First Prize
Liana Joy Christensen ‘In a moment’ written to Humming in Flight by Hannah Valenti
Highly Commended
Kevin Gillam ‘single stem’ written to Wild Floral by Candace Raphael
Virginia O’Keeffe ‘Sugar Bouquet’ written to Light Bulb Moment by Karen Shao
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Judge’s Report
Creative Connections: Encounters between painters and poets
I acknowledge the Whadjuk Noongar people as the traditional custodians of this land upon which we meet and pay my respects to elders past and present.
I was intrigued to discover recently that in Greek, the word for poet, Poetes, means ‘maker’. I like the idea of a poet being thought of as a ‘maker’- a word which suggests vision, planning, skill, dedication, perseverance and shaping – a union of the body and the mind. It also seems very apt in relation to Creative Connections – which involves painters creating amazing works, then poets using those pictures for inspiration to make their equally amazing creations with words.
Creative Connections has always seemed very special to me. True to its ‘Create Connect’ title, it is about collaboration and cross-pollination, between two kinds of ‘makers’– painters and poets; and it celebrates makers with diverse abilities and personalities. The impressive results of the 2024 collaboration are shared through this exhibition and then preserved and made accessible to an even wider audience through the publication of a beautiful book. I also suspect the event may be unique to WA – and deserves promoting beyond our State.
I therefore feel honoured and grateful to have been asked to judge the poetry in this Creative Connections Exhibition and thank the organisers for giving me this opportunity. I’d also like to thank and congratulate all the entrants for sharing their creations with us.
As previous judges have observed, choosing one winning and two highly commended poems from the 84 written to accompany the paintings was not an easy task. It called for several readings of the poems and contemplation of the paintings that gave them birth. I also became acutely aware of the extent to which each poem and each painting is a miracle of creation that deserves to be celebrated for being just that.
There were many poems that delighted, challenged, surprised and intrigued. Many of the poems were intensely lyrical in orientation. For example, Coral Carter’s This Tiger’s Eyes Burn, in response to Eye of the Tiger by Angelina Kell:
——— The soon to be night/sky folds blue holds hidden/the stars and their spears
Or, these lines from Maree Dawes’ poem, Colours of the Day, inspired by Katrina Barber’s, Tracks and Traces canvas:
——— redtails make a chapel of the canopy/the children hold up their hands /to the brightness
There were also poems that offered poignant insights into human experience. I was particularly taken by the final two lines of Josephine Clarke’s poem in response to Emma Chevron Hear my Voice painting, which like the painting, explores the role of hands in our lives.
——— A fingerprint won’t tell you who I am;/recognition is snug inside the glove.
Deanne Leber’s poem, Time Slips, based on a portrait of Dennis Lillee by Tony Stanisheff bookends a deft sketch of Lillee’s fame with the following plangent three lines:
——— time slips/across our lives/as fast as Lillee bowls
Other poems are more matter of fact, or conversational in tone, as with Gary Colombo De Piazzi’s poem about Sam Perrie’s abstract, Colour Interior:
——— It’s a red sort of day/not the red to run from/but the red to dance to.
And Val Neubecker’s final lines in Conversation with Taliah, writing about Jasper Way’s, Hypnotic:
——— Despite what you say/I am much more than just a hobby.
There were also humorous poems. Christopher Kennedy named the lamb in Karina Sheridan’s painting, ‘Rambo’. He then gave Rambo a matching biography, summing up his life thus:
——— Rambo came,/was conquered,/now goes by the name of Chops.
Both Max Merckenschlager and Melanie Locsei’s response to Danny Tuckey’s Falling Man
tended towards the jocular. Max began with a witty title, ‘The Gravity of the Situation’, and Melanie a melodramatic first line—The ladder slipped- Disaster!—followed by gravity deciding to work sideways.
I began my quest for the three best poems with list of 25. I pared these down to eight, then made my final choice. This said, I must admit that the winning poem lit up my consciousness on first reading and continued to astonish me when I encountered it again. But you’ll have to wait to find out the winner because I’m going to start with the highly commended poems.
The two Highly Commended poems, mentioned in alphabetical order, are very different but both sustain an engaging vision. Congratulations to Kevin Gillam for single stem, written in response to Wild Floral by Candace Raphael. From the vibrant bouquet that dominates the top half of the painting, the poet charts a lifespan from birth to death. He cleverly pairs each life stage with a floral arrangement— ‘bloom’ with birth, ‘posy’ with baptism, ‘profusion with wedding; and ends with, ‘for the coffin? a single stem’. Using simple language and concrete images, arranged in five couplets, the poet has crafted a poem that is a profound meditation on the human lifespan.
Sugar Bouquet, Virginia O’Keefe’s response to Light Bulb Moment by Karen Shao, transforms the painter’s conceptual bulbs of colour that spout from the bottom of canvas to fill the painting, into an exploration of pleasure. This is a poem that celebrates the senses through things sugary: taste (of course), sound, touch as well as sight. The poet begins with an expression of desire:
——— I want to rise in this balloon
——— of sugar sweetness.
She imagines drifting skywards, unwrapping, licking and crunching caramel, chocolate and praline. One can hear the static of the wrappers coming off and praline ground between the teeth, revel in the taste of caramel and chocolate on the tongue.
Alas, what goes up must come down. So, the poem begins its ‘tumble from on high’. But the tumble becomes another form of pleasure, a cocooning into a bouquet of colour, pattern and sparkle, the fulfilling of a child’s dream.
Finally, congratulations to the winner, Liana Joy Christensen, for her poem in response to Humming in Flight by Hannah Valenti. While the painting captures the intensity of the bird’s activity through an explosion of colour, the poem is a miracle of linguistic precision and brevity that is a real epiphany. This is a short poem, but its impact is long-lasting. It juxtaposes ‘stillness’ and ‘flourish’, using the metaphor of the phoenix to present the hummingbird as being both verdant and flame-like, then ends with an unexpected observation. This delighted me by its almost off-hand acknowledgement that this tiny creature’s whole existence is a kind of insouciant masterpiece.
——— In a microsecond of stillness
——— With a flourish of colour
——— The tiny green phoenix
——— signs off on another
——— masterpiece
Like the hummingbird in the picture, the poem is a gem of intensity and beauty. Congratulations again, Liana Joy Christensen.
Rita Tognini
September 2024
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First Prize
Humming in Flight by Hannah Valenti
In a microsecond of stillness
With a flourish of colour
The tiny green phoenix
signs off on another
masterpiece
Liana Joy Christensen
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Highly Commended
Wild Floral by Candace Raphael
single stem
so yes, a bloom at birth,
and a posy for the baptism.
a 21st demands a profusion
while at the wedding, a sprig
for each of the groomsmen.
subsequent anniversaries will
require a bouquet. and retirement?
a cluster is appropriate. for the
late diagnosis a bunch. while for
the coffin? a single stem
Kevin Gillam
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Highly Commended
Light Bulb Moment by Karen Shao
Sugar Bouquet
I want to rise in this balloon
of sugar sweetness.
I want to drift across the sky
unwrapping papers, licking
those dollops of caramel
and chocolate, crunching on
praline.
When I tumble from on high
I will be cocooned in colour,
patterns of pop, splatters of
dots and sparkles.
How lucky am I to be gifted
a child’s dream in this bouquet.
Virginia O’Keeffe
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