New Picasa Album

Recently I purchased a digital camera and have uploaded images to a Picasa web album. You will find some publicity photos of me, as well as from my books, plus candid images from the tall ship whose crew I recently joined: the Kalmar Nyckel. The KN is going through winter maintenance right now, so is torn apart and not pretty, but I managed to get some good shots of various pieces of deck furniture and other features, including the great cabin. Sadly, none of the snow pictures I took during Snowmageddon turned out.

Photos and Images at Picasa

I do not have a camera, but I have occasionally been able to borrow one or con somebody into taking pix for me. They are now posted at http://picasaweb.google.com/kujakupoet.

You will want to check out the Kalmar Nyckel - Snowmageddon images in particular, taken during snow duty this February at the ship. Sadly, the battery died, so most of the exterior images did not survive, but there's several good shots of the great cabin, belay furniture, carvings, and other items of interest.

~K~

Autumn Water

I will have my first solo exhibit of poetry at the 3Lights Gallery from October - December of this year. Entitled 'Autumn Water,' the title is the theme. Included with the poetry are photographs from the Skipjack Martha Lewis. The exhibit isn't done yet and won't be ready for a public unveiling until October 1, but what I've seen so far is absolutely beautiful. I really love the way curator Liam Wilkinson is making my vision come together in a gorgeous exhibit.

The 3Lights Gallery is set up to present haiku and tanka as if they were art, and so the visitor tours a virtual gallery to study the poetry, much the way one contemplates art objects in a gallery. The presentation is effective, and more visceral than the usual literary journal presentation. Utilizing the web to include color and image really enhances the experience in a way that cannot be done in a purely textual medium.

Art and haiku and tanka have been combined before in the form known as haiga, but this 'art gallery' conceit is different. In haiga a single image and single poem are combined in a gestalt, but with the gallery concept, the photographs are important works of art in themselves. They complement but are not subsumed in the poetry. The intergration is not as tight, space is left between image and poem for the reader to breathe and think. The combination really works and I can't wait to see the finished product!

~K~