Last week, Stan Brunn visited the studio to explore my artwork and select his most relevant geopoetry for our joint Drawn to the Earth exhibit that opens March 29th at the MS Rezny Studio/Gallery, in Lexington, Kentucky. His visit was enriching for me as I got to hear Stan’s insightful responses to my art – and he truly sees rather than merely looking.I’m always open to learning how others experience my art, and Stan is the first person to describe what he sees as a blend of the botanical universe and a paleo cartography. He is an earth man, a geographer in the broadest sense of the word. I enjoy working with Stan so much. He’s an emeritus professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky, and a geopoet with a global passion. His wide-ranging interests span the many intersections of humans and the environment; local and global exploration and discovery; innovative cartography; and the visualization and geographies of the human spirit.
Stan Brunn describes what he sees in Kathleen O’Brien’s collages for Drawn to the Earth exhibit
Stan is currently working on several books about languages and language mapping; the geopolitics of China; prominent cities of the world; and the scholarly use of mapping in the social and natural sciences and humanities.
He writes weekly poems with such geo-focused themes as ancestry; the natural and human worlds; environmental and social injustice; personal cartographies; and building humane environments globally.
Stan Brunn looks deeply at Kathleen O’Brien’s collages – botanical universes – for Drawn to the Earth exhibit
As we discussed which poems to display with the art, I received an added bonus – titles! – including A World of Islands and Walls and Gates. The title of a piece often comes to me as I’m creating, but sometimes it’s elusive. That’s why I always treasure the gift of collaboration.
I think you will appreciate Stan’s poems, including The Vicarious World Traveler, Life as Jigsaw Puzzle, and the others he will share with us at the April 8th gallery reading. Stan’s definitely a “geopoet with a global passion,” and he savors this opportunity to merge artistic landscapes of beauty and form with his heartfelt rhyming texts.
Rivers and Roots, detail of poem by Stan Brunn and collage by Kathleen O’Brien, 22 x 30″