Prelude

I think I mentioned in the last post that I've been reading a lot of poetry lately. I have found some new (to me) awesome poets out there! My favorite poet right now is Matthew Zapruder. His new book of poems is called Come On All You Ghosts. Right up my alley, huh? Of course the title alone grabbed me, with my current obsession on all things dark and ghostly, etc.

I ordered his last two books and just devoured them. There is not one bad poem in the lot. I just love his style, his words, his imagery, everything. This is why I haven't been making any art! I've been swimming in poetry; drowning in it. Here's one example of a verse that made me swoon:
It's from his poem called Poem (yes, that's the title).

"... I love your love,

it feels dispensed from a metal tap

attached to a big vat gleaming

in a giant room full of shiny whispers."

Gah! I love this verse!! So I've been dancing around reading this guy's poetry books, filling my head with his imagery. Drunk on poetry with a goofy grin on my face. Hubby thinks I'm crazy.

BUT I did manage to take another of my many favorite poems of his and make the digital piece at the top of this post. It's from his poem The Prelude. Did I say it's another of my favorites?

Here's the part of a verse that really stuck with me and inspired this piece:

"... Come to the edge

the edge beckoned softly. Take

this cup full of darkness and stay as long

as you want and maybe a little longer."

The whole poem is like that. The entire BOOK is like that. So I'm making notes and filling an entire notebook of images and ideas for my encaustics, art journal, and paintings. My class with Sharon Tomlinson and Deryn Mentock just started (the first video went up yesterday) and Monica Zuniga's class is still in the early stages. I've been slow to get back in the swing but I'm feeling the stirrings.

I've said before that, unlike most people, I feel alive in the Fall and Winter. Summer is my blah time. Heat and humidity zap me and leave me feeling down. Leaves are starting to fall a little bit here. School has started again, football is starting up...the Fall will be right around the corner. I'm awakening little by little. The temperature won't stay near 90 much longer (thank God!) and then I'll be on track.

So, this is just a prelude to the things that are to come. I can't wait to see the rest!

Here are the covers of Matthew Zapruder's last two books. If you get a chance, and are a poetry lover, they are definitely worth it:

Tempest

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted. I've been taking a little down time. I haven't been feeling very artistic lately so I have used this time to get caught up on some reading. It's amazing the number of books I've been zipping through with my Nook, and I've missed that. I used to read so much more than I do now. I was also able to get some great poetry books (real ones, not ebooks) and have been using those as inspiration for some art pieces I'm excited to start working on. Plus I've really enjoyed just sitting and listening to the playlist on my Ipod. Heavenly!

I've been through these dry times before. This one is about to come to an end. The poetry and the music and the reading have all helped to re-fill my artistic well. And I'm starting two new courses: Mixed Media Faces by Monica Zuniga at Hands and Heart Ning site and Towers and Turrets, taught by Sharon Tomlinson and Deryn Mentock at All Norah's Art Ning site. Both look to be great boosts to my Muse!

I put together the little digital piece at the top of this post today. I thought I was going to enter it for Kimmie's digital challenge this week at Digital Whisper Ning site but I just realized it wasn't what she was asking for! We were given the image of the lady and were supposed to do her up her in a Teesha Moore style. Oops! I was just in a darker mood, I guess. So I used elements and papers from Tangie Baxter at Scrapbook Graphics (her Tempest kit). Appropriately enough, I call this one, "Tempest".

Hopefully other things going on here behind the scenes have calmed down enough so that I can really concentrate on these two classes this week. The videos are starting to go up and I am looking forward to sitting down with those and trying out the lessons. Hope to have more to show you real soon!