Alex Reynolds and Kathleen Radigan use their images and words to form relationships with the people who inspire them and share similar visions and aspirations. In other words, they reach out to artists and writers! Both are influenced by and open to the work of others, and believe that creativity is not an individual experience but rather a communal one. Jump in and see what you think!
To Walt Whitman
by Kathleen Radigan
I’ve got a crush on your paint box,
thick and weightless as a breath lost in summer.
We’re caught in the courtyards of crickets who
waltz through the wet grass,
ground’s green trumpets, uncurled lizard tongues.
I imagine them floating like stars for an underground country
collecting in small sacks the wishes of girls in yellow dresses.
It’s a childish fantasy, and yet
I cannot help but dream up ways around the sailor’s knots you set.
Violets bloom and ache for a hand that’s brave enough to place them;
yet most would rather laugh with daffodils,
hiccupping punch lines into the silt wind.
I’ve got a violin under my skin,
And a wild team of tambourines
yowls madly with the yen for just one color.
Kids on swings kick wind
into the bobbing heads of redwoods.
I’ve got a crush on your thinnest linen
naked peaches spilling secrets down your chin,
on the half moon waxing gibbous in your cloud mouth,
on the way you melt your facts like birthday wax,
then blow them out.
It’s a childish fantasy, and yet
I cannot help but scatter light inside and hope you won’t forget
that I came barefoot in love
over your hills,
tongue of a woman
singing you.
Alex doesn’t keep his ideas to himself. In fact, exposing his artwork has enriched his life, helping him form meaningful bonds with others. He explains: “Art is where I’ve found sense of belonging. Artists are the people whom I can best understand and connect with. Art is the shared love that has formed many of my friendships. My creativity flows most freely when I’m surrounded by people whose artistic energies match my own.”
Kathleen connects more deeply with great poets of the past than with contemporary writers. For her, poems do not need to live here and now—they may be shaped by the past and extend their power into the future. Kathleen describes how this is possible: “Other people inspire most of my work, as do the honest and elegant words of past writers whose messages extend beyond the circumstances in which they were written and help to frame my own values, creating picture frames through which to observe and ponder my own life…I believe that there exists a long and complex chain of human interchange which literature can immortalize.”
We invite you to join our artistic community. Send your words and art to our Tumblr page: http://awawards.tumblr.com/submit. And, like this portfolio pair, don’t hesitate to start a conversation or to influence others with your creativity!