Saturday, October 16, 2010

Saturday Sharing (My Finds Are Yours)

Art, words, and photography get all the attention in this week's edition of Saturday Sharing.

✭ In Britain, the proof of success of the Out of Art Into Literacy project can be seen in these children's writings and drawings inspired by paintings in the National Gallery in London. Involving more than 1,200 children, the project culminated with an exhibition of selections from participants' work, which remains on view at the National Gallery until December 5. Be sure to take 10 minutes to watch the video about the project. This Guardian article about the project also gives some background on the schools that took part.

✭ Take time to explore the projects of students participating in the  Israeli/Palestinian Literature Project posted at poet Philip Metres' Website. Included are students' interviews, media analyses, and creative projects illustrating perspectives, representations, and narratives of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. Metres is an award-winning writer; most recently he received a 2010 Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist (Literature).

✭ The great Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky joined many colleagues in the field in turning his lens on the BP oil spill in the Gulf. Some of his stunning images of the environmental disaster can be seen here.

Burtynsky's Oil, which I saw at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., is touring through 2012; be sure to see the show if it comes to your city or town. (Below is a quick video introduction to the exhibit.) Once you've seen Burynsky's photographs, you can never again look at our landscape without thinking of the damage we do. 

Edward Burtynsky: Oil from Corcoran Gallery of Art on Vimeo.

✭ If you've never watched poetry before, you're in for a treat when you visit MotionPoems. Work by such well-known poets as Robert Bly and Jane Hirshfield has been animated and set to music or the poets' own voice recordings. MotionPoems is a collaborative project between art designer and animator Angella Kassube and poet Todd Boss. The project's series of videos also can be found on this YouTube channel. Additional information on MotionPoems, including a list of "poets in the queue", and a video animation of one of Boss's own poems is here. (My thanks for this find go to Keith at Under the Blue Light, the Indiana Review's blog.)

✭ A literacy prize surely is in store for the "Superior Person's Tuesday", a weekly feature at David R. Godine's Sparrow Press blog. Go there and every Tuesday you'll find one-of-a-kind words that no one who wants friends will dare utter over cocktails. Example: temulency. Remember it. Its definition could come in handy for those crossword puzzles you complete in ink. 

For those who aren't satisfied with waiting for a Tuesday fix, go here and order your own copy of The Superior Person's Book of Words, or one of its variants: The Superior Person's Second Book of Weird and Wondrous Words, The Superior Person's Third Book of Well-Bred Words, and The Superior Person's Field Guide to Deceitful, Deceptive & Downright Dangerous Language.

✭ The photojournalism at Luceo Images, a photographer-owned and -operated cooperative, is some of the best available. See especially the recent features "Homeless in America for AARP Part I" and "Gulf Spill Bird Rehab for Mother Jones".

5 comments:

A. Jay Adler said...

One could have concerns with MotionPoems about visual redundancy, but this can also be an excellent teaching tool for those new to poetry. In the very good "The God of Our Farm Had Blades," the very strong verbal images are are vividly accentuated in their power for those who might not so readily see the image in the word.

Jingle said...

helpful and inspirational words..
admire your rich knowledge on the subject.

L.L. Barkat said...

Oh boy! That Motion Poems is a REAL find. I loved it. So exciting to see poetry and art together that way.

S. Etole said...

the intricacy of the art done by children of such a young age was amazing ....

drew myron said...

Thanks for sharing the motion poems. Great stuff!