TWELVE VOICES FROM ONE: Poetry: Bastrop Burning

Saturday, May 5, 2012

Poetry: Bastrop Burning

Three poems by Lou Taylor

in response to the art work of Allison Brown-Cestero

Bastrop Burning: Epicenter

Deep char

In the center of our lives

White hot

Hear flames crack

Smell acrid smoke

Emanating from our core

Changed forever

Bastrop Burning: Rift

Slashing deep and wide

Destruction from all side

Divides our world

Surrounding inferno

Leaves a canyon of death

Breath the fumes

Sense the heat

Wait for cool relief

Bastrop Burning: Lost Pines

Gone in a flash

Eons of patient growth

Destroyed before our eyes

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This exhibition represents nearly three years of intense and dedicated study on the part of the participants. The Art Cloth Mastery Program 2010, in which they were enrolled, required five week long sessions in the San Antonio studio, in addition to demanding assignments which were addressed during the interim periods.

Artists interested in surface design processes are at a disadvantage in this country. Most opportunities for study require either enrollment on site at a university or college, or are offered as week-long workshops through adult education summer programming. The inability to relocate to a program venue inhibits artistic mastery, as does the limited experience of a week’s class without a systematic follow-up.

The Art Cloth Mastery Program was designed to address this reality. The selected participants study surface design processes on cloth, and also color, design and the articulation of a personal visual language. Each artist is required to complete a research project related to the dyes, chemicals or paints used as part of the patterning palette. When assembled, these projects will become a catalogue of research worthy of contributing to the surface design field at large.

Professional behavior is also a topic of discourse. Artists prepared a resume, visual documentation, an artist’s statement and a biography as part of the requirement for completion of the program.

This exhibition is a sampling of the finest work being presented by serious students of surface design today. Each of these artists will continue to generate studio work for exhibition after the program is completed. A few may choose to extend their circle of influence by teaching. Others may decide to write a book or produce some other lasting contribution to the field. The future is rich with possibility. It has been my great pleasure to accompany them on this exciting path. I congratulate each on the efforts of the past two and a half years.

Jane Dunnewold