Pandemia Artist Statement | Melissa T. Hall
At the start of the pandemic, my mind went into lockdown right along with my body. I buried my head into as many books as I could consume during my waking hours. Eventually I took note of my unhealthy retreat from everything and decided to pour my turmoil and unease into visual ideas. My method of connecting to my muse concerning the pandemic had to be in an intimate, personal way. Acquiring the perfect prop, a giant acrylic globe, was the lynchpin to return my mind to being fully engaged. Creating storyboards for my ideas and setting up photo shoots was a way of regaining as much normalcy as possible. I have found that the theme of this work, while intensely personal, speaks to a much broader audience as well since we have all endured this time collectively even when isolated.
Memento Mori Artist Statement | Melissa T. Hall
Memento Mori, Latin for remember you will die, is the third series of work fueled by my substantial brush with mortality. The first series, Aggressively Fragile chronicled my fight with cancer. The second series, Aftermath, displayed themes a little more removed from the epicenter of my diagnosis. After four years in remission, Memento Mori is not a meditation on death, but an encouragement or reminder to embrace your mortality and allow that knowledge to motivate you to fully live each day.
Poetry Artist Statement | Missy Brownson
This ekphrastic experiment has been a welcome challenge. The past year has been a challenging year for all of us; I have found it to be challenging personally, professionally and creatively. Melissa’s evocative images have provided a flood of inspiration; I have written more over the past three months than I have in the past three years.
The poems inspired by Memento Mori images are more reflective of other poems I’ve written, form-wise. My process for writing these entailed what I refer to as “internalizing the image,” in which I connect with the image, relating it either to my own experiences and/or the experiences of other women. It is from this empathetic perspective that I have written these poems.
While I have also used the image-internalization process while writing the poems inspired by Pandemia images, I chose to use the tanka form for each of these. A friend of mine referred to a tanka as a “grown-up haiku,” and I love that. Like the haiku, the tanka is a short form originating in Japan; it features five lines and a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count. I used the tanka to mimic the containment and limitations expressed by the bubble in Melissa’s work, as well as the containment and limitations we have all experienced over the past year.
At the start of the pandemic, my mind went into lockdown right along with my body. I buried my head into as many books as I could consume during my waking hours. Eventually I took note of my unhealthy retreat from everything and decided to pour my turmoil and unease into visual ideas. My method of connecting to my muse concerning the pandemic had to be in an intimate, personal way. Acquiring the perfect prop, a giant acrylic globe, was the lynchpin to return my mind to being fully engaged. Creating storyboards for my ideas and setting up photo shoots was a way of regaining as much normalcy as possible. I have found that the theme of this work, while intensely personal, speaks to a much broader audience as well since we have all endured this time collectively even when isolated.
Memento Mori Artist Statement | Melissa T. Hall
Memento Mori, Latin for remember you will die, is the third series of work fueled by my substantial brush with mortality. The first series, Aggressively Fragile chronicled my fight with cancer. The second series, Aftermath, displayed themes a little more removed from the epicenter of my diagnosis. After four years in remission, Memento Mori is not a meditation on death, but an encouragement or reminder to embrace your mortality and allow that knowledge to motivate you to fully live each day.
Poetry Artist Statement | Missy Brownson
This ekphrastic experiment has been a welcome challenge. The past year has been a challenging year for all of us; I have found it to be challenging personally, professionally and creatively. Melissa’s evocative images have provided a flood of inspiration; I have written more over the past three months than I have in the past three years.
The poems inspired by Memento Mori images are more reflective of other poems I’ve written, form-wise. My process for writing these entailed what I refer to as “internalizing the image,” in which I connect with the image, relating it either to my own experiences and/or the experiences of other women. It is from this empathetic perspective that I have written these poems.
While I have also used the image-internalization process while writing the poems inspired by Pandemia images, I chose to use the tanka form for each of these. A friend of mine referred to a tanka as a “grown-up haiku,” and I love that. Like the haiku, the tanka is a short form originating in Japan; it features five lines and a 5/7/5/7/7 syllable count. I used the tanka to mimic the containment and limitations expressed by the bubble in Melissa’s work, as well as the containment and limitations we have all experienced over the past year.
Missy Brownson | All views expressed are personal and/or poetical.