Artist Josepha Gutelius has four works in the exhibition ART & WORDS. Three were chosen by poets as inspiration for new poems, and one was inspired by a poem. All are exhibited side-by-side with Josepha's work through June 12, 2107. You may also view Josepha's work and the entire exhibition through our exhibition catalog available by clicking here. Emerge Gallery's ART & WORDS is an exhibition of artwork and poetry inspiring one another. Area artists and poets were invited to participate by submitting existing work as inspiration, and also creating new work inspired by submissions. Artwork by participating artists was chosen by poets who created new poetry inspired by their selection. Artists were also given the opportunity to create new art inspired from submitted poems by participating poets.
(click on image for more information and to purchase)
"Valentine
Acrylic on canvas
31" x 45"
inspired by the poem "Valentine"
VALENTINE
I write long letters to the dead (you only know how heartfully),
in the woods, scratching the bark with my lonely fantasies, you
were always near, the one to decipher my messages.
True, I would guide you,
you couldn't have found your way alone. I wouldn't have
wanted you to. I loved holding the secret.
It's been thirteen years to the day since your last letter came,
a forest fell out of the envelope, fire blew off the bush, you see
I do remember and handwriting like someone opening his veins.
The charms you enclosed ("spitted flames") looked like the rubies
my mother piled on for shopping tennis anywhere anytime
she didn't give a hoot for propriety.
They kiss-kiss when I put them on.
But that's not what I wanted to say. I'm writing you because
she died yesterday I think you should know that
she kept on asking me When for godsake you
going to marry that boy
so handsome and lucky.
I didn't have it in me
to remind her you were dead.
So darling, should you meet her, I'm afraid
you have a little explaining to do.
I meant no harm by my deception, tell her that please,
and let me know
what she says because I hate to think this
is something you can’t read.
— Josepha Gutelius ©
Josepha Gutelius reads her poem "Valentine" as part of the exhibition ART & WORDS. May 20, 2017.
Additional work by Josepha Gutelius included in ART & WORDS
"Come"
Acrylic on canvas
18" x 24"
inspired by the poem "Come"
COME
I’ve travelled through the shades of red —
the pink of birth and the blush of adolescence.
The candy of passion, the rose of love
and the scarlet stench of loss.
I’ve swayed with the blues all of my life —
the electric coolness of cobalt. The back and forth
mania of indigo calming itself down to an azure
and finally finding peace in the tranquility of periwinkle.
The yellows have always energized me —
they feed me the sun and keep me smiling. I have gone
one on one with butterscotch but can sometimes be a whole
grain mustard. I am part sour lemon part sappy honey. But all golden.
The greens have always been a challenge — I’ve protested
the army and hunters. Chopped the basils and mints.
My toes have been tickled by moss and my senses
titillated by chartreuse. The greens have been friend and foe.
But these days the colors are beginning to blend and create new hues.
My footprints have oxidized into a mixture of vibrancy and grey.
Darker patches streaking and stroking beckon me to come.
But they took that away from me. I can’t anymore.
— Robert P. Langdon ©
"School Days (After the Prom)"
Acrylic on Canvas
40" x 31"
SCHOOL DAYS (AFTER THE PROM)
One boy gets a yes One boy gets a no And right now it doesn’t make a difference
As names are called out loud And fists are flying fast.
Another boy standing by, Just to make sure That no one gets real hurt Or maybe to help The one who gained and won.
The following day in Algebra “It was a good fight” they say independently Each proudly claiming a win to the girl who Won both their hearts, Each now lost in this newfound manhood.
On school days, good fights are never won On a playground or On the street or In the back seat Of our father’s Cadillac After the prom.
Never! It takes a poem.
— Steve Gentile ©
inspired by "School Days (After the Prom)"
"Demo"
Acrylic on canvas
40" x 25"
DEMO
d'roll out a numba
after breathing in a circle for 3 years this band visualized their strands magnified in pointalism regenerating the entire animal kingdom
evaporating passing phrases
spiking rounds
layering tones
resonating from eye brow to heel
interchanging logos silently
tell
a
path
I
call
ye
mind ta mind ta mind
no need for words
no need for looks
no need to see
pure soothing spectrums radiating every taste and shade of da wheel
vibrating every single cadence, every curve, bow, undulation of the ether spiraling out wand to all the million stations upon da dial
hamlet hopping garages on every moon of Jupiter
creating sinew between them
illuminating beyond borders, languages melting and dissolving into streams of lucidity, tingling each joint to dream, to fly, to dip, to dive
joining heaven to earth, submerging their union of sound to every seed below the ground
til finally they were ready to step out into fresh clean free air waves to compose
"THE BULLET"
tao gether
— Douglas Elliot ©
inspired by "Demo"
ABOUT JOSEPHA GUTELIUS
Josepha Gutelius is an award-winning poet and playwright who made a radical switch to visual art in 2015. Born 1952, raised in Greenwich Village and Waccabuc, NY. A graduate of the Masters School, where she studied under painter Robert Arner, who became a lifelong friend and mentor. Attended Bard College as an art major and switched to Comparative Literature, eventually concentrating on German literature at Ludwig Maximillian University in Munich. Her first collection of poems, To the Perfect Love which Prepares a Table Beyond Us, was published by Rat and Mole Press in 1975. In 1971, she met her future husband in Cadaques, Spain, in the home of Salvador Dali. Moved to West Berlin in 1975, where she worked as arts correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and published her second collection of poems, Rapt Meat, with original collages by the author. Returning to NYC in the late 70s, she became production editor for the Norton Anthologies of literature and simultaneously began playwriting. Plays staged in NYC and regional theaters include Schlag’s Atomica World Machine, Vaseline, Veronica Cory, The Age of Anxiety, Miracle Mile. In 1980, she and her husband made a permanent move to Saugerties where she began publishing short stories — several as fictionalized accounts of artists, notably Penny, which was included in the anthology Best New Writing 2013. Many of her paintings reflect the narrative equivalent of a setting, a mood, an atmosphere — with characters who have a story to tell.
Additional works by Josepha Gutelius
click on image for more information and to purchase
additional works by Josepha Gutelius and other artists may be found in the Works on Paper section of our shop.