For the 4th Friday Art Walk in August, 2019, Green Door Gallery presented the work of 12 artists and 12 poets and the 24 works of art and 24 poems that they created. With “wabi-sabi” as the guiding theme, artists and poets were randomly paired in order to respond with word and art to an initial poem and to an initial work of art which resulted in a second set of art and poetry.

“Wabi-sabi” means impermanent, imperfect and incomplete. The word comes from two separate words. Wabi is beauty that emerges from just the right kind of imperfection, such as asymmetry in handmade vs machine-made objects. Sabi is beauty that radiates from the wear-and-tear of age and from repair.

Ekphrastic poetry can be defined as poems written about works of art with vivid detail and usually including an exploration of how the speaker is impacted by his or her experience with the work.

The Artists: Paul Andresini, Storrs Bishop, Betsy Hall, Joe Fay, Cristina Marian, Kateri Bechard, Kay Potter, Rachel Rhoden, Tandy Riddle, Aaron Schuerr, Marilyn Tain, Joe Wayne.

The Poets: Rick Bass, Marc Beaudin, Dalton Brink, David Caserio, Michael Earl Craig, Molly Damm, Kelly Dick, Ariety Fried, Tami Haaland, Max Hjortsberg, Allen Jones, Aaron Parrett.

The First 12 Works of Art: the poem linked to each image was done in response to the work of art.