I was privileged to work with an American artist, Janette Maxey, on a multidisciplinary dialogue as part of a segment called Tête-à-tête during Lit Up 2013. She is a painter and I am a poet, and so we spoke through the respective languages of our mediums.
She began with an image:
and I responded with a poem:
Commute
These hooks hold a neck easily,
less so the baleful glance. Queue
please, this is transit ordered
en masse, a rapid conveyance
from coop to set meal. Whether
part or whole, we are all flayed
to the bone, laid in fragrant bowls,
our skins roasted with endeavour.
She then had to draw something out from my words to create another image. And so it went on. Through the whole process (we created ten pairs of paintings and poems and exhibited eight), we both learned a lot about how diverse our own backgrounds are, as well as the surprising ways in which culture affects the process of creation. A fruitful experience indeed.
You can view the full series here: http://www.marcnair.com/aproximity/