Tag Archives: drawing

preorder perks

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my book “the silhouette inside” will be available for preorder TOMORROW August 9, 2020 at 10am.

like free stuff? yeah, me too. good things come to those who act fast!

~ the first 10 people to preorder will receive a FREE matchbox press t-shirt and a personally signed book

~ the first 60 people to preorder will receive a signed book

thank you so much for following along on this crazy fun experience. i can’t believe i’m about to publish my own book! click here to check out my author website and join the email list the be notified when the preorder period officially begins.

book release: september first!

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pinkie L

i am so excited to announce that #thesilhouetteinside will be officially released september 1, 2020! it’s been such a labor of love this past year, and a thrill to have you along on the journey the past few weeks.

stay tuned for a COVER REVEAL coming very soon (wink) and preorder details (hint, perks) to follow!

moon makeover

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moon stories

last june, i became friends with the moon.

walking up rochambeau toward hope with neil young’s “harvest moon” in my ears, i ran into an old friend who had been on my mind for nearly 5 months straight. you know the type of friend who you lose touch with because you have to, but who tends to seep into your thoughts and dig a them-shaped hole, stay a while? that’s this friend.

we bumped into each other on the street, gave ourselves some much-needed sidewalk therapy, and parted ways for the umpteenth time. as i walked away, i put my headphones back on, pressed “next” on the random selection playlist i’d been listening to, and what else but audrey hepburn’s voice singing me “moon river” soft and sweetly.

i was in need of healing, and the moon seemed to be pulling at me. i felt inspired to write not just about the moon, but to the moon. so i waited for the sun to go down so my muse could show her face, when i noticed she was blushing. a quick google search revealed the occasion for her pretty pink dress: june 17, 2019 ; i was looking up at the full strawberry moon.

the full moon of june was given the name “strawberry moon” by the algonquin native american tribes who used its pink appearance to signal the ripening of wild strawberries. a sign to gather. to harvest. the moon as a beacon.

that night, the strawberry moon painted my cheeks pink. throughout july, her glow deepened into a juicy red that bled down into my lips and stayed there, projecting my long-quieted voice. a newfound boldness. confidence. a makeover from the moon.

the poem i wrote that night is one of the first featured in my book “the silhouette inside” and many other poems and drawings in the collection take their inspiration from the strawberry moon who lit my face up that night.

PREORDER for my book coming very soon! check out another one of my poems from the collection, published here on Featured Poets.

all rights reserved. illustration by kirsten evans.

a conversation, sometimes in rhyme

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silhouette back cover

when tasked with creating the “back matter” for my book (fancy publishing terms, ooh la la) a basic summary of the contents just didn’t feel right. so you can probably guess what i did…yup, i wrote another poem!

a poem to encapsulate the collection of poems that describe the past year of my life. a year of emotional turmoil, unexpected transition. a year of finding new life from the i n s i d e and falling in love with what i found:

 

a conversation-

sometimes in rhyme

between the writer

and the silhouette inside

words strung together

much more than a line

a reintroduction

soft shifting of sides

bloomed into being

collected and tied

fruitful and all-seeing

outside-in, synchronize

take this, my crescent year

hear the silence, read my mind

planted, rooted, growing, free

the voice inside, bold and outlined.

 

the art that i created to accompany this back cover poem was based on a silhouette cut for me by a man in montmartre, paris. one afternoon, following a lunch accompanied by several glasses of wine (as was the status quo throughout our stay in the city of light) my friends and i wandered through a busy market of artists painting, sketching, and snipping away. a silhouette artist stopped me and asked if he could cut my silhouette for me- to try and drum up some business. his stand was right on the corner, and he promised my silhouette would be free if i sat just a few minutes for him. maybe it was the charming accent or the wine turning my cheeks red- i shrugged my shoulders, hopped up onto the stool, and he went to work, cutting away my profile from glossy black paper while passersby stopped to inquire.

the small portrait now hangs in an oval-shaped frame in my bedroom. it is one of the first things i see when i wake up in the morning, and the last before i fall asleep at night. in a way, it helped inspire the idea of an internal conversation being with “the silhouette inside”. a piece of my favorite city, a story, a portrait that speaks.

 

PREORDER “the silhouette inside” SOON! Stay tuned for details…

perception

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photo

Out for drinks with some friends the other night, we decided to play the infamous “someone suggests a word and then you have to draw it on a napkin with your eyes closed” game.  I was given ballerina and after two hearty glasses of malbec, those napkin swiggles up there^ were all I could muster.  I laughed loudly enough for our waitress to shoot me an(other) annoyed look and the game moved on.  Little did I know, my artist boyfriend snuck the crumpled concoction into his pocket for safe keeping.  Apparently he saw more of a masterpiece than I did, because weeks later he pulled it out to show me, eyes beaming with pride that his girlfriend had produced something so transcendent.

Okay, so maybe transcendent is a taaad bit of an overstatement, but Kevin’s excitement over my blind drawing reminded me that sometimes it takes an outsider’s perspective to recognize beauty.  Some things are a big old mess up close, but when you take a step back and look with a fresh eye, a hidden brilliance opens up to perception.

In a way that’s how working on a Plotnikov ballet can feel; At first the complicated movements and intertwining lifts can feel overwhelming and messy, but when you get onstage and the space opens up, the big picture just shines through.  I can’t wait to get this show to the theater in 12 short days!  If you are in the Rhode Island area, grab your tickets here.

sketchy looking

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Sketches of me during company class, by Jan Gendron.

I have fallen in love with Providence for a long list of reasons.  The world renowned restaurants, historic buildings, and gloriously suburban east side all make that list of course, but my absolute favorite thing about this lively little city is its incredibly expansive artistic culture.  I mean, I can’t be the only one who finds it impressive that such a teeny capital city can breed enough artistic freedom to become one of the most exciting creative hubs in the country.  With small cinemas like the Avon and Cable Car showcasing the latest indie movies, the students of RISD continuing to amaze the community with their impossible talent, and Etsy and DIY-inspired stores like Queen of Hearts and Modern Love thriving on Westminster, it’s undeniable that Providence’s fondu pot of artistic imagination and skill is constantly thickening.  This is made even more obvious at FBP by the presence of such local artists as photographer Cemal Ekin and Jan Gendron, who has been sketching dancers during company class, perched with his easel like a quiet, pastel-wielding little bird at the edge of the studio, since I can remember.  He recently posted the above photos of his sketches of me onto Facebook, so I thought I’d share them with you all today, along with a little love for Providence.  To see more of Jan’s work, grab some tickets to the final performance of Up Close On Hope this weekend, where you can enjoy a gallery of both Jan and Cemal’s art while you sip wine and munch on hors d’oeuvres during intermission.  How’s that for a culture-packed evening?!