Evidence: Frog
Green Frog (Rana clamitans)
“At night I went out into the dark and saw a glimmering star and heard a frog, and Nature seemed to say, Well do not these suffice?” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Photo ©2017 Jen Payne, from the upcoming book Evidence of Flossing: What We Leave Behind. Quote: Emerson, Ralph Waldo. The Heart of Emerson’s Journals.
Microcosm
The spider had a curious look
not curious as in odd,
but curious, inquisitive, intrigued.
I saw him from the corner of my eye
watching me, then rummaging
through a pile of paper,
back again for a second look,
peering as if to say Who Are YOU?
(or WHAT I suppose)
Perhaps the same look of WHAT?
the fish had as it soared over the pond
yesterday afternoon…
Who are YOU? to the osprey,
and WHEN did I learn to fly?
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. Image: Microcosm, Remedios Varo
Don’t Miss Where the Whole Universe Dwells!
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven presents Where the Whole Universe Dwells at Perspectives…The Gallery at Whitney Center. Where the Whole Universe Dwells brings together five artists who balance between tangible and intangible through an innate understanding of smallness within a vast universe and the relationship between infinitesimal and cosmic.
The Arts Council will host an opening reception on Saturday, May 20 from 3 to 5 p.m. The reception will feature artists talks at 2 p.m.
The exhibition, curated by Debbie Hesse, will be on view to the public through Aug. 27, 2017, at the gallery located at 200 Leeder Hill Dr., Hamden, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4-7 p.m., and Saturdays, 1-4 p.m. The exhibit is free and open to the public.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Jennifer Davies (Branford) uses papermaking to create her own intuitive forms that suggest cracked rock walls, delicate spider webs and the phases of the moon. By twisting, turning, dyeing, and stretching paper to explore its inherent properties, she creates a strong sense of physicality presence with resulting works that suggest aerial map views or the earth’s surface.
Nancy Eisenfeld (North Haven) looks at cycles of decay and resiliency using colors that correspond to the four elements of nature in her painted abstract washes.
Anne Doris-Eisner (Woodbridge) creates commanding black and white charcoal portraits of trees that juxtapose extreme attention to detail yet achieves a gestalt, creating a sense that the trees connect everything in life.
Peter Konsterlie’s (Bridgeport) paintings are both gestural and analytic, blurring boundaries between line, color and pattern to form pulsating spaces that suggest fantastical, unchartered territories that are simultaneously minute and vast.
Jen Payne (Branford) is a writer and photographer whose photographs in the show juxtapose plastic remains on the natural and human-made landscape.
For more information about Where the Whole Universe Dwells and Perspectives… The Gallery at Whitney Center email communications@newhavenarts.org or call (203) 772-2788.
IMAGE: Flosser with Paperclip at ATM, June 2016, ©Jen Payne. See also: Gallery Show and Sneak Peek
as she behaves, so will she be
I’ll be honest,
as I saved the spider
from sure destruction
and placed him gently
on the morning sill,
I wondered
if perhaps I’d earned
a bit of karma,
if maybe the gesture
would spare me
the sure destruction
of betrayals —
disappointments.
But everyday humans
don’t bide by karma,
never mind what gurus say,
so the spider went about his,
and I my business for the day
knowing this:
salvation, like love, is random.
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. IMAGE: A bird perched on a tree branch with blossoms, watching a spider on a web, Katsushika Hokusai, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.
Her Captive Audience
Pay attention.
That’s her soul
you’re reading,
cut up into
ransomed letters—
dreams and fears
neatly spelled,
the “what she dare not say”
at last released.
Look closely,
you may still see paste
on the poet’s fingers.
Poem ©2017, Jen Payne. Image: Number 20, Bradley Walker Tomlin
Sugar and Spice
No. I won’t BE NICE.
Don’t for a moment think
it’s not my right to ask the questions.
No. I will not SIT DOWN AND BEHAVE.
Do not speak to my protest
with that patronizing tone.
No. I will not quell my laugh.
Do not think your CONVICTION
changes my outrage.
No. I will not stop.
No. I will not stop.
No. I will not stop.
That’s what little girls are made of.
