Poems and Paintings « Meiners and Lee Studios

Poems and Paintings

Tagged: dinner dance, dishwater, figures, oils, painting a day

Last night we went into Ashland to meet friends for Thai food and a poetry reading by Robert Pinsky which was very entertaining and thought provoking. I remembered to take my pocket sketch book and did a little pen drawing of the women sitting in front of us while we waited for the program to begin. Maybe you think I would always do this, since I am an artist, but truthfully, I feel like I am just starting to get into the swing of being a 2-D artist instead of making sculpture. A 20+ year way of thinking is hard to adjust, but I’m enjoying seeing the shift.
The last poetry reading we attended was by Ted Kooser and hearing him read the poem below resulted in the little picture after it.

Dishwater

Slap of the screen door, flat knock
of my grandmother's boxy black shoes
on the wooden stoop, the hush and sweep 
of her knob-kneed, cotton-aproned stride 
out to the edge and then, toed in
with a furious twist and heave, 
a bridge that leaps from her hot red hands
and hangs there shining for fifty years
over the mystified chickens, 
over the swaying nettles, the ragweed,
the clay slope down to the creek, 
over the redwing blackbirds in the tops
of the willows, a glorious rainbow
with an empty dishpan swinging at one end.

“Dishwater” 6×8 oil on canvas
SOLD Thanks, J.E.

This was the 2nd version, the first was more of an illustration in that all the poem visuals were included making it about the poem, not a new piece of art. This painting was just accepted in a group show called “Home Sweet Home”, at the Wiseman Gallery at Rogue Community College in Grants Pass. They also accepted a print of “Dinner Dance” which is a sweeter take on the whole making dinner, doing dishes theme. I have been ignoring possibilities to sell work in Grants Pass, but the scene there has changed over the years so perhaps this will be a start.
Must go paint, or ??…

One Response to “Poems and Paintings”

Gabriella
February 14, 2008 at 4:52 pm

This is so wonderful. It is motion and life on canvas…hard to do.

Reply