Key West, Transit of Venus; Poems and Paintings
Wes Bentley-Kemp (Photography) and Lorenzo LaVerde Key West, FL: SeaStory Press, 2005. Presumed First Edition, First printing. Hardcover. The format is approximately 7.25 inches by 10.25 inches. ix, [1], 59, [3] pages. DJ has minor wear and soiling. The book contains forty-two poems and color plates of sixteen paintings. Inscribed on the title page by the author. Inscription reads For Jane who heard me read on April 7, 2008 for the Friends of the Library Rosanne. Potter is an award-winning professional painter of abstract expressionist paintings. My abstract expressionism paintings, Many Levels, won (sixth place in Category 26) in the American Art Awards in October 2015. I was also an Accepted Artist for 2015 at Linus Gallery. My two latest awards are from Light Space & Time Art Gallery, a Special Merit award for Abstracts in 2015, and a Special Merit Award in an All Women competition in 2016. Potter began drawing informally as a young woman. She took a studio art class with American Abstractionist Clarence Giese during her Institute of European Studies Junior Year Abroad in Vienna. After a University career teaching English and Women's Studies, she retired in Key West and turned back to painting. She took a weekly workshop with Joachim Loeber, known then as "the last living German Expressionist" who had also retired to Key West. Loeber taught technique rather than style: how different colors, paints, surface, and tools effect each other. After five years with Loeber, Potter published: Key West, Transit of Venus, Poems and Paintings by Rosanne Potter (SeaStory Press, 2005). Kye West, Transit of Venus is a volume of poems and paintings, a celebration and meditation on love and beauty created by a poet and painter who loves the special light and soft air of this island; her work in both media arises from the place. As poet Elsa Colligan writes on the back cover: "Rosanne Potter conveys her love for Key West, going far beyond sunsets, palm trees & Duval Street." The love poems are mostly about her husband; the collection includes poems addressed to her father, her son, Key West, the ocean, the moon and the planets. Since Potter is an amputee, she also brings the consciousness of one who is physically challenged to her work. Rosalind Brackenbury, poet, novelist and reviewer, writes: "The bold clarity of Rosanne Potter's paintings is reflected in the poems in this beautiful collection. Potter is a fine lyric poet with a painter's eye for color and detail, a strong sense of form and an abiding ironic intelligence. Whether she is writing of life in her Key West back yard or of the movement of planets, she jolts us into a new sense of awareness and wonder." Elsa Colligan comments of Potter: "She takes us on an intimate journey into her world of color, nature and passion. Her paintings compliment the poems opening up one dimension after another, giving the reader that extra jolt of emotional response. This is an intense and dazzling collection." Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Poetry, Painting, Abstract Expressionism, Key West, Lunar Eclipse, Kippany, Interrogation, Lover, Survivor, Poinciana, Terrapin, Orchid, Violin, Forbidden, Sunrise, Silken Skin, Pistachio Shells
ISBN: 0967370485
[Book #85788]
Price: $1,750.00