oranges & sardines

November O&S now online

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:30:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

the Self-Portrait issue is now online

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:25:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

stop by www.poetsandartists.com

Poets and Artists (O&S 2.5)

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 16:44:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More art

Photo shoot for the next O&S Summer Issue (coming out August 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 12:13:00 +0000

VIMBY - Robert Standish

Michelle McEwen will be reviewing your poetry journal/zine soon!

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 21:22:00 +0000

Please email didimenendez at hotmail dot com a link to your online poetry zine.

If your journal/magazine is available in print please send to:

O&S (Poets and Artists)
c/o Michelle McEwen
5 Brookdale Avenue
Bloomfield, CT 06002

This call if for poetry publishers only. If you have a chapbook or full-length poetry book you would like to have considered, please send to one of our other reviewers. Stop by "behind the scenes" link found at www.poetsandartists.com.

The Summer Sizzles with another issue of O&S

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:42:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

new O&S

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

The Self-Portrait Issue of O&S

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Tue, 05 May 2009 19:10:00 +0000

DEADLINE: SEPTEMBER 1, 2009

Guidelines for Poets: Send in up to three new poems for consideration. The poem should be a self portrait piece about you. Send along with a short bio and web site address.

Guidelines for Artists: Paint/draw a new portrait of yourself (any medium is fine). The portrait must have been made specifically for this issue. If your medium is photography, then a photograph is fine. The photograph must have been taken specifically for this issue. Send in a short bio and web site address.

Please do not post your submitted work online until after the issue is live. Then you may link to your work in the issue as well.

Everyone is invited to submit regardless if they have been featured recently. Staff may also submit. Max page spread per contributor for this huge issue will be one to two page max. We may or may not have the issue available in print depending on costs. The issue will be available in full online.

Send your submissions to didimenendez at hotmail dot com. Place on subject line: The Self-Portrait Issue

For further information on O&S (Poets and Artists), please stop by http://www.poetsandartists.com. A publication of GOSS183 (www.mipoesias.com).

O&S (April 2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 19:36:00 +0000

Open publication - Free publishing - More poets

Revisiting a Classic: Emily Dickinson and Final Harvest

noreply@blogger.com (Michael Parker) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 04:09:00 +0000

I own the collection compiled by the eminent Dickinson scholar, Thomas H. Johnson. It is titled Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson’s Poems. Of the 1,775 poems she wrote, Johnson chose a mere 576 to include in this volume. Emily Dickinson’s poetry is a treasure once you become accustomed to her style.

I wonder how many people neglect to read Dickinson, thinking that she is or her writings are nothing but niceties, preciousness, and womanly stuff. Sure she wrote about nature, like her peers of her time. But Dickinson had an edge; she was an existentialist in an era of transcendentalism. She tackles concepts of humanity’s injustices and broken relationships, be them with men, the church, and/or with God. In a true sense, she was a feminist before its time.

What I sense most in her poetry is a yearning to find her place in society. It’s a yearning that is so strong it nearly explodes from her short, syncopated phrases and lines. In the poems, "Myself was formed a Carpenter;" "A loss something ever felt I;" and "Bind me I can still sing," I see Dickinson creating a matriarchal voice that fellow women can hear, understand and appreciate. If writers look back to great figurehead that represents the wellspring of lyrical genealogy, Dickinson would be that figurehead of women writers.

In the poem "A loss something ever felt I," Dickinson seems to realize that she has no place of origin and that, possibly, because she is a woman and a poet, she is cast out from society. This is why she explained herself "As one bemoaning a Dominion / Itself the only Prince cast out;" and admitted "I find myself still softly searching/For my Delinquent Palaces."

In her search for her own place of acceptance, Dickinson writes: "And a Suspicion, like a Finger/Touches my Forehead now and then/That I am looking oppositely/For the site of the Kingdom of Heaven." She seems to suggest that her conscience is pricking her, telling her that she is going contrary to society (whether that be masculine or religious establishments) and its set role for women.

In her short poem "Bind me I can still sing," I sense a strong will to not only find a physical place, but to keep hold of her inner-place (her heart and soul). The strength of her inner will is rivaled only by the strength of the poem’s alliteration and it’s content.

Bind me – I still can sing

Banish – my mandolin

Strikes true within –

Slay – and my

Soul shall rise

Chanting to Paradise –

Still thine.

Her message seems to be pointed towards the male society and their tactics of oppression. Consider the violent images present in the words bind, banish, strike, and slay. The power of her message lies in the meaning that whoever or whatever tries to bind her, banish her, strike her, or even slay her, she will have the final victory because she owns her voice and heart–that can never be taken from her. The caged bird has often been an image representing women in an oppressive situation. This poem seems to have that image in mind. But moreover, Dickinson focuses on freedom despite being compelled to be silent, hurt, or slain. Consider the lines "I still can sing," "my mandolin strikes true within," and "my soul shall rise."

In the poem "Myself was formed a Carpenter, I see Dickinson as the Carpenter who is building that place for women. When the builder comes, she writes that she toils "against the man." She states at the beginning of stanza three that "My tools took Human Faces." If toiling "against the man" represents fighting against male domination, her tools may represent women– the tools are her words; and they are toiling to build a place for themselves in society.

"We Temples Build" she writes in the last line reveals her purpose. Dickinson suggests that she, along with her tools, are building their own place, a safe place, a sacred place, all from the confinements of male society. Words such as Temples and Carpenter and Builder give the poem a sacred, even religious element. If the Builder is God, the Carpenter Christ, and Temples the Houses of God, then maybe Dickinson is trying to create a Mother-land. And she, because of this intent, being the Carpenter, establishes her as the Matriarch of feminine poetry.

Some personal favorites from Emily Dickinson's collection:

Page 3: The Gentian weaves her fringes....
Page 12: Bring me the sunset in a cup....
Page 12: To fight aloud is very brave...
Page 13: These are the days when birds come back....
Page 20: "Faith" is a fine invention.....
Page 26: Savior I’ve no one else to tell.....
Page 34: "Hope" is the thing with feathers....
Page 297: The bible is an antique volume....
Page 307: A word made flesh is seldom....
Page 314: My life closed twice before its close.....
Page 427: Tell the truth but tell it slant/The truth must dazzle gradually/or every man be blind

Becoming Billie Holiday

McEwen75@aol.com (Missy) — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 14:46:00 +0000

Becoming Billie Holiday by Carole Boston Weatherford
Art by Floyd Cooper
Wordsong Press, 2008. 116 pages
Review by Melissa "Missy" McEwen

Becoming Billie Holiday, a verse memoir, written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Floyd Cooper, is geared toward young adults, but readers of all ages will enjoy it.

While some might argue that Billie Holiday (a trouble-ridden jazz singer) is not a suitable subject for young readers, they cannot say that Becoming Billie Holiday is not a suitable poetry book for them.

Narrated by a "young [Billie Holiday] before heroin and hard living took their toll," the poems in Becoming Billie Holiday are undemanding, coming across, sometimes, as creatively written diary entries or rhythmical answers to an interviewer's questions. Not to say that the poems in this book are not bona fide poems; on the contrary, this book is full of them:

"Harlem.../was a sea of black folks...
flowing through clubs and churches,
grooving on jazz and Jesus." -- from "Love for Sale"

"I toted my songs
like a satchel..." -- from "Trav'lin' Light"

"I fancied hotheaded hustlers
in pinstripe suits and wingtip shoes--
men I had no business fooling with:
Burley, the amateur boxer;
Penny, the piano player;
Charley, who ran a poolroom..." -- from "No Good Man: I'm a Fool to Want You"

"'Cause teenagers flocked to the carnival in July
for rides, cotton candy, and sideshows./'Cause Clarence
had rested his banjo for the evening.../'Cause he and Sadie
bumped into each other/at the hot-dog stand and shimmied
all night long..." -- from "Why Was I Born?"

The book is full, too, of art work worthy of frames. And it is the illustrations in (and the construction of) Becoming Billie Holiday that makes this book transcend age. A Billie Holiday fan (like myself, who collects pins of Billie Holiday and loads up my iPod with Billie Holiday's songs), will consider this book a must-have, a collector's item. A music teacher wanting to cover Billie Holiday in class should invest in this book. A jazz loving father who wants to introduce his children to (and share his love of Billie Holiday with) his children, needs this book.

With that said, Becoming Billie Holiday is a great book, not only for young adults, but for old adults as well.

Matthew Hittinger and Further Discoveries in Language and Art

noreply@blogger.com (Grady Harp) — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:44:00 +0000

Matthew Hittinger in this his second book of poetry (see PEAR SLIP) seems content to focus on a single thought or idea or object or myth or mood and explore it so fully that the reader of his collections of artfully graceful poems feels invited to become more visually and emotionally and verbally receptive to the many facets of the world that surrounds us, a world too frequently lost in the busy-ness of life as we lead it.

The very title of this brief but magical collection - NARCISSUS RESISTS - suggests more than the initial response indicates. In this collection of fourteen 'sections' of one long poem about the mythical Narcissus who fell in love with his own reflection in the water, Hittinger provides five breathing spaces (Metamorphosis of Narcissus I - V apparently 'meditations on Salvador Dali's 1937 oil painting METAMORPHOSIS OF NARCISSUS) in the manner that visual artists use jade or resin resists to coat a surface with a substance that protects certain areas of a work from holding pigment or image, a delicate technique that results in seemingly multiple layers of visual information. OR the poet may simply be offering us fourteen manners in which the narcissist hero approaches verges of temptation and seduction and encounters with the strange new world of now so different from the world and time of Narcissus' origin and time.

Hittinger opens his collection with questions: 'Am I the favor seeker, or the favor sought? Why seek at all, when all that I desire is mine already?' He then weaves this confident muse through challenges to his ownership of beauty - in movie houses, clubs, websites, brawls and wonderful plays on words and ideas from mythology. In 'Clubbing' our hero of sorts experiences '...A quiet/ night at the Inn, the air clear, prismatic,/ dance floor empty save for a reflection/ caught in a mirror. His eye knew beauty,/ knew his body but not his body, the face/ that lasts as long as one spun lozenge.' Or in 'Cover Story', 'Water cut a deal with the tabloids:/ catch those cheekbones, parted lips,/ the ice blue star in each eye, a simple/ first assignment. Narcissus never/ showed, so Water froze a faux snap-/ shot, afraid of editorial wrath.'

Exactly what Matthew Hittinger intends with this multilayered and timeless survey of Narcissus may elude us all. But what does pour out of these pages is poetry of biting satire of our preoccupation with surface beauty or self or delusions of other's perception. And beneath the graceful humor and multiple layers of meaning lies the secure 'verbal resist' of an eloquent poet's mastery of his medium. Hittinger grows in importance with each new publication of his work. Highly recommended.

Grady Harp, February 09

Andrew Demcak's 672 HOURS reviewed by Grady Harp

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 00:18:00 +0000

This brief but pungent collection of five poems may be an isolated work reflecting the thoughts experienced in 672 hours (or 28 days) the standard course of drug and alcohol rehabilitation. Or it may be an excerpt from a yet to be released larger collection of poems by American poet Andrew Demcak. And again, it may be reportage from the author’s personal experience or simply another crown in the intuitive mind of one of our most interesting poets writing today. But here it is, 672 HOURS, as a chapbook and to attempt to ignore the power and depth of involvement in these poems is impossible.

Demcak’s alchemy with words is present in everything he writes and he seems at his best when writing about topics or situations or submerged feelings/prior pains few other poets dare touch. And Demcak has the courage to make these danger zones like personal revelations. Reading the five works here creates the sense of beginning with the psychotic delusions or mind alterations of the admitted patient still imaging strange visual input stimulated by toxins and ending with a suggestion of incipient recovery. In the first poem there are descriptions of ordinary things turned extraordinary and yet he ends that poem with the insight ‘I have no time, nor acquaintance with health.’

In the second poem our observer shares his perception of his cellmate, blurred with the realities of detoxification. By the third poem we are beginning to see his pre-morbid state that began his descent into rehab.

‘He threw me out like wine glasses flying.
Now, my sad jacket hangs there on a hook,
a fine silver corkscrew in its pocket.
We drank waist-deep, handed our fat livers,
the coronation of local drunkards
with daily liquors…..’

And in poem IV memory begins to focus:

‘A blazing kiss, my lover who put me here.
My tidy partner
Who revisits his checkbook,….’

Until in the last poem the harsh reality of our patient’s place suggests acceptance and insight:

‘Alcoholics collected, made public,
a display of bottled fetuses.’

Once again Andrew Demcak, with the briefest, almost haiku amount of space, manages to sweep us away to places strange yet familiar. Whether reporting or imagining, these poems are electrifying and offer further proof that Andrew Demcak is an artist of importance.

Review by Grady Harp

Jill Alexander-Essbaum reads her poems...

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 14:04:00 +0000

Get your own - Open publication

Click on the pages to listen...

Interview with artist Joy Argento

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 16:09:00 +0000

Artist Statement: I have been doing artwork since I was a small child. That gives me about 43 years of experience. I majored in art in high school and took a few college art courses as well as an intensive airbrush class taught by Dru Blair. Most of my work is done in oils these days, but I also work in pencil, pastel, and color pencil I also have several DVDs for sale teaching the some of the art techniques that I use. More DVDs are in the works, including some with guess artists. I have been selling my art for the last 25 years and have had my work featured on trading cards, prints and in magazines. I have sold in galleries and to private collectors from all around the world. I live in Western New York with my three kids, three cats, one dog and the love of my life. It is definitely a full house. I try to create art at least 5 days a week.

What drew you to become an artist?

I don't think it was any one thing. I started drawing when I was a small child and had great satisfaction from completing a piece of art and having it look like my intention.

What is your inspiration?

I am inspired by anything I find beautiful and brings a smile to my face. I am also greatly inspired by other artists work.

Is there one recurring theme in your work?

I think my favorite theme that I revisit is anything that brings back childhood memories.

What is your preferred medium?

I really like the feel and look of oil paints.

Do you have any art available in shows/galleries at this time?

I don't have any shows or galleries right now, but looking for a gallery.

Who was the first artist that made an impact on you?

I really liked Salvador Doli's stuff when I was in high school. I was fascinated by the way he made things look so real, and unreal at the same time.

Is there a contemporary artist that knocks your socks off?

Neil Hollingsworth is amazing. I check out his blog on a regular basis and I am always blown away by his paintings. My goal is to be as good as he is one day.

If you could have any artist paint your portrait whom would it be?

I would have Steve Hanks paint my portrait. I love the way he uses light in his paintings. I would trust him to make me look flattering.

What is your next painting going to be?

My next painting is going to be what I call "Life Boards". Basically it is a painting of a bulletin board, and on the bulletin board are several things representing the life (often the childhood) of a person. There are such items "tacked" to the board such as photos, pages from favorite picture books, playing cards, keys, baby pacifiers, anything that my customer wants to include to represent someone's life.

Do you think formal training or not having formal training helped your art?

I think the little bit of formal training has help me greatly. But I would have to say that after learning the basics formally, I have refined my skills by studying on my own the works of artists I admire.

What is the one thing they can’t take away from you?

No one can take away what I choose to think about. I think everything else can be temporary. It is truly the only thing I have total control over. That is why I try to keep my thoughts positive and upbeat, although it isn't always an easy task.

new O&S now online

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:20:00 +0000

Get your own - Open publication

www.poetsandartists.com

Interview with artist Pauline Aubey

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sun, 28 Dec 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Pauline Aubey is a French self-taught portrait artist. She developed a very early interest in drawing people but had to wait until 2006 (and being 28 years old!) to draw on a regular basis. She started with celebrity portraits before choosing to draw more personal works with a more specific mood. Attracted by opposite feelings, her main goal is to depict beauty in a strange unexpected way. Her works are displayed on her online gallery: www.paulineaubey.deviantart.com

Interview:

How do you feel about formal training?

I actually never had a formal training but I feel quite ambivalent about it: I basically always thought I would have been better quicker with a formal training. As a self-taught artist, I committed many technical mistakes before being able to produce correct artworks. Besides, it is quite a long process to “learn to see” when you lack an academic method. I also think that I would be able to draw more types of subjects instead of dwelling into portrait exclusively.
On the other way, many talented self-taught artists are able to produce quite personal, eye-catching artwork. I think that my art is quite personal as well: as I didn’t learn what was right or wrong, I developed my own rules and chose to focus on 3D and texture mainly.

Do you have a ritual or specific process you follow when creating art?

Yes, I always start with the facial skintones and wait to get them right before starting the features (my fist step makes the face look like a mask). Besides, I use a painting method with my pastel pencils: I work by layers which I gradually blend.

Who was the first artist that made an impact on you?

It was Salvador Dali: besides the surrealistic aspect which I thought mesmerizing, I really fancied the textures and colors he created, they looked so full and creamy. I think that I always like it when non-realistic subjects are colored in a very realistic way...

How does your environment influence your work?

I basically find my reference pictures on the internet (Deviantart website), so I guess my virtual environment has quite an influence on my work... on this website I can find various ref pictures that suit my personal aesthetics quite well: I am a doll collector... and like my portraits look a bit like dolls, with this very specific smooth skin dolls have. I also find very artistic pictures with an interesting ambiguous mood on it.

Have any of your mistakes become a success? (if yes tell us what it was and what it became).

Oh well, not really... I always knew when I did mistakes and it seems that people did as well...

Interview with artist Cindy Revell

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 15:29:00 +0000

Cindy Revell received her training as a graphic designer and worked as a designer and illustrator eventually going on to become an award winning freelance illustrator. Her work has been used on billboards, wine bottles, books, magazines, calendars, furniture, and children’s books all over North America. She was nominated in 2001 for a Governor General’s award for children’s book illustration (Mallory and the Power Boy). Some of the clients Cindy has worked with are Adobe, L.A. Times, Washington Post, Harvard Business Review, Better Homes and Gardens, Cornell University, Penguin Putnam, Harcourt, and Scholastic.

In addition to being an illustrator she is also an oil painter. Several years of regular oil painting classes with Pro’s Art, provincial and international workshops (Gregg Kreutz and Timothy Tyler), traveling to view and learn from the old masters as well as her design and illustration training have helped her develop as a traditional realist.

Cindy finds great beauty in humble and ordinary subjects. The simplicity of a pile of tomatoes, a burning barrel or a single pear are all subjects that inspire her to paint. She loves the work of the Flemish painters and Luis Melendez while her illustration has been inspired by folk, medieval, and eastern art. Her oil painting and illustration are vastly different from one another with the exception of her use of colour which is always rich and lush.

Cindy is represented by illustration agent Deborah Wolfe Ltd., as well as the Candler Art Gallery in Camrose. She is a member of the Oil Painters of America, Federation of Canadian Artists, and International Guild of Realism.

Interview

What drew you to become an artist?

I started drawing and painting as a child and it has been a part of my life ever since. It was just assumed that I would grow up to be an artist.

What is your inspiration?

I find beauty everywhere and in nearly everything. The way the light rests on a person, an object, a landscape. The way shape, colour, texture and light interact is certainly an inspiration. It can be something as simple as a piece of plastic caught up on a fence post and blowing in the wind, or the produce from my garden. Being an artist has caused me to notice more of my daily life and I see so much more beauty than ever before, every time I see something that is striking to me I want to paint it. I'm inspired by much more than I will ever have time to paint. With illustration it's the colours and patterns around the world, especially the Asian countries.

Is there one recurring theme in your work?

In oil painting it's light and what it does to the subject, primarily still life. In illustration it's pattern that I love to play with. I'm also hugely drawn to warm colours whether it's in my oil painting or illustration. I rarely paint anything with cool colours.

What is your preferred medium?

Oils

Do you have any art available in shows/galleries at this time?

Johnson Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
Candler Art Gallery, Camrose, Alberta
Trudy Labell Fine Arts, Naples, Florida
Mima at the Bay, Vancouver, British Columbia

Who was the first artist that made an impact on you?

The wacky illustrations in the Dr. Suess books and the descriptive ones in the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when I was a kid.

Is there a contemporary artist that knocks your socks off?

There are too many to count, Rose Franzen, Richard Schmid, Nancy Guzik, David Leffel, Clyde Aspevig

If you could have any artist paint your portrait whom would it be?

Johannes Vermeer

What is your next painting going to be?

A study of a white mug on yellow with a bright red background, this painting will be all about reflected colour.

Do you think formal training or not having formal training helped your art?

Both. Training in oil painting and drawing have helped me become more technically proficient and greatly improved my ability to see/notice. The ability to really observe and notice is greatly overlooked but is hugely important in painting, it helps you decide what to put in and what to leave out in a painting. If you can't notice something you won't know what to do with it. This is something that comes both with training and lots of practice. With illustration I rely more on my imagination and actually worked backwards, going from a realistic style to a very naive and stylized one. I'm self taught with acrylics which has helped me to develop a unique illustration style.

What is the one thing they can't take away from you?

I'd fight pretty hard to keep my spotted Cheetah print Italian boots.

Oranges & Sardines Pushcart Nominations

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 03:51:00 +0000

Nominated by David Krump:

Bob Hicok: "Critique with Possible Fracture"
Graeme Mullen: "Landfill Currency"
Stephanie Dickinson: "Lust Series (2)"
James Iredell: "Shooting Bunnies"
Ricky Garni: "TV Guide..."
Matthew Hittinger: "Somersault Precedes Transformation"

www.poetsandartists.com

Interview with Dr. Grady Harp

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 21:25:00 +0000

#19 (from War Songs)

Yes I protest the war!

I protest the rotting blood in Michael's eyes
I protest the muscular legs I sterilely removed
I protest the pain of torn flesh
and the heavier pain of choking sobs
that crushed tenuous lessons of virility
on the wards
in the dark.

I will not carry homegrown signs
to visibly march in the Commons,
but I will sit behind my window
and remembering,
protest.

Grady Harp is a recognized as a champion of Representational Art in the roles of curator, lecturer, panelist, writer of art essays, poetry, critical reviews of literature, art and music, and as a gallerist. He has presented premiere artists throughout the world for such exhibitions as WADE REYNOLDS: Full Circle Retrospective, BODY LANGUAGE: Current Figurative Painters, INDOMITABLE SPIRITS: The Figure at the End of the Century and MEMENTO MORI: Contemporary Still Life. He has produced exhibitions for the Arnot Art Museum in New York, Fresno Museum of Art, Nevada Museum of Art, National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum in Chicago, and Cleveland State University Art Gallery and has served as a contributing artistic advisor for universities and colleges throughout California, in Berlin, the Centro Cultural de Conde Duque in Madrid, and in Oslo. From 1996 - 1998 his collaborative exhibition, WAR SONGS: Metaphors in Clay and Poetry from the Vietnam Experience toured the United States. Harp is a frequent contributor to books on fine art, associated with the Ivy Press LTD in England.

Interview

Please tell our readers the process for putting together your book "War Songs...".

I think my foreword and essay in the book says it pretty well. But to add: The poems were my private diary while I was a Battalion Surgeon in Vietnam assigned to the Marine Corps. Writing them helped me to flush out the horrors of the day by writing my thoughts in poetic form - a therapeutic manner of concentrating on the poem structure rather than the trauma. I had no intention of publishing them until some years after I returned from the Vietnam conflict I shared them with some people who were having Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (we called it 'Battle Rattle' in those days). The poems seem to be helpful to families and victims, especially one of sculptor Stephen Freedman's assistants, who began talking, after being mute since the war, when he read the poems.

Stephen and I decided to make the poems visual by incorporating them onto and into clay vessels - not unlike the containers the Vietnamese used to save the ashes of their dead, hoping that would make the poems more accessible to a larger audience. The finished product was a large body of work that toured the country coast to coast. I accompanied the tour to the museums and gave seminars to Veterans on how to release much of their angst by writing memories in poetic form. It proved to be a very healing experience to them...and to me.

What are some of your current projects?

I still write poetry for my own enjoyment. But most of the writing I do is for museum catalogues - essays to accompany traveling exhibitions. I also review (poetry, books, music, art, films) for about twelve sources.

Do you like being known as Amazon's Top #6 Reviewer?

I used to before all of the negative comments came from a small group of unhappy people who can't stand seeing someone rise in the ranks of anything! Notoriety has its ugly side. I love the reviewing process as it brings closure to the circle that connects me to the creator of the work. Now I devote most of my reading and reviewing to new poets, writers, artists - the mutual feedback is enormously satisfying.

Which poets and artists would you like to feature in future O & S issues?

John Valadez (we've spoken about him before) and some of the other Chicano artists of Los Angeles - I helped get that movement recognized in my art gallery in the early 1980s. Wes Hempel, Sally Warner - a charcoal artist of luminous contemplative landscapes whose eyesight affected by lupus forced her to change her career to writing children's books. More will come to mind.

Do you have a poetic statement to leave with us?

Art in all of its myriad forms - visual, written, performed as music and dance, filmed - is the glue that binds us as humans and allows a window for complete communication in a world growing increasingly noisy with chaos and isolation. It historically is what endures from civilizations and we must consider our role in that commitment to the memory of who we are and have been.

War songs: Metaphors in clay and poetry from the Vietnam experience...available from Amazon

Interview with poet Emma Trelles

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:56:00 +0000

Emma Trelles is the author of Little Spells, a chapbook of poems published by GOSS 183 press. She is a a Pushcart Prize nominee for poetry and an arts and culture journalist. Most recently she was the art critic at the Sun-Sentinel for three years. Her poems and essays have appeared in publications such as Gulf Stream, OCHO, New Millennium Writings, the Miami Herald, Newsday, and Latina magazine. She was the editor of MiPOesias Magazine's American Cuban issue and a series editor for the Tigertail poetry annuals. She teaches creative writing at the Art Center of South Florida and lives near the ocean with Mark Zolezzi and their diva cat Mimi.

Interview

Your first book of poems Little Spells was just published by my press. I am curious why you picked a painting by a mentally ill artist for the cover?

There are many reasons, and one is that I own this painting. It hangs in our bedroom and is one of the last things I see before closing my eyes to sleep. I love its palette and grooved brushwork as much as I do the gender-based lore behind it, how woman have been justly and unjustly linked to magic: Eve and the apple, fairytale witches, martyred saints and such. I'm always interested in re-considering traditional takes on women and power. Also, I have a huge interest in the work of self-taught artists, also called outsider artists, probably because I've always felt like a bit of an odd bird myself.

The painter, Eric Holmes, had his own reasons for painting this piece, and I doubt they had anything to do with mine. But I find his work compelling, and was introduced to it when I wrote a story about National Art Exhibitions by the Mentally Ill (NAEMI). The organization was founded by Cuban-born photographer and poet Juan Martin, a lovely man devoted to art and to its role in serving artists diagnosed with mental illness. Many of their paintings are childlike, in the best possible sense, and that purity and utter disregard for fame or status appeals to me.

How many years of work is this collection based on?

The oldest poem in this book, "Hunger," was written in my first year of grad school, some time in the mid 90s I imagine. The newest was written a few weeks before the book was published. So I suppose I worked for ten years on this collection, but not continuously. Far from it.

What is the correlation between your heritage and the "spells"?

There is an abundance of prayer and ritual within the Cuban culture, and a lot of it is tied to both Catholicism and the African-based faith known as Yoruba. It's not uncommon to find small altars in Cuban households; while growing up, I saw them in my own and in the homes of my friends and family. Even today I have a few tucked around the corners of our house. Some Cubans light candles for luck, or we offer coins or incense to la Santa Barbara for protection. I don't even consider any of this all that religious anymore. To me it's an ongoing part of my heritage.

Have any of your poems been inspired from a painting?

Not yet, although I find, as of late, that artists' names and motifs are sneaking into my work. Marc Chagal found his way into the ending of "From the Shorecrest" as I was rewriting it. I can say, though, that working as a full time art critic was a great source of inspiration in terms of creating. How can a poet not be energized while standing in front of a canvas by Georgia O'Keeffe? Or the jewel-like woodblock prints made by Hiroshige? I was constantly seeing masterful works by all sorts of artists, reading and writing about them too. In the middle of the work day, you could often find me drifting through some gallery scribbling in my notebook. I suspect that a lot of what I saw and wrote about will seep its way into my poems. I'm looking forward to that.

Which artist would you consider illustrating your poetry?

If I could summon the dead, I would say Frida Kahlo, or I would love to have Diane Arbus photograph portraits that would correlate with my work. It would be pretty cool to see what she would come up with for "Chicken Lady" ! If I was restricted to living artists, I picture Elizabeth Peyton, Eric Drooker, Raymond Pettibon, Craig Kucia, Beatrice Monteavaro, Mark Ryden - to name but a brief few. I think my poems would shore up nicely against the figurative and story-telling spirit of these artists. Not sure if they'd feel the same way, but hey, you asked...

Leave us with your poetic statement.

Read as many poems as you can. Every day. Write down all lines and words that float through your skull. You must record them when they arrive because they are ghosts and will disappear into the ether unless pinned down to the page. Send out your poems. Sulk briefly about rejections and then send out some more. Be curious about everything. Listen to music. Look at art. Ride your bicycle through weedy lots and back alleys. Read the newspaper, read novels old and new, read magazines devoted to culture and trash. Find yourself a human to love. Live your life of letters, but remember to live your life outside of them too. All of it will boil down into your poems. No one knows how this happens, but it does. Keep faith. Keep writing.

Interview with artist Janelle McKain

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 12:30:00 +0000

Janelle McKain (born April 4, 1958) in North Platte, Nebraska, USA, is a traditional pencil artist working in a surreal style. Her portfolio includes watercolor and acrylic painting, but she is best known for her pencil and pen & ink drawings. Janelle attained her Bachelor’s degree in K-12 Art Education with an endorsement in Gifted Education in Dec 79, from Kearney State College. In 1980 she began her teaching career, and has taught art education the past 28 years at all levels (elementary, middle school, and high school) in various public schools across the state of Nebraska. Presently, she is Department Chair, and teaches Drawing and Advanced Drawing at Millard South High School, Omaha, NE. She has over 36 post graduate study hours at various universities.

Collaborative drawings with numerous international artists have become a source of inspiration for McKain in the past two years and she actively participates in The Exquisite Corpse and The Antipodes Project. When not in the classroom, Janelle is found in her studio at home exploring the passion for her own work. Her desire to create has become overwhelming in the past several years.

Exhibits:
Hot Shops Art Center / Omaha, NE – Aug 2009
NATA Juried Art Educator Exhibit / Concordia University / Oct 2008

Publications:
Local newspaper/West O Connection, feature article – July 2008
Art XX magazine – Summer/Fall 2008 issue, page 71
VAIN magazine – Fall 2008 issue

Interview

How does your environment influence your work?

My environment has very little to do with my work. I try to escape reality through my drawing. My work provides a window into my subconscious. As I begin a new piece - I see images appear on the paper, and I tend to elaborate and flourish what appears (foregoing all rational thought and reason.) I believe this to be a form of automatism, but certainly not in its purest form. Nearly all of my drawings are unplanned, unscripted. I begin as I feel inspired, and let the images and shapes come forth. I enjoy the freedom in drawing without constraints. What is happening in my environment often triggers me to escape from it… As a child, I experienced very colorful and vivid dreams. Ghosts came to my room and sat on my bed until age 15. I was fearful of going to sleep at night. Images, memories, and dreams that were so very unsettling as a youngster have a way of appearing in various forms in my work today.

Which artist do you admire or has the biggest influence on your work?

I deeply admire the work of Zdzislaw Beksinski, a Polish artist whose drawings are intricate, and demonstrate obsessive rendering skills. Beksinski’s drawings are intensely haunting and mysterious, somewhat nightmarish, and surreal.

What is your preferred medium?

Presently using graphite, micron tech pen, and colored pencil. Though, I have a passion for watercolor as well.

Do you have any problems finding models to pose for you?

I have no use for live models. Most everything I need to see is behind my eyes when I close them. If I need a finger, or an eye, or leg, I just look in the mirror or use deviant art stock photos of various models. If I need an animal image or such, I also use stock images from deviant art.

Interview with visual artist Sami Miranda

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:34:00 +0000

Sami Miranda is a poet, visual artist and teacher residing in Washington, DC. His poetry has been published in MiPOesias, The Chiron Review, Beltway and other print and online journals. He has read at venues that include, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian Museum of American Art and GALA Theater. Sami is a founding member of the Tres Raices Arts Collective and is currently creating in collaboration and conversation with artists whose work makes him want to listen, look and linger.

Interview

Do you find a correlation between poets and artists?

There is a definite correlation between poets and artists. The creation of art whether it is the written word, a visual manifestation or movement is a process, through that process we are all seeking to create questions for the viewer, the reader or ourselves. Some may be creating questions that are purely about aesthetics while others are looking to cause us to question our roles, purpose and the path we are on. Being a visual artist and a poet I realize that regardless of the art-form I choose to work in, the work is forcing me to see and not just look. It is causing me to try and define what I see and figure out what my relationship with it should be.

Have any of your poems ever been inspired by a painting?

A lot of my poetry in the last year has been in conversation with the visual work of Washington, DC artists. These artists include, Lazaro Batista (painter) and Francisco Rosario (photographer) whose art is about narrating stories of survival and work. I have also had a chance to develop poems in conversation with work hanging in the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, pieces such as Pepon Osorio¹s El Chandelier and Jesus Moroles¹ Granite Weaving. The opportunity to read these poems alongside musicians added another layer to the conversation as words allowed bass, guitar, drums and turntables to improvise their own interpretation of the artwork, often
in a setting where listeners were viewing the work itself.

If you were to pick and artist to represent one of your poems who would it be?

If I were to pick an artist to represent my work it would have to be an artist who would participate in a conversation where both our work would be influenced by the process. That being said many of the artists I would choose are in the DC metropolitan area or nearby urban centers such as Baltimore and Philadelphia, and include artists like sculptors Wilfredo Valladares and Jong Sun ³Jay² Lee, video artists Zulma Aguiar and Alberto Roblest, electronica musician Yoko K. and painter Roger Chavez.

How do you feel about print vs online publications?

Considering the extent to which the internet has become an often much more accessible vehicle than print I would say that each has its appeal. I enjoy the way online publications allow for the possibility of a multimedia presentation of the work and also always look forward to holding a book or journal that I can physically flip through.

Would you submit to a publisher if they used a blog for their publication?

I would definitely submit to a publisher who was using a blog for their publication. Blogs have become an important way to communicate ideas and create conversations between the blogger, the subject matter featured on the blog and the reader. I see blogs as an avenue that would allow for a greater audience as well as an opportunity for the author to see the interactions that others are having with his/her work through the comments posted.

Do you consider the aesthetics of a publisher before submitting to them?

As a visual artist aesthetics are important to me, and a publisher¹s aesthetic is something I would take into consideration, but I would then have to balance that with circulation and the quality of work published. It¹s nice to be pretty but if you've got no substance, so people just look and keep walking, what¹s it really matter.

When was the last time you read a poem you wished you had written and if so, who wrote it?

There have been a few poems in the last year that have made me wish I had written them, and they came from one of three places; Tim Seibles, Aracelis Girmay or young people in writing workshops between the ages of 10 and 17.

Are you working on a new manuscript?

I am currently working a manuscript that is a collection of poems in conversation with music, photographs and paintings by artists and musicians residing in the Washington, DC metropolitan area as well as those musicians whose music are part of a history that ties me to Puerto Rico and the Bronx.

Who would you like to see featured in Oranges & Sardines?

I would love to see folks like Kyle Dargan, Fred Joiner, Naomi Ayala and Ernesto Mercer featured in Oranges and Sardines, they are strong voices and show what DC has to share with the rest of the country.

emBED ME

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 13:31:00 +0000

Get your own - Open publication

Oranges & Sardines Issue 3, Winter 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Didi Menendez) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 02:50:00 +0000

Oranges & Sardines Issue 3, Winter 2008 - Upload a Document to Scribd