My printmaking process has evolved from editioning to creating unique compositions employing monotype, serigraphy, pochoir (stencil), stamping and collage. This has allowed me to expand my visual vocabulary from a broad supply of shape, line and color. I have been influenced by Mark Rothko, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Helen Frankenthaler, and Cy Twombly. I work on several pieces at a time building a series that reads together like lines in a visual poem.
“Art in the Time of Savages” is about the insistence on making art against a barbaric political backdrop when the true savages in our societies have been revealed. There are nine prints in the series each measuring 10” x 14” on Rives BFK paper. The total array measures 31” x 43” in individual frames under plexiglass (no borders).
Art in the Time of Savages*
(listen to the audio of the artist reading their poem)
Along the border all drawings have
been taken down not one left
to point a direction for our feet.
We might know the way if we had
wings to spread above the shining
twist of water.
The place of no location has flung
us away from Frida’s baby.
Don’t come here
lullabies are spiders in the bed.
They plan to rub us out
before we can make frantic art
in a jackal world.
Our scraping must matter
it reverberates like
a green poppy sending smoke.
*Previously published in Ovunque Siamo (December 2018)
Editor’s Note: Read more of MaryAnn’s poetry in this issue of Wordgathering.
About the Artist
MaryAnn L. Miller is the author of Cures for Hysteria (Finishing Line Press, 2018). She has been twice nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Her poetry, book reviews, or essays have appeared in Mom Egg Review, Wild River Review, Presence Journal, Ovanque Siamo, Stillwater Review, Wordgathering, Kaleidoscope, Passager, The International Review of African America Art, and elsewhere. Miller is the Poetry Coordinator for the NJ Book Arts Symposium. She publishes hand bound artist books through her press: www.luciapress.com.
Back to Art | Back to Volume 13, Issue 4 – December 2019