Emily’s Curtains Grace (4 of 4), oil on canvas, 18×24
EMILY’S LACE CURTAINS, a suite of four paintings, a photograph, and three poems, will make its debut tonight, Thursday, June 8, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., at the opening reception for “Changing Perspectives,” my exhibit of 24 new oil and acrylic paintings at the Westhampton Public Library, 1 North Road. Refreshments will be served.
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Emily Dickinson’s writing desk and window. (Jonathan A. Wright photo)
The series was inspired by an hour poet Jonathan A. Wright and I spent in silence in Emily Dickinson’s bedroom May 1 (two of the poems and the photograph are Jonathan’s).
Many of the two dozen paintings in the exhibit were made in the studio, but there is also work made during recent trips to Florida’s Atlantic coast and the White Mountains.
The exhibit continues through June. More of my paintings are currently on view at Hope and Olive Restaurant in Greenfield, through August.
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Emily’s Curtains Unrest (1 of 4), oil on canvas, 18×24
I imagine myself lying in bed
or sitting at my writing table, listening
to the muffled sounds of the household below,
taking the scenery in,
chewing on my pencil.
At times my mind races, lost
in thought. At other times
my mind is quiet.
That is when the poetry begins.
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Emily’s Curtains Repose (2 of 4), oil on canvas, 14×11
Bedroom Wall
Rose and vine travel
twine from board to panel,
base mold to ceiling,
door and casing,
in between window sill
and sash and screen.
More and more unseen,
a red and brightened mystery
of green, of figures
warmly dressed and passing
in the hollow in between
the roses and the winter,
no ink or word
or shadow brush
called their own.
— Jonathan A. Wright
Bedroom Window
The table shakes
a little —
traffic and breathless
hanging lace.
Cars and carriages pass
the hearse is last
coming down Main Street
the milk, the ice, the post.
— Jonathan A. Wright
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