The Shadow Hears Visual Voices

In the 2 1/2 years that The Shadow has been attending art receptions at ARTWorkSF, he is always surprised because of something new, innovative and creative. Well, for First Thursday at the ARTWorkSF Gallery, ARTWorkSF Founder/Director Johnny Davis did not disappoint. October's exhibit is entitled "Visual Voices".

One of the works at the exhibit

You may notice something different about the above picture. To the right of the picture (although it cannot be seen clearly) is a poem. This month's show was juried by several local poets.

Poet Lady Monster reads at the reception

Artist featured in this exhibit are:

• Kathryn Arnold
• Miguel Arzabe
• Mikolai Atanassov
• Will Bullas
• Pauline Crowther Scott
• Mary Lou D'Auray
• Phillip Gallegos
• Sevilla Granger
• Sarah Haba
• Heather Hanan
• Pat Koenigsberg
• Raphael Landea
• Lenka Manning Warder
• Cheryl McDonald
• William Noguera
• Nicolas Smith
• Richard Tauber
• Melissa West
• Rosalie Anneli Yerby

Another work (with accompanying poem) at the exhibit

Here is the way this exhibit came to be: Ten local poets were asked to select works that inspired them. The poets then had two weeks to write the poems. The results were amazing, to say the least!

The poet (jurors) are:

• Jennifer Barone
• Christopher Bernard
• Steven Gray
• Joyce Jenkins
• Ingrid Keir
• Jenny Jo Kristan
• Joe Ledbetter
• Lady Monster
• Ginger Murray
• Phillip T. Nails

Artist Cheryl McDonald with poet Steven Gray with Cheryl's work "Free Will"

Attendees at the reception were able to come and view the work and read the accompanying poems for about an hour. At 7:00 p.m., ARTWorkSF held its first Poetry Slam in the gallery with poets reading their work from the art that they selected from the show. Poet Steven Gray, for example, read the poem that was inspired by artist Cheryl McDonald's sketch "Free Will" (pictured above):

Free Will by Steven Gray

It's a free country but it costs a lot to live here
and it takes some power to resist the system,
you are free to move around but the necessities
of life are like a monkey on your back
and you are being manipulated every minute
by the workings of the military-industrial
state. The burdens and the limitations leave you
like a dancer with an anvil in his arms

conforming to a pre-existing choreography.
You wonder is there free will in the house,
the walls are everywhere and what if free will is
a wishing well. Your life is drifting in and out of
control, the women are consensual, the seven
senses magnifying everything, including
the illusion of intent, but every day
I exercise my will, "if you don't use it, you lose it."

There's a legal distinction when it comes to "knowingly"
or "intentionally" causing someone's death, or was it
in the heat of the moment, you are free to call
a lawyer if you need one, and if you're a product
of the system with genetic programs wired
in your head and nothing is your fault, what happened
to free will. It fell apart and you're a fallen
man, but there is free will on a Sunday morning.

There is free will on the freeway but you wouldn't
know it, free will where the men and women blow it,
and it shows up in their clothing. There's a foreign
clown in the sky, he pulls you like a marionette,
the puppets have a screw loose though, they can't be useful
all the time, the strings controlling them turning
into butterflies and liberated women
strolling by the ruins of the classical.

(reprinted by permission of the poet)

Patrons at the reception before the Poetry Slam begins

Overall, a good time was had by all.

This exhibit will be shown at the ARTWorkSF Gallery, 49 Geary Street, Suite 234, in downtown San Francisco. Gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. As always, all work in this show is available for sale or rental (for three months). Just inquire at the gallery.

For more pictures from the reception, click here.