interview with mARK BLICKLEY
Was your creativity affected in anyway during the lockdown? Did being lockdown make you feel inspired or deflated?
Making up stories in lockdown was crucial because I was able to retreat from a reality that trumped my imagination. During March I decided to work on a virtual art video collaboration with four other artists--an actress, a musician, fine arts photographer, and a videographer I had worked with on previous theater collaborations-- on a story about a fictitious Barcelonian artist, Aurea Moja, "Selfie-Fictions in Time of Plague." We're still working on it. I was extremely fortunate to have visited Spain in early January just before the virus hit, and it was inspiring. I've also completed a few collaborative ekphrasis pieces since the lockdown, including the one you've published, "Gravity Ungrateful."
Was it therapeutic doing creative work during lockdown?
Totally. It gave me the comfort of having some sort of control over some aspect of my life--my work.
What was the main thinking behind your poem submitted to Together Behind Four Walls ?
My poem was totally inspired by Beatrice Georgalidis' gorgeous photograph of her doing suspension yoga in her backyard during lockdown. She was outfitted in mourning black and it looked to me as if she was being flung down from the heavens, which immediately conjured up a failed escape from the pandemic.
What inspires most of your poems,
For the past few years I've been doing ekphrasis pieces, so my work has been inspired by visual art.
Do you hand write poems or go directly on to your computer?
I always start pieces by handwriting them and once I have a good start I transfer to the computer.
Do you only focus on poetry or do you also write prose?
I focus on prose and scripts much more than poetry.
a link to my text-based art book collaboration with Amy Bassin, Dream Streams.https://www.claresongbirdspub.com/featured-authors/amy-bassin-mark-blickley/
Here are a couple of links to recently published ekphrasis work:
A solo ekphrasis piece--my prose poem, "Leap of Faith," coupled with my musical composition collage, "Frog Concerto." https://masqueandspectacle.com/2020/09/01/leap-of-faith-mark-blickley/
Here's an ekphrasis fiction collaboration with photographer Katya Shubova, "The Biology of Courage." https://librettong.com/2020/06/20/the-biology-of-courage
Making up stories in lockdown was crucial because I was able to retreat from a reality that trumped my imagination. During March I decided to work on a virtual art video collaboration with four other artists--an actress, a musician, fine arts photographer, and a videographer I had worked with on previous theater collaborations-- on a story about a fictitious Barcelonian artist, Aurea Moja, "Selfie-Fictions in Time of Plague." We're still working on it. I was extremely fortunate to have visited Spain in early January just before the virus hit, and it was inspiring. I've also completed a few collaborative ekphrasis pieces since the lockdown, including the one you've published, "Gravity Ungrateful."
Was it therapeutic doing creative work during lockdown?
Totally. It gave me the comfort of having some sort of control over some aspect of my life--my work.
What was the main thinking behind your poem submitted to Together Behind Four Walls ?
My poem was totally inspired by Beatrice Georgalidis' gorgeous photograph of her doing suspension yoga in her backyard during lockdown. She was outfitted in mourning black and it looked to me as if she was being flung down from the heavens, which immediately conjured up a failed escape from the pandemic.
What inspires most of your poems,
For the past few years I've been doing ekphrasis pieces, so my work has been inspired by visual art.
Do you hand write poems or go directly on to your computer?
I always start pieces by handwriting them and once I have a good start I transfer to the computer.
Do you only focus on poetry or do you also write prose?
I focus on prose and scripts much more than poetry.
a link to my text-based art book collaboration with Amy Bassin, Dream Streams.https://www.claresongbirdspub.com/featured-authors/amy-bassin-mark-blickley/
Here are a couple of links to recently published ekphrasis work:
A solo ekphrasis piece--my prose poem, "Leap of Faith," coupled with my musical composition collage, "Frog Concerto." https://masqueandspectacle.com/2020/09/01/leap-of-faith-mark-blickley/
Here's an ekphrasis fiction collaboration with photographer Katya Shubova, "The Biology of Courage." https://librettong.com/2020/06/20/the-biology-of-courage
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