue dare think its crown jeweled as me?
I’m Cobalt Blue, my swirls of worth eclipse lilac pedigree.
Waves of affluence:
Drinks of bliss, pools of fish, treeless schools of algae
Provision to tire oceans, mermaids, and sea anemones.
Foresight of trite tactics an SOS? I envision enveloping--
ETERNITY.
Your space provided Phthalo Blue
As I shall banish thee.
In Time…
My thwarted efforts fortuitous implosion:
Aghast! Tis now you—all they SEE!

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Christie Collins

Christie Collins was born and raised in the American South, and she has recently moved back to Mississippi after a decade away. She currently teaches courses in writing and literature at Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi. Prior to her return home, she lived in Cardiff, Wales, where she completed a Ph.D. in Critical and Creative Writing at Cardiff University. She has also taught at Louisiana State University and Cardiff University. Her critical and creative work has been published in numerous journals. Her chapbook titled Along the Diminishing Stretch of Memory was published in 2014 by Dancing Girl Press.

​Erna Kuik is a photographer, visual artist, and writer from the Netherlands. After graduating from the Artez Academy in 1992, her artwork was awarded the Gretha and Adri Pieck Prize, an award to encourage young, promising artists. Her work tends to an expressionistic style, known for its strong lines in linocuts and its poetic content. Her art can be found in many private collections worldwide and is exhibited in museums like the Kunstmuseum in The Hague, Museum De Fundatie in Zwolle and in several galleries.

www.bychristiecollins.com

"The Art of Coming Undone"
A book of poems plus a mix of collage and printmaking
8" x 10" 
$22 per signed copy (books) 

"The Art of Coming Undone" is a poetry/art collaboration project between American poet, Chrisite Collins and Dutch artist, Erna Kuik.

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Kore Larry

​While creating this piece, they thought of how to symbolize the dichotomy of their father. They were inspired by the immense amount of care that an absent father could exhibit in just one visit a month. They remembered feeling like a queen in a small town, never having to touch a door handle. Upon trying to date, they began to understand that not every person would behave similar to their father. As a result, they looked back on how they were treated.

My Favorite Man 
Graphic Design 
8.5" x 11" 
​$20 

“I wanted my words to symbolize a man old with wisdom and stuck in the ways of the past. I want people to visualize conversations in rooms thick with smoke, and I want the conversations to seem slurred by whiskey and long, but@ full of wisdom. But most of all I want people to feel warmth, the warmth of being protected by being pushed to walk near the grass, the warmth of being loved unconditionally.”

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Jingshuo Young

As an artist, I enjoy capturing those fleeting moments of beauty. It's the hazy sensation of early mornings during the end of spring and the beginning of summer when you're half-dreaming and half-awake. It's lovely, yet ephemeral, like flowers, like mist, like clouds, like a dream of spring, but also none of these. Our lives become vibrant and meaningful because of these brief moments.

https://jingshuoy.wixsite.com/artist​

A Flower in the Haze 
Silk, Thread, Ink 
15" x 20" 
$200 

"My artwork describes a scene from an ancient Chinese poem from Tang dynasty: 

"A Flower in the Haze" 

In bloom, she's not a flower;
Hazy, she's not a haze.
She comes at midnight;
She goes with starry rays.
She comes like vernal dreams that cannot stay;
She goes like morning clouds that melt away.”

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John Bateman

W. J. T. Mitchell once referenced a “gap” between image and text. Perhaps there is no gap, but a fluid iridescence where image and text reflect and refract each other. Consider: When did you last respond to a text message with an emoji? What is the difference between “Thanks.” and “Thx”? When is “O” a letter and when is it a condensed map of the universe?

www.johnwbateman.com

Time Loops Us on Saturdays 
Drawing 
14" x 16"
$125 

"This is a piece of visual poetry, mixing words and images, playing with boundaries and categories." 

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Lawrence Bridges

I am a forager. Forager of poetic observations you might say, but that sounds a bit pretentious. Let’s just go with FORAGER. I forage for CHANGE, seeking Ovid, the greatest of all unmaskers of form and spirit. I seek mischievously and often. In my work, I employ the deliberate use of shock while attempting to reveal the truth in human behavior. Poetic truth is justice. There is no fake truth at the end of a pencil or lens. We suffer therefore we love and we protect one another. This is the burden of self-consciousness. My poems attempt to unmask thoughts and images that change in front of me at high speed. I despair only when I cannot capture what I see as the moment disappears, but this often results in another poem, strange and rich as the mind's movement through time.

https://lawrencebridges.com​

WEDDING AT THE MONTAGE HOTEL, LAGUNA BEACH, CALIFORNIA
Photography
45” x 45” (framed)
$500

“Weddings are rituals that marry families as much as they marry brides and grooms. My poem. recited my daughter's recent wedding, is now a public document, released from the confines of this poet's studio and into the outside world. As an occasional poem, it is now a frame from a wedding (see photograph) where even the uninvited guests in the hot tub are witnessing the coming together of language, image, and imagination.”

"Coming Home is Good Too" 

For the nonce, nonce meaning the present
which is tricky in writing because it’s always past. 
Presently, from space, the world looks free from regret
with cities below without the limits of time
and laurels of accomplishment, 
where everything seems meant for our use
as it was in those horse latitudes of Kauai
where tonewood for out fiddles and oboes grows. 
We pulled the rings out of our sour cream tubes to prove
they’ve unpolluted and untempered with
even though one fell straight into the gutter in the rain. 
Dangers everywhere fr fragile things like tiny arms
suspended in arms or a quiet ratte of contentment. 
These fears torment our days like wind noise until
the VIN numbers of all nonce’s cars are crushed
into new ones and grown men fall out of chairs
for the first time to make children laugh, 
for the nonce, and we find nothing more dear. 
Ok, I’m hallucinating and not being honest when I say
everything looks new today, knowing so many hulls rest offshore.
Still, Earch celebrates. Trees fal in love with their shadows
and all living cells wish to become flowers. 
It’s a bride’s time to celebrate her beauty and herself, 
a groom’s day to be his best man. 
It could be the sunset or the jetlag, but a father remembers
only laughter, a daughter in my lap, funny cousins
off work honoring Grandma and Grandpa with a country lunch. 
The pretzels and biscuits on the long flight home
carried the names of our dogs. We ordered guacamole 
and they served it with a fresh daisy on the tray
and we knew this of our daughters’
children: the first time her laughter unfurled its wings
into the wind, we knew the world
would never be the same, for the nonce. 
Everything changed that day we figured out that there
was exactly enough time for the important things in life.

For Melanie and Mitchell on their wedding day July 22nd, 2023

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Zoe Ishee

Zoé Ishee, NEPTEWNS, created this piece in part of her 2 week residency at MARS, the MacGown Art Residency supported by the Del Rendon Foundation. This piece represents ongoing thoughts. Revelations, simple thoughts, thought rambles. Ishee created this piece with intentions to represent honesty of the mind. When creating the illustrative elements of the piece, she allowed the imagery to flow as easily and truthfully as the words had - contributing to the overall honesty of this piece. For the Artist, visualization consistently coexists with the writing process. Ishee considers this piece to be an exemplification of the theme Visualization, as the function of the piece was to capture the mind as it was working & unfolding in real time. Naturally capturing visualization as it occurred. Allowing for a medium that bridges the gaps of the mind for the viewer to receive.

​www.neptewns.art

Sweet Baby
Collage
5” x 8”
$200

“Sweet Baby demonstrates the art of connecting both the mental experience of imagery to the physical environmental experience. The artist utilized tools from the outside world to bring her imagination to life. This work illustrates the balance between seeing an external object, ie the frame, and the experience of creative ideas that erupt from the external stimulus. This work bridges the gap between the inner dialogue, the strong visual creative experience, and the outside world.”

Armillary
Mixed Media - Acrylic paint, Ink, Acrylic Ink, Collage
12” ft x 37”
$750

“This piece exemplifies of the theme of visualization. The function of the piece is to capture the mind unfolding in real time. Visualization consistently coexists with the artist's writing process. This piece is a representation of the Artist's mind working as it visualizes, constructs concepts, visions, and ideas. Bridging all gaps that most mediums do not allow for. The piece allows the viewer to receive the Artist's combined experience of thought & visualization at once.”

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Juan (zeb) Restrepo

The depiction of everyday events are personal memories mashed together. Painting facilitates my creative effort to make light of challenges and hardships. Other painting scenes are dedicated to ephemeral experiences, fleeting emotions and actual life events. To increase the vividness of remembering I integrate patterns, actual texture and bright colors to compose harmony.

www.sebastians-arts.com 

creative block  
Acrylic
14” ft x 17”
$200

“Depicting a book is a literal representation of poetry and perhaps events that do not reflect specifically the process of it. Writing and experiencing a creative block is a common experience, therefore, it made great subject matter. I think that by painting this experience can be understood by poets and painters.”

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Abigail Sipe Rochester

Abigail Sipe Rochester is a writer, poet, and romantic who has lived in the South her whole life. She attempts to use writing to understand others and sometimes herself.

Georgia Ice Cream
Drawing - Poetry, coffee, fine line drawing
13” x 10.5”
NFS

“I originally wrote this piece to honor my mom and the impact she has on every part of my life. I carry her with me everywhere I go, and as I have aged, I have started to see more and more of her face when I look in the mirror. When I saw there was going to be a Poetry and Art show, I created the drawing of her (based on a photo of the two of us at my wedding) and painted the shading with coffee, since the poem mentions our shared connection over coffee. It had to be coffee, because it was us.”

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About AiPP

As part of SAAC's AiPP series, works may be listed for sale, including framed and unframed pieces. SAAC collects and pays sales taxes on behalf of the artist for any work sold, and the artist keeps 80% of the proceeds. ​

Please CALL or EMAIL SAAC if you are interested in purchasing any of these works.