One Book, Many Vessels
October 31, 2014 – January 18, 2015
MCBA Lerner Bindery Gallery
One Book
Echoes. The cave paintings, rune stones, petroglyphs and other ancient markings are echoes of our human ancestry in a past so distant as to be unimaginable. What did the images mean to the originators? What do they mean to us today? Were these ancient scribes making a history for their own people or for future populations? Were they recording important rites and events or simply trying to ornament their lives? We study and speculate using other archeological remains but we can never know with any certainty what these long-dead people meant by leaving marks. We can only imagine as we see the images and try to hear those distant echoes.
Many Vessels
Modern cartonnage grows out of the long-standing French tradition of handmade structures covered with decorative materials. Sue Bjerke’s emphasis is on using book board and marbled papers.
Join us for a reception celebrating this exhibition and the publication of Echoes, an artist’s book featuring poetry by Georgia A. Greeley, Diane LeBlanc, Jim Moore and Yvonne Pearson, and essays by Sue Bjerke and Karen Hering.
Sunday, November 9, 1-4pm, with a reading at 2pm
at Minnesota Center for Book Arts
This event is free and open to the public; light refreshments will be served.
Artist and author bios:
Susan Bjerke has been a teacher of adult students for over thirty years, bringing an extensive background in other hand crafts both at MCBA and through the MN Woodcarvers Association. Her work can be seen in collections in the Hennepin County library, the University of Denver, and regional fine art galleries.
Georgia A. Greeley is an artist and writer who lives and works in Saint Paul. Her passion for combining words and images frequently shows up as fine press broadsides and handmade artist’s books. Her visual work has been in exhibitions regionally and nationally. Her writing has been published in local and regional presses and in Canada. She has an MFA in Writing from Hamline University and a B.A. in English and Art from St. Catherine University.
Writer and teacher Karen Hering has been immersed in the work of words for most of her life. She is an ordained Unitarian Universalist minister, chaplain and author of Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within. Serving as consulting literary minister in St. Paul, Minnesota, Karen leads guided writing sessions, retreats and communications workshops in community, congregational and workplace settings. Her writing has appeared in literary journals, periodicals and meditation anthologies, and her interest in the transformative power of words has spurred her to lead a Nicaraguan literary tour exploring the role of poetry, literature and imagination in movements for social change.
Diane LeBlanc is a writer, teacher, and book artist. She is the author of three poetry chapbooks: Sudden Geography (2014), Dancer with Good Sow (2008) and Hope in Zone Four (1998). Awards include fellowships from the Wyoming Arts Council, a Brenda Ueland Prose Prize, and a Pushcart Prize nomination for poetry. Diane received the Bechtel Prize from Teachers & Writers Collaborative for her essay “Weaving Voices: Writing as a Working Class Daughter, Professor, and Poet.” Her poetry and prose appear in Bellingham Review, Hayden’s Ferry Review, The Journal, Natural Bridge, and other journals. Diane directs the writing program at St. Olaf College, where she teaches writing and gender studies.
Jim Moore is the author of six collections of poetry, including Lightning at Dinner, The Freedom of History, and The Long Experience of Love. His poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, the Nation, the New Yorker, the Paris Review, the Threepenny Review, the Pushcart Prize Anthology, and in many other magazines and anthologies. Moore has received numerous awards and fellowships from the Bush Foundation, The Loft, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. He teaches at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and at The Colorado College in Colorado Springs, as well as online through the University of Minnesota Split Rock Arts Program. He is married to the photographer JoAnn Verburg. They live in Saint Paul, Minnesota and Spoleto, Italy.
Yvonne Pearson‘s poetry and essays have appeared in Main Street Rag, Wolf Head Quarterly, Open to Interpretation, Chrysalis, Sidewalks, Literary Mama, Sing heavenly Muse!, and other publications. She has received a Loft Creative Non-Fiction Award, the Shabo Award in children’s literature, a Minnesota State Arts Board grant, and won several poetry contests.
“Poetry is an essential process of discovery, a way to reach for thoughts and clarify feelings I only half knew were there or half understood. Poetry offers a way to apprehend the ineffable, a way to pause for a moment in the most meaningful parts of life. I find in reading and sharing poetry I can experience deep connections with myself and with others and, at risk of sounding really schmaltzy, with the universe. Poetry is also fun. I feel like I’m tossing words in the air like balls and watching the patterns they make when they land, or molding them like clay and seeing what shapes emerge. Poetry is prayer and pleasure together.”