Out of paper, paint & words: an exchange of art

by Vasiliki Katsarou

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Can a poem paint a picture?

I've always been drawn to the visual image, and especially to the lure of visual abstraction. How the wordless can convey emotion, beyond all expectation. In my poetry I experiment with a verbal abstraction in which each word is a brushstroke, a voice stroke, whose texture is the sound, the shape, and the history of the individual word. In this poem, the double meaning of "Attic" and "A-lex" is intended.

I treasure my friendships with visual artists, and this collaboration with Alex Cohen is one such example. One day in his studio, he gifted me a self-portrait in exchange for a poem. My gratitude to Alex Cohen and his partner Clara Weishahn (Art at Kings Oaks).

You can see Alex’s recent work in person and online at Lancaster Galleries, May 6 through June 12, 2021.

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After an Attic Conversation with Alex

1.
the animals in the attic peer with human eyes
and the humans peer with animal eyes

2.
sharp bird, plucked feather
glaucous shard, like a cat’s eye

3.
in the whispered conversation
between Alex, the bird and the pitcher
the wall was overheard to say

I was naked and you clothed me

4.
the wall
whose gaze had been thumbed out
from the Greek θαμπὰ

5.
the bird whispered and the pitcher poured ink
through her eyes

words draped on a wall

6.
sharp bird, plucked feather
glaucous shard, like a cat’s eye

to shred, to shred

eyeball is all and every

in each fragment, an eye to see it

Poem by Vasiliki Katsarou
Self-portrait in cut paper by Alex Cohen
Solitude Hill
April 2020