Remedios Varo's painting Harmony and a few words about Ekphrasis

Ekphrasis is defined in the dictionary as

: a literary description of or commentary on a visual work of art

Greek ekphrasis, literally, description, from ekphrazein to recount, describe, from ex- out + phrazein to point out, explain

Honestly it’s a great workshop exercise.  My first experience with ekphrasis was receiving a postcard of a Max Ernst painting in a workshop I was taking with Donna Masini back in NYC in the 90s.  I was so inspired that I continued to use paintings, particularly surrealistic paintings, as a jumping off point for my writing.  I found they quite literally transported me into a different vision of everything around me.

I  discovered Remedios Varo’s paintings when I read an article about her on the Science Tuesday pages of the NY Times.  Since then I’ve written a series of poems based on her paintings.

My poem, Music, soon to be published in Crack The Spine, is based on Varo’s painting Harmony.

If you’d like to read the article in the NY Times, here’s the link:

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/11/science/scientific-epiphanies-celebrated-on-canvas.html