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Artist Stacy Isenbarger
What inspires you in this poem?
I am inspired (and I'm going to find awkward words here—this is why I tend to communicate visually) by the tone of quiet hope for rebuilding along side the strange embrace of neglect that just happens with valued relationships over time.
When you began this piece, was it color, shape, or some other aspect that you followed? Did that change?
The color royal blue had a strong impact in my sketching process but also the idea of limbs being both human and tree. I found myself counting and creating itemized lists of thoughts during my design process too. These ideas progressed and danced their way into my depicted response.
What caught your eye in the visual response by your fellow Broadsided artist?
There is little green triangle that's wedged just below the more structural formation within the image and I find the tension of that space perfect in reflection of this poem. When reading "Landing Under Water I See Roots," I was struck by a sense of someone wanting to collect a more solid foundational support or community and Jennifer's articulation of this space gestures towards my thoughts on the poem with more success.
What is it like to see both visual responses to the poem?
I feel like I'm just part of a deeper dialog about the implications a poem can project. Our visual responses to Annie's words have similarities and I appreciate feeling I'm on "target" somehow in this regard. But where our work differs challenges and rewards much in the same way a good spiritual debate with a friend can.
If you had to represent your Broadsided collaboration of "Landing Under Water I See Roots" with one word, what would it be?
Levitation
If you had to represent your fellow artist's Broadsided collaboration with one word, what would it be?
Mist
Read any good books lately?
Just finished A Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit (also an inspiring force to my fixation on the color blue lately) and I'm now digging into Don DeLillo's Underworld. Good stuff to wander through...
Seen any good art lately?
May I suggest checking out Agatha Gothe-Snape... or Alejandro Almanza Pereda ...or this fantastic soul, Ana Trincão... or all of them.
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Poet Annie Finch
What did you think an artist would pick up on from your poem?
I thought they'd pick up on the imagery of trees and roots.
Did either visual artist refract any element of the poem that made you see the poem differently?
Stacy Isenbarger brings the human body into it very clearly, which surprises me by reminding me that it is, after all, a poem about love and relationship. Jennifer Moses does the opposite, making a piece that surprises me by being even more abstract and self-contained than the poem.
Does anything surprising rise to the surface when you consider the two pieces of art and your poem together?
It surprises me to be reminded that "Landing Under Water, I See Roots" is, after all, a poem about the possibility of connecting with people, about the spectrum of human connection. Sometimes I forget that because I am so close to the poem's metaphorical imagery.
Have you ever written work that has been inspired by visual art?
Yes, often! I've written poems inspired by art by Vermeer, Edward Weston, and others, and poems about buildings and murals, and I've also done collaborations with a number of visual artists.
If you had to represent Stacy Isenbarger's collaboration of "Landing Under Water I See Roots" with one word, what would it be?
Suggestive
If you had to represent Jennifer Moses's Broadsided collaboration with one word, what would it be?
Elemental
Read any good books lately?
Since the wonderful poet and goddess scholar Patricia Monaghan died recently, I've been rereading her books: The Goddess Companion, The
Goddess Path, Wild Girls, The Magical Garden... They are all wonderful!
Seen any good art lately?
I've just seen some very good art by a Maine artist named Richard Wilson. He does grids of tiny squares, each with a tiny little scene, and the scenes connect in all the directions—forward, backwards, etc—to make stories. It's beautiful, archetypal, and intriguing.
Anything else?
Thanks for including me in this series. It's a fascinating process!
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Artist Jennifer Moses
What inspires you in this poem?
I was inspired to think about the undercurrents of things and how there is a private embedded subtext in our brains in our chests. It drives us and runs deep.
When you began this piece, was it color, shape, or some other aspect that you followed? Did that change?
I went straight for the color and how I would depict a watery world. I also wanted a disparate language of sharp edges existing within the rolling waves.
What caught your eye in the visual response by your fellow Broadsided artist?
I liked the openness of form and how the image and the words interact. I also loves the collaged surface and the surprise of how beautifully the different materials like embroidery and watercolor existed so seamlessly together.
What is it like to see both visual responses to the poem?
I really like to see the both the similarities and the differences in the responses. I love to play the looking game of taking a big narrative topic like the annunciation and tracking different artists responses across the ages. Looking at the variety of combinations and responses in the Broadsides gives me the same kind of thrill.
Read any good books lately?
Yes! Andrew Solomon's Far from the Tree.
Seen any good art lately?
Yes always! Saw some beautiful new larger collage works by Ambreen Butt also Vera Iliatova's new work. Iwant to get to New York and see the Max Ernst collages at the Morgan Library and lots of other stuff too!
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