The Poetic Dialogue Project opens tonight!

If you happen to live in or near Chicago you might consider attending the opening of The Poetic Dialogue tonight from 6-8pm at The Chicago Cultural Center Yates Gallery.
I have a piece in it called Ill Wind. A poem by Michael Ryan accompanies the piece along with a brief text on the process of making the work.
Mixed media (photograph, beeswax and masonite board), 30"x30"

Ill Wind
Two red birds
high on a wire
one said love
one said fire

Two black birds
deep in a tree
one said you
one said me

But wind came up
and tossed them away
no one hears
what they say

by Michael Ryan
"Ill Wind" first appeared in The New Yorker

The poem was etched on the waxed surface of the photograph then
melted. As the words blended with the image, something otherwise
inarticulate seemed to become embodied in the connection between this
particular poem and this particular photograph altered in this
particular way.

A review by Paul Klein in his Art Letter of the show:

"One of the most impressive exhibitions I’ve seen in a long time - the kind of substantive, meaty, thoughtful presentation I’ve been yearning for is titled Collaborative Vision: The Poetic Dialogue Project. (Thanks Fletcher for the reminder.) Curated by Chicago artist Beth Shadur, the exhibit pairs a poet and a visual artist. Obviously both have their artistic inclinations, but here there’s mutual respect and the challenge of responding to and incorporating the vision of the other.

This is the slowest exhibit I can remember; slow in the sense that here you want to spend a lot of time with each piece, to experience the different affinities of each contributor. Sometimes the most obvious collaborative act of putting words on art was what was done, but even so, reading the wall text, reveals the many different ways a consensus was arrived at. Other times words and images meld, like the time the text is laid on the painting in wax - and then melted. Or submerged under a reticular plastic so that alternatively you see text or an image. I found the show to be intensely rich, filled with thoroughly competent artists..."

An exhibition catalogue is available from Blurb by clicking here.
Other events planned for the exhibition.
Friday, January 30, 6-8pm: Opening reception, Yates Gallery
Saturday, January 31, 2pm: Poetry in Motion strolling poetry readings
Yates Gallery
Saturday, February 14, 2:30-4:15pm: Panel on collaborative process
with poets and artists, sponsored by the Ragdale Foundation, Claudia
Cassidy Theatre, 2nd Floor
Friday, February 27, 12:15pm: Curator's tour, Yates Gallery
Saturday, March 14, 2pm: Panel on collaborative process with poets
and artists, Claudia Cassidy Theatre, 2nd Floor
Thursday, March 19, 12:15pm: Curator's Tour
The exhibition closes April 5th and then will travel to other venues.