The longest day of 2020

I skipped my spring newsletter because it seemed irrelevant in the midst of a pandemic. I feel much the same now with racial injustice so much at the forefront. 2020 has been a cathartic year. It’s been hard and maybe, in some ways, the crucible of change we need. 

My current state of mind is a bit like this painting I just finished:

Over the last months, I’ve turned more to poetry and short stories. Declaration by Tracy K. Smith is an erasure poem (the poet takes a pre-existing text and removes some or most of the original words). In this case, the Declaration of Independence is the source text. I also love The Emperor’s Deer by Kamilah Aisha Moon. Joyce Hinnefeld’s new collection of short stories called The Beauty of Our Youth is lovely.

We’ve all been home a lot over the last months. The idea of home is a preoccupation of mine. I wrote a little about it in Hawk and Handsaw Journal. It’s featured with stirring paintings by Maine artist Tessa O’Brien. 

(©Tessa O’Brien, “Addition,” 42” x 42” Oil on panel, 2019)

(©Tessa O’Brien, “Green Room,” 14” x 14” Oil on Panel, 2019)

I’m filled with cathartic, unsettled, disturbing energy that I want to use to become a better, kinder human, more capable of supporting equality in the place I call home. That seems the only way forward.

Be well my friends,
Kate