C&T Publications 50 States of Art - 2015 | Page 110

Perri Kelly - Alaska
** A University of Alaska-Fairbanks graduate in Photojournalism/Art.
** Freelance Photographer, Digital/Acrylic Artist and Painter.
** Owner/Artist of Digital Raven Art and Photography
Ravens have always fascinated me. I love to watch them interact with
each other. They have attitude. They are survivors. Some are
beautiful and some are riddles with scars. Some are very smart, some
not.
In literature ravens are often vilified or used as a portent of doom. In the bible - Genesis 8:7, the raven was the first bird sent out by
Noah after the destruction. In Luke 12:24 it says, 'Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor
barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!'
In Native Alaskan tales they are often shown to be very tricky, untrustworthy but strangely heroic and sometimes very funny.
Whatever their roles may be, they are interesting... and in Alaska they are everywhere.
So I adopted them as my hallmark. I often put them somewhere in my digital artwork: sometimes as a shadow, a reflection, flying
through the air, as a carving or as a tattoo on a young girl's ankle. My kids often try to find the raven in my work.
My hope is that you will come to enjoy them as much as I do.
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/perri-kelly.html

Here is my piece. It is called Clenched Soul. It is an interpretive piece of a poem by Pablo Neruda.
We have lost even this twilight.
No one saw us this evening hand in hand
while the blue night dropped on the world.
I have seen from my window
the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.
Sometimes a piece of sun
burned like a coin in my hand.
I remembered you with my soul clenched
in that sadness of mine that you know.
Where were you then?
Who else was there?
Saying what?
Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly
when I am sad and feel you are far away?
The book fell that always closed at twilight
and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.
Always, always you recede through the evenings
toward the twilight erasing statues.
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