Last night was the opening of the Visual Text project, a collaborative effort that paired a writer and a visual artist. Each pair approached the idea of “connection” in a way that mixed their arts. Each piece had to be 8″ x 8″ or had to fold into 8″ x 8″ dimensions.

Poets, playwrights, and fiction writers worked with photographers, painters, printmakers, and letterpress artists. The results were beautiful and interesting and wonderful.

My partner and I made a series of three pieces, which aren’t titled but which we affectionately refer to by their subject matter: “the Chair,” “the Teapot,” and “the Curtain.” Each one is a dollhouse miniature (or other miniature) of the object, and the poem that goes with it represents the fantasy those objects have for themselves. We thought we were pretty brilliant about this. 🙂

Several writers read beautiful works at the opening–some from their project, others from unrelated pieces. I read “the Chair” and two other recent poems, “Garden” and “Lapsarian.” It’s amazing to me how much reading can inject life into a piece that maybe you’re not so excited about anymore.

The Visual Text show runs through Friday at the Harry Wood Gallery in the Art Building at ASU.