Late last fall, my aunt came to visit to see a major Surrealism art show at the Philadelphia Museum of Art: Dreamworld. This is my Berkeley-based aunt who introduced me to surrealism when I was a graduate student in the UC system decades ago, in whose company I experienced my first Remedios Varo painting. (Let’s not neglect Leonora Carrington. Transformative.)
Naturally, my partner and I leapt at the chance to go with Aunt Bets to Dreamworld. The exhibit was horrifying and fabulous, dark yet whimsical. As we were leaving, we turned a corner and found another exhibit, variations off zinc printing plates by the talented Krishna Reddy. This is my picture of “Two Fishes” from that gallery:
Did I mention my aunt is a book artist and printmaker too? We spent some time in the Reddy wing, drove hours home to Baltimore in the rain, chatting about art and life.
At the Cosmic Gallery is part of my Ekphrastic Fantastic series — my twist on the ekphrastic is that these largely respond to invented art — art that exists only in my head. This poem took shape quickly, inspired by the show and the technique of the zinc plates.
In it — as in many of my works — are pointers: homage to other artists and scientists, plus nods, themes or conversations with other works of mine. For example, the Gallery also appears in Nightmares on Exhibit (short story in the Fallen anthology and a true ekphrastic). The volcano also appears in Climbing Olympus Mons (originally The World of Myth, and the only poem I chose for both Constellation and The Women of Myth chapbooks). Visit to a Private Collection of Parietal Art (Dreams & Nightmares) also is part of the Ekphrastic Fantastic series (cf my homage to David on SpecPoBlog) and references the same volcano. The web net descending channels Snow on the Interstellar Netfeed (SpecPoVerse).
Notably, I got the idea to do the series Ekphrastic Fantastic after a conversation about the popularity of the ekphrastic with my partner and aunt while on a trip to visit a volcano.
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