Poetry Scores Invitational 2009- "600 Glittering and Genteel Towns"

"600 Glittering and Genteel Towns" 2009
8 x 16" each, mixed media on canvas

I will be participating in the 2009 Poetry Scores Art Invitational on Friday, Nov. 13 at The Luminary Arts Center, 4900 Reber Place at South Kingshighway- right across from Tower Grove Park. Poetry Scores is a local arts organization that translates poetry into other media, their main medium is the poetry score- a long poem set to music as one scores a film. At the CD release party for the finished score, an art auction will take place, contributing artists having made work that both responds to the poem and is titled after a verbatim quote from the poem. This year’s Invitational is devoted to the poem “The Sydney Highrise Variations” by the Australian poet Les Murray.

I was honored to be asked to be invited by Chris King, editorial director of the award-winning St. Louis American, Confluence City blogger, and hard-working Poetry Scores board member. While I am no poet, I regularly lift bits of song lyrics/titles as inspiration for my work, so I am notably qualified. After studying Les Murray’s poem closely for a couple months in preparation for my finished artwork, I settled on my vision for the line "600 Glittering and Genteel Towns", Murray's lament for Sydney's ambition to rival urban America's own seemingly neverending upward vigor in pursuit of modernity- an aspiration that ignored the regional individuality already present in the townships and burbs inland.

I was inspired by several birdseye views plucked from the internet of the sprawl North and East of the city, including the Parramatta River valley leading to Harbour Bridge. Views of these valleys and riverways were the groundwork for my initial drawings on the canvases, leading to the shaped, finished mixed media pieces. Yes, that IS glitter shimmering over my paintings- "600 Glittering and Genteel Towns", get it? Sorry I couldn't resist; I might end up the Andy Warhol of this little invitational, but at least I didn't piss on them or use diamond dust, so...
The bidding will start at $50.00 per canvas, and if you find another painting you like by another participant in this incredible roster of St. Louis artists you like better, by all means grab it- you might not get another chance to get work by these folks for such a low price point.