FOLLOWING THE POET LAUREATE AT THE LOS GATOS MUSEUM

VISUAL INTERPRETATION OF PETERSON’S POEMS AT THE GATOS

Friday, July 24. 7:00 PM, 24 N. Santa Cruz Ave at the Los Gatos Museums Gallery

On an unforgettable Friday evening, July 24, 2009 7:00 p.m. when families were lining up at their favorite restaurants on Santa Cruz Ave, in Los Gatos, four award-winning artists shared their visual interpretations of Poet Laureate Nils Peterson’s poems at the Los Gatos Museums Gallery: Tonya Carpenter, Lorraine Lawson, David Stonesifer, and Yoju Deiwert.

I learned later, that this brilliant idea of presenting Poet Nils Peterson’s poems to these artists for their visual interpretation and rendering on canvas came from former Mayor of Los Gatos, Sandy Decker. Valerie Hopkins, a board member of the Museums of Los Gatos presented this information to the Poet Laureate who was sold on the idea. This is what the poet himself had to say (as quoted by Marianne L Hamilton in the Saratoga News) in response to this idea:

“The poems were all about disparate subjects, but I tried to give to the artists poems that have strong visual content," he noted. "One, called 'Learning to See,' is about my starting to pay attention to color and other things, as an artist must — to teach myself to see things better. I've come to the conclusion that one of the gifts of language is that it helps you understand what you're seeing."

It was indeed a success. Artist Lorraine Lawson of San Jose expressed her visual translation of Nils Peterson’s poem in a 30 x 40 abstraction in acrylics.


Photos: (Reading at LGMA) by Mike Anderson; (30x40 abstraction in acrylics) by artist Lorraine Lawson

MORE COMMENTS

Laura Fishman, from the Los Gatos Observer (Jul 27, 2009) wrote:

With a glass of red wine in one hand and a microphone in the other, Santa Clara County’s first poet laureate Nils Peterson spoke to a crowd…
…Lorraine Lawson was moved to tears at Friday’s event after hearing Peterson’s poem, “Learning to See.”
“I didn’t realize how important the spoken word was to my art,” she said. “I felt the poem as I painted. It was an emotional experience for me.”
Peterson spoke of how poetry and art go together hand in hand, calling the pair “sister arts”.
He was particularly excited that so many artists in the community had come in support of “their sister.”

As a poet laureate, Peterson is in the midst of planning community projects, where he hopes to gain more community involvement with the creation of poetry. He currently writes everyday in order to improve upon his own works and further develop his style.
At the event, he inspired many artists to do the same and keep up with what they love to do.“Like a pianist, I practice, practice, practice,” he announced. “I spend a great deal of time writing and re-writing.”

Visual interpretation of Nils Peterson's poems by: Yoju Deiwert, David Stonesifer, Lorraine Lawson, and Tonya Carpenter.