Hess Hesselgrave : Ekphrastics

Words & Images - paintings by Lisa Hess Hesselgrave and the poems they inspired

Ives Gallery - New Haven Free Public Library

August 1 through September 6, 2016

On display is work by Lisa Hess Hesselgrave, and the poems her paintings inspired. Ekphrasis means description in Greek. An ekphrastic poem is a poem written about a work of art.

Poet Maureen E. Doallas began a series of poems based on some of my work on the T.S. Poetry Press, http://www.tweetspeakpoetry.com/?s=hess.

More recently, the Golden Thread Gallery in Hartford invited poets to respond to the art on display, which included the pastel, Archer.

Below are pieces that were shown at the Ives Gallery and some of the ekphrastic poems written for them.

Some of the original paintings are available for purchase, some are only available as signed prints.

Jumprope

1998

oil on canvas / 26 x 24

Original $3400 / 18 x 24 print $160

Child

A child is a mystery,

like the light of stars—

the dream

we try to capture, even as it seems

to pass like the quickening scent

of Spring blows by.

Strange flower budding in the dark,

sweet and bitter tear,

learning to hide, stem of wishes

waiting to come true.

We cannot save you

from this gravity,

from such wonder, laced with pain—child,

fire of promise, burning in the rain.

Richard Maxson

All images copyright Lisa Hess Hesselgrave.

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