‘Visual Verse’ — art and poetry created locally —
Available in area bookstores for holiday giving
Sunapee-area artists, writers and their supporters are reminded that the locally published Visual Verse — Art and Poetry Inspired by The Fells is available for purchase and holiday gift-giving at local bookstores and other outlets.
The volume, co-published earlier this year by The Center for the Arts, Lake Sunapee Region, and The Fells Historic Estate & Gardens, captures the work of 12 local artists and 18 poets: the artists as they interpret the beauty and history of The Fells on canvas and other media, and the poets as they interpret those works in verse. It has drawn the praise of local reviewers, among them artist-author Caroline Fairless and environmental educator Dave Anderson. Fairless writes:
” This book is a treasure. It wakens and quickens our history, our legend. The place, the art, and the poetry come together in a breath of surprise, awe, gratitude: scenes completed with words, words given meaning through color, and all of it against the backdrop of The Fells.”
“The power of this shared effort is revealed slowly through layers of perspectives, through looking from one vantage and then another. The mix of voices and color swirl together and distinct; it’s like coming across the surprise of a wildflower patch in the midst of a forest.”
And from Anderson, director of education at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests:
“In re-reading each poem, I discover new and deeper connections the poets pulled from each painting. The myriad connections are both objective and subjective, reflecting moods captured by the work of those deft with brush and palette and striking notes of poetry — like strings or chords — where poets found themselves drawn in response to each image.”
The book may be purchased for $15 at the Morgan Hill Book Store in New London; BookEnds in Warner; Gibson’s Book Store in Concord; and several other business locations in the Lake Sunapee area. Members of the Center For the Arts, The Fells, and the John Hay Poetry Society may buy the book directly through those organizations for a special price of $10.
Artists whose work appears in Visual Verse include Sharon Allen, Debbie Campbell, Grace Cooper, Elizabeth D’Amico,Elizabeth Beaudoin Gouin, Jennifer McCalmont, Lennie Mullaney, Gwen Nagel, Chris Reid, Elizabeth Slater, Patricia Sweet-MacDonald, and Tatiana Yanovskya-Sink.
Contributing poets include Dan Allen; Mary Blohm, Peter Bradley, Sherrill Atherton Crow, Amber Rose Crowtree, Natalie Davis, Joan T. Doran, Catherine Anastasi Feeney, Cynthia Jones, Robert Manchester, Catherine R. O’Bria, Anne Sarkisian, Liz Tentarell, William D. Tighe, Dianalee Velie, Jody Wells, Pat Whitney, and Loa Winter.
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