Ekphrastic Folk Art 2

 What Happens When Folk Art Gets Ekphrastic?

To find out, I invited several writers to mix it up; to play with the above folkloric image. Using their literary talents, they did just that. Jumping right into the challenge, they created inspiring storylines and conversations.

But, before I show you the results, here are brief explanations of what ekphrastic and folk art are.

 What is Folk Art?

Folk art, in general – art made by folk - is “decorative” art applied to functional (everyday) items. Popular examples include weather vanes, Dutch hexagons, furniture, quilts, and hand painted plates. 

What is Ekphrastic?

Ekphrastic is a term that describes the practice of using words to comment on a piece of visual art (i.e, painting, photograph, sculpture) and has been around since ancient times. For example, in The Iliad, Homer provides a lengthy, discursive account of the elaborate scenes embossed on the shield of Achilles. 

The word ekphrasis is a combination of two Greek words: ex (out) and phrazein (to point out, explain).

Visit Folk Art 1 

Now, onto the excellent and innovative poetry and flash fiction of Helen Laylock, Glenn Barker, Celeste Schueler, Karen Pierce Gonzalez  

AND SHE GREW WINGS…                                                                           

Pebbled cold, she is spat aside
by a poisoned river.
 
Nurses feed sunshine into her veins
to pile her skull with moss
 
and Mama interlocks the threads
of all her dreams into a tasselled bonnet.
 
Her satin scalp softly feathers;
fledgling tufts stir and nest through her winter.
 
Hues of hope seep from each stitch and,
in sun-backed sleep, she sails warm oceans
where garlands of islands
are pinned like colourful brooches.
 
Her mind twinkles like dabs of city lights,
lanterns swinging her through the dark days.
 
Tempting glimpses of all the bright things
wink as she contemplates,
 
and she feels a tickle as flowers bud in her hair,
and ladybirds alight.
 
Her mooneyes shine as she watches the sky…
 
The summer swallows are coming.

 
Helen Laycock’s writing has appeared at Reflex, Ekphrastic Review, Cabinet of Heed, Visual Verse, Popshot, Lucent Dreaming, The Caterpillar, Black Bough, The Storms, Broken Spine Arts & Fevers of the Mind.  Frame was East Ridge Review’s Book of the Month.

Twitter: @helen_laycock    helenlaycock.wixsite.com/marbleintocloud

Pye-Dog  

                                                                                              
Perhaps you see a pretty hat,

just another item for sale

on a tourist market stall.

Look again, to see a pye-dog.
It can’t speak, its bright edged
glyph-tongue lost, under
the naïve and dissonant hands
of a boutique bead weaver.
Washed out cyphers gaze, uncoupled,
a wraggle-taggle of colourway
stripped of symbol and spirit sense,
refashioned as a pretty hat.

 
Glenn Barker writes and reviews poetry. He is drawn to capturing the discordant spirit of the age, the raw edges of our human landscape, our existence and mind-body duality; as he attempts to understand his own mind and the world beyond.   

Twitter/X @Glenn_A_Barker 

                                                                                                                 

The Beaded Phoenix Is Revived 

Heavy beads hang like mosaic hearts,                                        

woven moons of white with

flowered growth across the crown,

Phoenix blue.

A crown of color for the artist

worn in ceremony with the

seasons—

draped with hair of glass and rock.

Follow the tides of beaded

orange and green flowing against the stone.

Come back to the crown—

come back to the blue of the heart.

Celeste Schueler works with Voices of Tacoma, teaching workshops at the Tacoma Public Library and also writes for 253 Digital Magazine (Windermere Real Estate). Her work appears in Feral, Rooted, and most recently in MID/SOUTH SONNETS by Belle Point Press. She earned her MFA from Mississippi University for Women and taught creative writing at Western Oklahoma State College. Currently writing her first full length collection of poetry, she is a feminist, mother, and poet from Mississippi who lives in the Pacific Northwest who  loves taking her twin daughters on adventures around Seattle, baking bundt cakes, and reading lots and lots of books.    Instagram: celeste.schueler    Twitter: @CelestePoetProf 

Each bead a star  

                                                                                            

I proudly wear the constellation my lover wove as a wedding gift for his brother to give me.

When my betrothed places it on my head, I can feel the gentle touch of warm hands — not my husband’s, but those of the master craftsman who longed to stroke my auburn hair.

I can hear the one thousand unspoken vows we have made to one another; strung together in a heaven I will never know on earth.

Karen Pierce Gonzalez’s work include Sightings from a Star Wheel (Origami Poems Project 2023), Coyote in the Basket of My Ribs (Kelsay Books 2023), and Down River with Li Po  (Black Cat Poetry Press 2024). Her writing and assemblage art have appeared in numerous publications. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.  

Fb: karen.p.gonzalez.14    karenpiercegonzalez.blogspot.com