I was so struck by the volume of this dinner service, I wanted to write about it. If you click the source link in the caption below, it will take you to The Met where you can zoom in for…
writing
A Roman Feast – A Poem
My first prompt for “A Roman Feast” was the image at the very bottom of the page of a Roman serving vessel. I began to imagine what was actually served in it – which led to peacock, snails and dormice….
Migrant Mother – A Poem
It’s funny what we remember, and how memory is triggered. In this case, by a soup bowl. More of my ekphrastic poems can be found here. More on the huitain form here. Migrant Mother My mother made me drink pea…
Life in Arles – A Poem
I love that you can access incredible artworks through galleries’ open access policies. I encourage you to follow the links in either the quote or the caption below and see van Gogh’s painting in zoom close up. There’s no way…
Break The Cycle – A Poem
The Art Institute Chicago tells us that this painting is from a much larger portrait of a family that Manet decided to cut into sections, not all of which have survived. It was not the only time Manet decided to…
Still Life with Asparagus and Red Currants – A Poem
In the National Gallery of Art’s description of Still Life with Asparagus and Red Currants, it notes: “Whether depicting a bowl of cherries, an arrangement of exotic shells, or a bunch of asparagus, as in this small masterpiece, [Adriaen Coorte]…
Strawberries, Nuts, &c. – A Poem
Riddle Me This How is it possible –Orange, so fresh the leaf is intactRuby-red strawberries that if wild would collapseTogether with nuts and raisins, to beIn the same still life in a nineteenth centuryComposition? What, summer and winter?Unless, if not…
Cherries – A Poem
This project of mine, writing poems as a response to food-themed art, has the added benefit of making me more mindful of small things. Like cherries. They have associations beyond, well, cherries. I remembered Marcel Proust and his madeleines. They…
Figs – A Poem
Figs are one of my favourite fruit. When I was in Greece, I was thunderstuck by the amount of figs fallen to the footpaths from overhanging trees. Fallen figs were underfoot. All that gorgeous bounty, gone to waste. I was…
Beyond the Fireplace – A Poem
If you follow the source link in the caption below the image, you’ll discover that this painting was used as a screen in a fireplace. The idea was to make it look like there was another room beyond the hearth….
For the Cubists – A Poem
The artist here, Ben Benn was a pioneering modernist. Born in 1884 in what is now known as Ukraine, he migrated to America with his family and settled in New York, where he first exhibited in the early 1900s with…
Five Things I’ve Learned Writing This Blog
It’s been only nine months since I launched this baby, but it feels like a maternity! 👀 The right theme gives you enjoyment I was correct to invest in a theme from that aesthetically appealed to me. I enjoy the…
