MCWC  The Mendocino Quill
  • The Quill
  • ABOUT
  • CONTACT | SUBMISSIONS
  • GET LINKED

Ekphrasis, Art Describing Other Art

10/23/2014

 

Ponderings by Henri Bensussen, MCWC board member and
Mendocino Quill's editor, a.k.a. The Maven

Picture
Henri serves on the board of the Mendocino Coast Writers Conference. She worries endlessly, fruitlessly, and in between writes tragic poetry and comical short stories.


Email Henri
as the Blog Maven
Each year, for the past three years, artists from the Artists Co-op of Mendocino exchange their work, anonymously packaged, with one page stories and poems from writers of the Mendocino Coast branch of the California Writers Club, also presented anonymously. This year, twenty pairs participated in the event. Artists, banging drums and tambourines, arrived at the August meeting of the writers club to perform what has become a ritual of Ekphrasis. 

What is this ritual about? Let’s start with a definition from the writer’s friend, Wikipedia: 

“Ekphrasis ... a rhetorical device in which one medium of art tries to relate to another medium by defining and describing its essence and form, and in doing so, relate more directly to the audience, through its illuminative liveliness. A descriptive work of prose or poetry, a film, or 
even a photograph may thus highlight through its rhetorical vividness what is happening, or what is shown in, say, any of the visual arts, and in doing so, may enhance the original art and so take on a life of its own.”
As one of the writers who has participated in all three shows, twice having poems interpreted by artists, and once interpreting a photograph, I look forward to the drama of the opening at the Artists Co-op gallery each October. Our various creative outputs have indeed taken on lives of their own. We writers enter to see our work, now duly identified by name, interpreted in paint, collage, or sculpture in ways we had never considered. The artists join us, excited to express and explain how they came to interpret our words in their unique ways. Then it’s their turn to consider how their work becomes a story or poem written by us. 
Picture
Picture
A few days later, the artists join us at our meeting, where we read our works as the art is portrayed in a slideshow. Here are a few pictures from the party:
Picture

Donald Shephard's "We Walked Our Love to Point Cabrillo Light"
Inspired 
Karen Reynolds'  Cabrillo Ked
Acrylic on Canvas Shoe
Picture

Picture


Doug Fortier's "Candace of the
Kingdom of Kush, 332 B.C."
Interpreted
Lynne Butler's Gratitude
Ceramic

Picture
The show was curated by Karen Reynolds of the art gallery, 
and Katherine Brown of the writers club.

Comments are closed.
    CONFERENCE WEBSITE:
    www.MCWC.org
    Blog Posts Via E-Mail

    RSS Feed

    (RSS Feed) Chrome users who see code: get Google RSS extension
    Submission Guidelines

    Tags

    All
    Amie McGee
    Art Car
    Believe In Yourself
    Blake More
    Chapbooks
    Diverse Books
    Ellen Bass
    Essay
    Evoke Memory
    Evoking The Muse
    Find Prompts
    Find Publisher
    Find Time To Write
    Flockworks
    Frame
    Hether Ludwig
    Indigo Moor
    Influence Of TV
    Interviews
    James W. Hall
    Janet Self
    Jasper Henderson
    Jessica Kotnour
    Karen Lewis
    Kate Erickson
    Kat Meads
    Kenyon College
    Kim Addonizio
    Laura Atkins
    Les Standiford
    Malcolm Margolin
    Marcela Griffin
    Marketing
    Mary Karr
    Maureen Eppstein
    Meet Agent
    Memoir
    MFA
    Molly Dwyer
    Montage
    Motivations
    NaNoWriMo
    Nicole Idar
    Nona Smith
    Norma Watkins
    Noyo River Review
    Passionate Writers
    Peter Orner
    Poetry
    Poetry And Photography
    Poetry Manuscript
    Poets & Writers
    Printing Press
    Print Power
    Promotion
    Publishers Marketplace
    Reyna Grande
    Romance Novels
    Scene
    Scott Hutchins
    Self Publishing
    SFSU
    Sharon Dubiago
    Teen Experience
    Titles
    Tragic Poetry
    Traveling Sprinkler
    Why I Write
    Writers Conference
    Writers Groups
    Writing Contest
    Writing Critique
    Writing Discipline
    Writing Goals
    Writing Time
    Young Adult

Proudly powered by Weebly