Art Inscribed: Twenty-two writers responded to 19 artists at this year’s Third Street Writers/Festival of Arts event
By MARRIE STONE
Good art does more than decorate a wall. It stirs emotion. It sparks memories. It provokes conversation. Maybe it even disturbs the soul. Art can deliver a dose of nostalgia, humor, horror, desire, sadness, rage and everything in between. It’s personal and intimate. But in that intimacy, art seeks to make profound connections.
“I was immediately struck by it.” “I couldn’t get the work out of my head.” “I kept being drawn to the piece.” These are a few things Third Street Writers (TSW) told me about their encounters with the artwork on display at this year’s Festival of Arts (FOA). For the third year, writers were invited to respond to art. The practice, known as ekphrastic writing, is a vivid – often dramatic – verbal description of a visual work of art, either real or imagined. The result is Art Inscribed, a lovely bound book of 22 essays, fiction and poetry inspired by 19 FOA artists. Last Sunday, writers and artists joined together on the grounds to share their synergy.
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
Third Street Writers and Festival of Arts exhibitors came together for the 3rd annual Art Inscribed event last Sunday on the FOA grounds
When the connection between the artist and viewer is at its most profound – as happened between photographer Roger Bennett and writer Rodney Hatter – something new might be born to each. Bennett’s black and white landscape photography evokes an Ansel Adams style. He captured Trees in Snow, Ahwahnee Meadow, Yosemite National Park in 1999. Two writers (Rodney Hatter and David Witkins) responded to the piece.
“That image has a special place in my heart because I saw it as a picture of a small child (the fallen branch) scampering away from its mother (the large tree),” Bennett said. “She was reaching out to get the child back to safety.”
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Photo by Roger Bennett
“Trees in Snow, Ahwahnee Meadow, Yosemite National Park” (1999) by Roger Bennett
Bennett drew inspiration from Ray McSavaney’s photograph, Walking Tree, after attending McSavaney’s workshop. “That image showed me how a landscape scene could depict a wider world in my photography beyond what was there,” he said.
Hatter’s response, “Second Chance Branch,” imagined the fallen limb as a lost child. “I am in mourning,” Hatter wrote. “I imagine it’s as if you lost a child, perhaps the greatest loss of a lifetime.”
The piece shocked Bennett, who lost his first child 46 years ago. Rachel was three months old. “I’m still processing [Sunday’s experience],” Bennett said. “Rodney’s words were totally his own interpretation of my image. He had no idea I actually experienced what he had metaphorically seen. It was pure coincidence. But now I wonder if I hadn’t subconsciously seen what he wrote about. It happened 46 years ago, but it all came back as if it was yesterday.”
“There were a lot of tears,” said TSW Vice President Theresa Keegan, who was also blown away by the coincidence.
But not every writer sees the work as the artist intends. Dennis Carrie has painted his Portraits in Integrity series for more than a decade, depicting our nation’s Founding Fathers, scientists and soldiers as pillars of honor, wisdom and courage. “George Washington is one of those individuals,” Carrie said. “Without him, we would not have the freedoms and the country that we enjoy today.”
Lojo Simon – Laguna’s Literary Laureate Emeritus and 2022 Artist of the Year – read the painting through a different lens. Simon’s “Letter from a Daughter of the American Revolution” indicted Washington. “You say, respect your elders, yet are not our Founding Fathers hypocrites and enslavers?” Simon wrote. “When they write all men are created equal, do they not reserve the vote for themselves?”
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Courtesy of Dennis Carrie
“Profile of George Washington” by Dennis Carrie
This is art’s power, too. It creates opportunities for hard conversations. It holds space wide enough to allow for opposing points of view. In a divided world, inviting nuanced discussions between accomplished and intelligent artists serves an important purpose.
For others, the Festival’s artwork evoked bittersweet memories – of lost loves, of what-if moments, of raising children who are now grown and gone.
“I went to the Festival of the Arts the first weekend and Jason Li’s painting Tide Pools caught my eye,” said TSW Treasurer Suzanne Spinelli. “The painting reminded me of an old photograph – the glowing light, two kids caught in a moment and the thought of past loves, and the what-ifs that come with reminiscence. I confess to being a bit inspired by my own love story. My partner David and I had dated in high school and drifted apart. After many years, separate marriages and divorces, we reconnected 10 years ago and are lucky enough to have spent the past nine years together.”
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
TSW Suzanne Spinelli and FOA exhibitor Jason Li in his booth after Sunday’s reading
Spinelli wasn’t alone in her nostalgia. A similar experience happened for TSW Board Member Steve Fayne. “I kept being drawn to Jill’s piece and realized that it was because it reminded me very much of my wife when we met,” Fayne said. “Instead of the sappy love story, I wrote the what-if.”
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
TSW Steve Fayne and FOA exhibitor Jill Maytorena appear with her painting “Persimmon” (between them), which inspired Fayne’s piece by the same name
Award-winning author and podcaster Barbara DeMarco-Barrett’s “Meditation at Laguna Beach,” inspired by Michael Situ’s Street Light, also recalls a long-gone summer when she lived in Laguna and a lover who got away. “That image, the way the sun was setting and the streetlights lit up, reminded me of that summer,” she said.
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
FOA exhibitor Michael Situ with author and podcaster Barbara DeMarco-Barrett
“One approach to ekphrastic writing is to focus on the emotions a piece of artwork evokes in you,” said TSW President Amy Francis Dechary. “I was immediately struck by the movement of the flower in Elaine Hughes’ painting Matilija Poppy Dancing in the Wind and the light, peaceful color palette. To me, the image evokes a feeling of hope and joy. But as a writer, I wondered, ‘Where’s the conflict in that?’ Through my research, I learned the matilija poppy is ingenious to Southern California and was used by native people for medicinal purposes. I decided to set my story in Laguna’s canyon and imagined a dire, futuristic scenario where the main character needed to rely on old remedies to survive. And of course, I wanted to highlight someone who was maintaining hope in a seemingly hopeless situation.”
For others, like TSW Secretary Jennifer Griffiths, ekphrastic writing is a highly intuitive process. “I’m rarely thinking. I’m mostly feeling with my body and seeing with my eyes. As I get older, that intuitive sense gets stronger and stronger,” she said. “With Isabelle’s painting, I sat with it for days, discovering what was going on. It came to me that it was such a universal statement about being together and being centered.”
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
(L-R) FOA exhibitor Isabelle Alessandra with TSW and cover artist Jennifer Griffiths
Griffiths also designed the cover art for the collection, incorporating her paintings and collage, and a Laguna Beach 5-cent stamp she discovered in Sunset Magazine.
This year, for the first time, three different writers (Debby Arrin, Gina Harlow and Cecile Sarruf) wrote about three different paintings by the same artist, Brian Haberlin. Arrin, inspired by Alice 2, wrote a tribute to the bond between a mother and her newborn child when that child’s future is preordained. Harlow wrote from the point of view of an artwork painted by Haberlin in his piece West Wing. A young woman’s portrait hangs in a gallery, gazing out at a visitor who stares back. Harlow expressed the painted woman’s envy for the freedom her female visitor enjoys. Sarruf, in contrast, evoked a lapsed love affair between an art professor and his young protégé in response to Haberlin’s Museum.
“My aim is to create images with some sense of story,” Haberlin said in his artist statement. “The viewer will ask ‘What’s happening in this scene, or what happened before or after it?’”
No doubt, he accomplished his goal.
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
(L-R) Debby Arrin, Brian Haberlin, Gina Harlow and Cecile Sarruf
“We are so grateful to the FOA Foundation for their generous grant that funds this project. It’s a truly unique collaboration that we hope can continue for years to come,” Dechary said. “This project has started a wonderful tradition. To me, it feels like waking up on Christmas morning to surprises under the tree. The FOA artists give us the gift of inspiration from beautiful, compelling art, and in turn we gift them and our readers with stories and poetry.”
“Sunday’s turnout was the largest of the three years,” Tynan said. “Art and writing, like trees falling in the forest, have meaning only to the extent there are eyes to see and ears to hear them.”
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
A large crowd gathered on the FOA grounds on Sunday for the 3rd annual Art Inscribed event
So far, the program has raised $1,025 for the Artists Fund’s Hardship Grant Program. Books are still available for purchase for $15 here.
“The most rewarding thing about this event is the virtuous circle,” Tynan said. “The FOA artists inspire the Third Street Writers, whose stories create the book with all proceeds directly benefiting the Artists Fund, which enables the creation of more fabulous works of art.”
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Photo by Mary Hurlbut
(L-R) Ellen Girardeau Kempler, Theresa Keegan, John Tynan, Amy Francis Dechary, Miranda McPhee and Jennifer Griffiths
But for artists like Bennett, the impact of this project is more profound. Hatter saw something in Bennett’s subconscious he hadn’t seen himself, leaving him with a lot to process.
“I want you to know that I’ve been blessed with a wonderful wife, two wonderful kids and two fantastic grandchildren,” Bennett said, noting how much his life continued to mirror Hatter’s story.
The event proved again that good art creates a dialogue. If we’re open to it, there’s always something new to learn.
