The Poetic Dialogue Project 2006 Poetry: Women: Art

Presenters: Artists: Beth Shadur, Mirjana Ugrinov, Laura Ann Cloud Poets: Lois Roma-Deeley, Robin Behn The Poetic Dialogue Project 2006 was a presentation based on the exhibition that has toured the United States since 2004 in several different permutations. The project has been a collaboration of women visual artists and poets, who have created works in an ongoing dialogue with one another. The exhibition and program The Poetic Dialogue Project 2005 presented ekphrasis, in which each poet was asked to respond to specifically chosen works of visual art. The poet was asked to "read" the work of art, to create a relationship between text and image, to address the idea of narrative and frozen moment, and to establish a relationship between the sister arts of visual art and poetry. Visual art works were used to trigger the development of words, text, thought and idea in a collaboration that is natural in the feminist context. Each poet chose several works to address in writing, and then was asked to consider in our public program the parallel creative process for poet and artist. The Poetic Dialogue project has created a continuing dialogue between poet and artist, a dialogue that has taken on the forms of creating new works, and oral and written exchange. The first exhibition in 2004 featured visual art works that were made in response to poetry by each of six poets. This particular exhibition in 2005-2006 emphasizes works of ekphrasis, where works of visual art themselves become the muse for each poet. The excitement of this project has been in the creation of new works, and in artist and poet taking their work in new directions. Poets are creating pictures through words, while artists are thinking of text in relationship to their work. The creative process has been enriched by our collaboration, and it is our hope to continue this process in future collaborations of text and image. Our presentation for the conference included a visual presentation of the works created for this ongoing exhibition, poetry readings by two poets of the collaborative works they created, and presentations by the visual artists on the parallel creative process of the making of visual art. A discussion will follow, with interaction from the audience.