Encounters with Kelsey and Amy on paper stairs

Two interesting young artists, roughly within the Poetry Scores orbit, are in the news these days - or in the poem and on the blog.

Kelsey LaPoint, photographed here at our Nailed Seraphim Art Invitational, emerges as a character or spirit in a new K. Curtis Lyle poem that I uploaded today to Curtis' blog, Barackutopia.

The fifth movement of the six-part poem is titled "Kelsey LaPoint Convenes a Conference of the Birds". How much of this avian parable relates to Kelsey and things about her she has shared with Curtis, and how much of it is the poet riffing on her spirit as he intuits it, is best known to them.

Here's a powerful movement from the Kelsey and the birds section of Curtis' poem:

*

A smooth door suddenly opened
And out stepped a golden locust called Truth
Wearing red cowboy boots.
He said, “Friends you’re a little late.
The debate is over. While you were sharing your pain,
Taking blood oaths, giving up mixed drinks, breaking
Mirrors, stopping clocks and dramatically waiting for
Bells to toll, you missed the debate. You came too late.
Take the expression for what its worth. You came late!
The show has been cancelled. The damsels in distress have
All been saved. The graves have all been opened. While you
Were standing in one spot hollering ‘hold on, I’m coming’,
You missed the resurrection, the redemption. While you
Were in the studio practicing the destruction of silence,
Strength elevated violence and cunning to the absolute psalm
of pinpoint accuracy.”

*

In that nice photo of Kelsey at our art invitational, the piece she is checking out is Paper stairs by Amy VanDonsel. Like the other pieces in the show, it responds to Curtis' poem Nailed Seraphim and takes its title from that poem.

Stephen Lindsley of the Art Patrol blog singled out Amy for praise in his note on the show. Listing her with other artists whose contributions "appeared to be significant departures from expected oeuvres," including Jon Cournoyer and Justin Tolentino, he says "VanDonsel’s work, in particular, deserves high praise."

Looking at previous work in her online gallery, I see Paper stairs as well within what Amy has been doing since before she found us (she was the first of a few artists who invited us, rather than we them), but I'll take for granted The Art Patrol sees a lot more local art than I do.

At any rate, it is a gorgeous piece of art, a fantasia of color that also has fun with the image she has sorted from the poem, by crafting the illusion of stairs from pieces of paper - while still creating an ominous feeling that (if you know the poem deals with 9/11) leaves you with the creeps of a tower that is about to fall.

Paper stairs is now in the private collection of Lynne Wasson, who bid and won at the opening.

Amy has been invited to show again in our Spring 2009 invitational (Sali's Ark) and our Fall 2009 invitational (The Sydney Highrise Variations). I have always tried to invite Kelsey to collaborate on everything since I first became aware of her work - no luck, yet!

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Photos of the painting by Thom Fletcher and of Kelsey by Elaine Marschik.