Happy Poetry Friday
I’ve been researching contemporary Ukrainian Artists in efforts to share one for International Women’s Month, and discovered Anna Scherbyna. I wrote an ekphrastic poem from one of her powerful art pieces called, Disposition of the Power Gaze Using the Examples of Wartime Landscape, 2020. As I didn’t know if I could share her art you can find it by following the link below, and also capture glimpses of her working on it and talking about it in the video. Her art installation drawing is from 2020, and she visited a number of eastern Ukrainian towns to gather images for creating her art. War was going on then also.
Here’s another link to find her art installation at the Pinchuk Art Centre, Kyiv, scroll down towards the bottom of the art review to see her artwork.
Here’s also a link to her website
RENDER, RECORD WITNESS
Masked townscape
albeit this
Checkpoint-portal—
Ghostlike
reality
empties out
in grayzone
autocrat-induced
WAR—
Marking
Krymske
Trokhizbenka,
Zolote,
Stanytsia Luthanska
and more,
from before
and again
today.
Midtone values of
invisible
occupants
balanced with
bits of
contrasting darks
guide
our eye
guide
your hand.
Your marks
capture
and
call
marking time,
marking history,
marking concealed
destruction
of life,
pain
panging—
War crime’s
inhuman
actions
marking
to help
helplessness
of war.
© 2022 Michelle Kogan
I’d also like to share with you a review of artists, poets, and writers that just came out on the Humans and Nature Blog, and that I’m included in. I’m sharing a series of Milkweed paintings that I’ve been working on. Scroll down towards the bottom of the review to find my art and writing.
Ruth Bowen Hersey at her blog There is no such thing as a God-forsaken Town is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday roundup, from her new home that she’s starting to settle into in Asunción, Paraguay, thanks Ruth! She’s sharing a haibun about an early more adventure… be sure to stop by to fill up with poetry!
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Looks like a very rewarding, if sobering, International Women’s Month project, Michelle. Thank you for introducing us to Anna Scherbyna’s work.
Thanks for introducing us to Anna’s work; your poem is powerful and poignant. Also enjoyed seeing your milkweed paintings — they are GORGEOUS!!
Thank you for this, Michelle! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Thanks so much, Michelle, for sharing your artist found from Ukraine. Her work is lovely, especially now that war has come to her again. I know your milkweed works, fabulous, and love the poem, especially taken by your words, “Ghostlike
reality
empties out
in grayzone”, response to the tragedy now after Anna created it years ago. Congratulations for your own ‘write-up’ & art shared, too!
Wow! I love seeing your artwork as the finale of a great little online show. Nice job! Thank you for sharing the artist and her work. I can feel your care for the people and the place.
I love that you have connected with your heart and your poetry to the art of Ukrainian artists. That is so you. And congratulations for your inclusion in Humans and Nature. Excited for the milkweed and fennel jungles in my own little urban yard to wake up and call the butterflies!
What a joy to view your Milkweed garden through the seasons! I am enamored with how you have woven your art, your poetry, and stewardship of our earth together. Thank you! And thank you for sharing Anna Scherbyna’s beautiful charcoal mural. Stark and stunning. Making this awful war real to those of us who live safely far away.
So much to love here, from that stark exhibit that made me think about how much war is going on even when civilians aren’t actively being shelled, to your milkweed paintings (summer is my favorite right now), to your wonderful poem from a painter’s brain and heart. Thanks, Michelle.
Thank you for this post, Michelle. I’m going to share the video — amazing to see that inverted diorama and the artist’s process. Your poem captures everyday people caught in war:
Midtone values of
invisible
occupants