Recently, I was part of a local art show where this painting entitled "Her Boxed Beaded Gown" was displayed. I met a local couple where the husband was a visual artist and the wife was a poet. They had the idea of combining art and poetry together in a show! They gathered a group of artists together and gave each artist the book of poetry called "Solitary Spin" written by Barbara Sabol to read. We were to choose a poem from the book to use as inspiration for our art. I found this poem called "Circa 1943" in the book and used it to paint from. I used metallic paints on this one which gives the entire painting a beautiful shimmer! This painting is now up for sale on my website and can be purchased HERE.
Circa 1943
by Barbara Sabol
Day Dreaming on the side of Prospect Hill
my mother is caught by some Eddie with his lens
before the swirl of champagne, before the dishwater swill
(years before she waltzed with my father in her beaded silk)
my mother was caught by a beau, quick with his lens;
some Eddie, by the flirt of her eyes in the sepia still,
years before she waltzed with my father in beaded silk
she posed in her swim skirt, chin in her fists, a slight head tilt--
flirting with some Eddie, one eye squinting behind his lens
while she posed in halter top and swim skirt, her head at a tilt
(before the dusty attic moths have had their fill
of her boxed beaded gown, its yellow silk.)
Before the attic moths had their fill of silk and lace
she sold cufflinks to my father at Swanks, downtown.
He whirled her around the hall in her beaded gown
and danced her down that hill, leaving just a trace
of her teenaged sepia image, blurred to white at its edge
like the swirl of champagne and an unbroken waltz;
caught in the gaze of the luckless him, whose camera left
the ghost of a girl dreaming in the long grass of Prospect Hill.
